Historic Paddle Photo: Wisconsin Ojibwa Paddle

Here's a 1908 photo showcasing a woman and child posing with a birchbark canoe found in the online collection of The Langlade County Historical Society.

Woman and child with a birch bark canoe, 1908

Kingsbury, Arthur J., 1876-1956

Format: Glass negative

Description

An adult and child appear to be preparing to launch a birch bark canoe. 

Handwritten caption reads: "Copyright 1908 by A.J. Kingsbury, Antigo, Wis."

 Langlade County Historical Society

Source Link

The closeup of the paddle shows a very interesting grip shape, a sort of stubby pommel.

Paddle Closeup

It is similar in design to the "Chippewa Woman's Paddle" in the collection of the Smithsonian discussed in the 2017 post here.

Bureau of American Ethnology

BULLETIN 86 - Chippewa Customs

Plate 53

Image Source Link

Oscar Farrington Canoe Paddles, circa 1864

In the collections of the The Maine State Museum are a set of decorative paddles with some interesting decorative and carved elements. 

Catalog Number: 75.10.1
Object Name: Paddle, Canoe
Artist-Maker: Unknown
Place Made: MAINE
Date Made: Circa 1875
Media Materials: Wood, Oil paint
Measurements: 63" x 6 1/2" x 1 1/8"

Source Link

The painted blades have tiny shoulders and a distinct spine. The tips have been painted black and the blade face features some double curve motifs. The handle consists of a stepped grip similarly scene in traditional Penobscot paddles, but this one features a cylindrical roll grip on top. More painted scroll patterns appear on the flattened grip face. Stamped twice onto the grip face is the name "O. Farrington" along with a date of "1864".

A digital copy of Maine Fish and Wildlife Magazine (Spring 1982) features an article entitled, "Oscar Farrington. Canoe Builder?" on pages 24-25. The article discusses the likelihood that a decorated cedar canvas canoe in the collection was also made by the same hands.

Naskapi (Innu) Paddle Replica from the Chicago Field Museum

As mentioned in this previous post, the Field Museum has a model Naskapi (Innu) paddle collected during the Rawson-MacMillan Subarctic Expeditions ( 1927-1928 ).

Canoe Paddle

Catalog Number: 177305

Cultural Attribution: Montagnais-Naskapi 

Locality: North America, Canada, Quebec, Labrador, Davis Inlet Band

Accession Year: 1928 

Collector/Source: Rawson-MacMillan Subarctic Expedition for Field Museum, W. D. Strong

IRN: 1080712

Source Link

James VanStone's publication, Material culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi: The William Duncan Strong Collection outlines many of the ethnographic items collected during this expedition. Unfortunately when it came to full sized paddles, no photos were taken but instead, Plate 49 (pg 89) featured a hand sketched diagram of four decorated pieces acquired for the collection. The model looks to be similar to Paddle A from the display.

 Plate 49

Material culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi 

A narrow cutoff of Spruce lumber left over from making the two piece canoe pole was the perfect piece of stock to make a full sized version of this model. While there were minor knots in the blade and one unfortunately on the shaft, it was still left pretty robustly carved for strength.  Early carving photos were lost with the damaged SD card, but the paddle was chopped down with an axe and then worked with a crooked knife and spokeshave. The thin red markings used to replicate the original decoration were made with a Sharpie oil-based paint marker.

 

60 inch Naskapi Cree (Innu) Field Museum Replica

As a bit of a fun side by side comparison, I cropped my image and converted it to greyscale. Here is the Field Museum model paddle next to my full scale reproduction:

 

Side by Side

Motorized Paddle Patent

One of the more bizarre paddle ideas I've come across is this interesting concept of fitting a functional motorized propeller into the paddle blade. I came across this weird concept in Graham Warren's book 100 Canoe Paddle Designs (original post HERE).

Inventor George W Abraham filed for a US Patent on June 11, 1923. I recently found the whole writeup on Google's Patent search engine. Here is an excerpt of the inventor's application:

It consists essentially of a paddle blade of the type ordinarily used for canoe paddles, the blade being provided with a handle having a hand-grip of the type usual with canoe paddles, and the blade having at a considerable distance from its outer end an opening within which is mounted a small propeller, the shaft of which extends axially of the handle to an electric motor, the casing of which forms a portion of the handle. 

The principal object of the invention is to provide a paddle of light weight capable of all the uses of an ordinary canoe paddle, but having in addition a propeller of such small size as to be capable of operation by a light weight motor of a type suitable for use with an ordinary storage battery of small size. 

