Soft Maple Northwoods with Rippled Grip - Part 3

Finally got the chance to complete the Maple Northwoods paddle I had been working on since last fall (see Part 1 & Part 2). It's been a while since I've been able to post a new paddle pic in the slideshow gallery.

Over the last few months, I kept it in my den and worked on the decorative pyrography whenever the boy gave me a chance. Nearly complete last month, I heard a ruckus as he grabbed the paddle when I wasn't looking and proceeded to drag it by the blade letting the grip scrape across the stone flooring. Then he decided to run it over with with toy truck and walk up and down the shaft as a kind of trapeze act.


Goofing around


Caught red handed
Good thing I made this out of maple, it came out of the ordeal unscathed. The chip carving pattern along the edges of the blade was