Another object of the invention is to provide a motor driven propeller for use with canoes in streams or the lagoons of parks or other places where the use of gas engines is prohibited.

Well the idea never really caught on I guess. But with canoeing slowly dying off in favour of other activities, perhaps a high powered motorized paddle would be just the ticket to get the masses of thrill seeking adrenaline-junkies into canoeing again.

Paddle from Jonas - Sweden

Many of you might know I routinely feature creations from other paddlemakers. Blog reader Jonas from Sweden has recently discovered the joy of carving custom paddles and sent in some photos of an experimental design.

This one features a pointed, spear like blade. The inspiration for his custom carved grip came from the Etched Coast Salish Paddle posted back in January of 2013. The 64cm shaft is a transitional shape, going from round at the base of the grip to oval at the blade neck.

Jonas' Experimental Design

130 cm Spear Blade

The grain pattern on Jonas' blade is incredibly straight - a great indicator of excellent wood selection. Also impressive is that this paddle was not sanded but carefully scraped smooth which adds a lot more work to the project.

Straight grain pattern on blade

The paddle is finish in an experiment mixture of raw oxidated linseed oil, pitch oil and tar on the blade and shaft with just oil for the grip. You can just make out the subtle colour difference between these sections

Custom carved grip

Finally, Jonas has decided to start his own paddle making blog to document his journey in this fun hobby. Right now it is brand new with a short series of informative posts on paddle design and a fascinating post about the use of tar and shellac in Sweden as a finish for canvas canoes. Check it out at PaddleReflections.blogspot.com

Rice Lake Canoe Catalog Paddles

Archive.org has a copy of the Rice Lake Canoe Co. Catalogue dated to 1900. The company was one of the many builders in southeastern Ontario at the turn of the 20th century and it's well illustrated catalogue showcases many style of canoes being built at the time. A short history of the company can be read here for anyone interested.

Page 14 of the document a full page ad with a series of paddles. They're all long deep-water paddles consistent with the deep lake water conditions of region. Check out those prices...$1.00 for an oiled Maple, Ash, or Spruce paddle!

Original Link

Rice Lake Canoe Co. - Paddle Closeups

Historic Paddle Illustration: D.C. Beard - BoatBuilding and boating (1911)

Archive.org has a free online edition of Boat-building and boating (1911) by Daniel Carter Beard. Chapter VI features bark canoe construction. The images look to be replicas of Adney's famous sketches and are quite detailed. On page 60 is a crude sketch of some paddles with rough dimensions. The only detailed provided  is a brief caption posted below:

Paddles are made of rock maple, and sometimes of birch and even cedar. Bow paddles are usually longer and narrower in the blade than stern paddles (Fig. 101).

Malecite St.John River Paddle

Another one of the paddles on my ever growing "to do list" is the 1896 Malecite St.John River Paddle documented in Adney's Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America.  The blade looks to be standard beavertail with a distinct spine, but the grip has some rectangular features and a carved drip ring which suites the paddle nicely.



Adney's St. John Malecite Pattern
After casually examining some of my books the other day, I recognized this grip pattern on the cover of Graham Warren's must have paddle making book, Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own. The grip is featured near the bottom right of his book cover..



G Warren's book cover, St.John Malecite grip on lower right
Warren's first publication (which I blogged about here) has a complete illustration with a table of offsets for this pattern as well. Graham has also graciously re-published an article on his website entitled The Malecite St.John River Paddle (.pdf format) that appeared in Open Canoe in 1996 which features the detailed pattern for anyone interested in this design. The 2011 article entitled "Know Your Paddles" by Beth Stanley in Canadian Woodworking also has a closeup shot of this grip featured below.



St. John River Malecite Grip
At this stage though, it'll be while before I start this one. Still waiting to be completed is the decoration on the Yellow Birch York Sunbury replica. Plus I've been working on some more canoe related homemade camping gear that'll be posted on soon.

Miniature Slotted Grip Paddle

Another interesting Ebay Listing featuring a 16 1/2 inch model paddle. The grip area looks interesting with its slotted interior. Might be an interesting one to replicate at full scale...

New Biomimicry Paddle Design

Longtime blog reader Bryan (who recently started a paddling business - Cold Spring Paddling - sent me an email of a creative paddle project by Chad Townsend of Banff, Alberta. It's called the Shearwater webbed paddle which aims to combine mechanical engineering, evolutionary biology, and modern material capabilities.



Some details of their product from their website:

• a practical application of ‘biomimicry' (copying nature's engineering / efficiency);
  
• a uniquely compact paddle adaptable for a variety of water sports (webbed blade folds inward, and shaft breaks down for storage and transport);
  
• an educational tool for science centers, camps, and parks.

Like many young entrepreneurs today, fund raising online is part of the process. You can read more about this inventor's plans here. As a traditionalist, I don't think I'll be carving any paddles like this anytime soon, but for any other paddlers wishing to push the design envelope to its limits, this might be up your alley.

Peabody Passamquoddy Paddle Sketch

Came across a wonderful illustration of a paddle in an out of print children's book, Discovering Canada: The Fur Traders. It is another version of the c1849, green and white painted Passamaquoddy paddle at the Peabody Museum.

I've posted on this paddle many times before as it is the basis for the paddle in the header of the site and one of my favourite blade designs. Here is the version illustrated by Tappen Adney and the new one by illustrator A.G. Smith.


Adneys's Illustration


A.G. Smith's illustration

Historic Paddle Illustration - Canadian Field-Naturalist

An article entitled, "Canadian Aboriginal Canoes" originally published in Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol XXXIII(2), May 1919 appears on Archive.org. The well written article features some wonderful illustrations of various bark canoe designs as well as sketch of some different paddles shapes (mostly NorthWest coast designs)

Woodpecker Paddle Art

Check out this awesome Woodpecker paddle art piece made by Joanna Haslem at Owl's Pen.


Carved Woodpecker Paddle


Closeup


Closer Closeup

Poplar Diamond Passamaquoddy - Part 3

While up north for the recent holiday weekend, I managed to get in some paddle carving time to finalize the nearly complete c. 1849 Passamaquoddy replica begun back in January. Here's a shot by the lakeside on a bright, brisk day using the picnic table "workbench". The communal beach all groomed and loungers all set for the upcoming tourist season.


Carving by the lake
After wetting the grain and sanding it down, I brought the paddle back home to the city. Yellow Poplar certainly makes for a lightweight paddle - my official quality control tester had a easy time lifting it with one hand and running around the place with it.


Rigorous Quality Testing
The major item I struggled with in this design was balancing the paddle...in the end it just ended up being too blade heavy. Kind of obvious I guess given the large shape and the relatively small handle. My feeling is that perhaps the original paddle documented by Adney would've been balanced, but only because the paddle was illustrated as being much longer than my replica (71.5" vs. my 58" version).


Adney's sketch - Diamond Bladed Passamaquoddy in middle
Had I digitally reduced the paddle to scale to fit my preferred paddle length, the blade size would've been unusually small. Still, in the future when replicating longer paddle designs to a my own functional paddle length, this will need to be considered if a throat-balanced paddle is the final goal.

In any event, it's ready for the decoration stage and I've decided to keep this one much more simple than the recent Northwoods paddle where I went overboard.

MAY 24, 2011 Update: Paddle finally completed...go to Part 4

Blog Inspired Paddles

Kent Lund sent me a kind email mentioning how a few of the various paddle types featured on the site got him inspired to get back into the paddle making hobby. Check out his fantastic growing collection below which features a nice mix of decorated blades and interesting grip designs:


Kent's growing paddle collection
Many readers of the blog might recognize the 2nd paddle from the right. Kent's version of the Snake Paddle featured back in December of '09. With some extra techniques on the paint job, Kent was able to give the paddle an antique look. Great stuff!

To further personalize some of the paddles, a striped banding around the shafts was added - a customized idea based on a pattern on his daughter's favorite jacket. A unique way to add even more meaning to a family paddle.

As an extra aside, Kent asked me about techniques for giving varnish an aged look. But I not really familiar with any methods that give an authentic, antique appearance. If anyone has suggestions, please comment so we can all learn more. Click the Leave a comment link below the post.

Paddle Blade Warping Problem

Michael Weiser, a reader of the blog, sent me some pics and details of a few paddles he has made. They include 2 laminated versions patterned after Adney's Attikamekw paddle plan and two Northwoods paddles (Stern and Bow). Great looking stuff.


Michael's paddle collection
A problem emerged with his Northwoods bow paddle however. Since these were carved from maple, they were significantly thinned to reduce weight. When dry, the paddle is a "picture of straightness" according to Michael, but upon contact with moisture, the blade severely warps. The paddle was made from flat sawn wood stock with a grain pattern that one would assume, would be pretty ideal for strength and flex. A closeup of the tip reveals the distinct growth rings curving upwards and contributing to the cupping at the tip however.


Grain Pattern on tip


The resultant warping when wet
In addition to discussing issues with low moisture content of the wood stock, Michael also had some other points which add to the mystery. Generally, a dense pattern of annual rings make a wood less prone to warping, but other paddles with even wider spaced annual rings don't warp as much as his paddle. In addition, the larger to radius of the growth rings (a function of the girth of the tree), the flatter the rings appear and the less warping. But Michael's impression is that others have made paddles from similar stock without warping problems.

We've been discussing the options to deal with the absorption through the end grain at the tip, including using varnish (the paddles were originally oiled), sealing with epoxy, etc. But if any other any readers have other suggestions or explanations to this mystery, please feel free to post a comment.

Michael also took the liberty of preparing some basic stats on paddle surface area to illustrate the huge size of the Stern Northwoods. See the info below:

PADDLE DESIGN	SURFACE AREA
Attikamekw 11cm wide/64cm long Attikamekw 12cm wide/70cm long Northwoods Bow Grey Owl Chieftain Grey Owl Tripper Graham Warren's Ottertail Graham Warren's Voyageur Graham Warren's Traditional Beavertail Northwoods Stern	569 cm / 88 sq in 683 cm2 / 105 sq in 798 cm2 / 123 sq in 800 cm2 / 124 sq in 820 cm2 / 127 sq in 829 cm2 / 128 sq in 895 cm2 / 138 sq in 938 cm2 / 145 sq in 966 cm2 / 149 sq in

Certainly not a paddle ideal for solo paddling, but advantageous for steering and controlling a heavily loaded tripping canoe down some deep moving water.

Snake Eyes Folk Art Paddle

Many thanks to Ferdy Goode for sending me a link to an interesting paddle posted at Gould Auctions. Might try making one of these (yet another project!) although with the Mrs. afraid of snakes, I'm not sure if she'd appreciate this one hanging on the wall.

A STUNNING 19th century Folk Art carved and painted, full sized CANOE PADDLE in a SUPERIOR original surface. Its shaft is formed by a full relief carved red snake which has yellow glass eyes and a green belly! The paddle measures 67” in length. Found in a Greenville, Maine home. SUPERB original condition.

Graham Warren Paddlemaking DVD

Just found out about a new Paddlemaking DVD (scroll down) from Graham Warren of Moosehead Canoes. I've already got both of Graham's paddlemaking books and this DVD looks like it would make a nice visual addition to the library.

His site has some beautiful looking screen shots as well as details of the content. The 90 minute DVD is currently only available in PAL region 2 (UK & Europe) format but a NTSC (North American) format is apparently coming soon. The disc also contains 10 full sized paddle plans in electronic PDF format to print out - very handy.

Canoe Paddle Plans

From the 1905 online book, Problems in Woodworking, is a chapter about canoe paddles. Included is a diagram of a standard beavertail paddle with pear grip showing all the relevant specs for width, length, and thickness. Interesting to note the thinning of the circular shaft (1-1/8th inch) down to 1 inch at the throat of the blade. I generally make the shafts on my paddles 1-1/8th inch thick as well but never really thinned the throat like this plan shows. Logically I wonder if it would weaken the paddle right at this location where the large blade area of this design would presumably concentrate the most force.


Paddle Plans

Exotic Paddle Series (4) - New Zealand Hoe

A beautifully carved Maori paddle (Hoe) from Steve Pyne. The blade is stunning of course, but check out the hollowed loop on the shaft. Never seen anything like it!


Details & Description from his site:

Hoe is a canoe paddle. The highly decorated versions would normally be used for ceremonial purposes by the Chief's. Decorative work in which notched ridges run parallel to one, two or three plain ridges is termed Rauponga. Within the design the plain ridges are known as Patapata and the hollows between the ridges as Haehae, while the notched ridge itself is termed Pakati. Each individual notch is an Arapata and they form a diamond pattern called Tuara-kuri. The eyes are inlaid with paua amore colourful relative of the abalone. The spirals serve as points of movement or joint marks, for the jaw, shoulders, elbow & hips. The "three fingered hand" is found on many ancestral figures, some also show a back-bending thumb or spur. This shows an avian feature superimposed on the human image.

Length: 1660mm
Width: 155mm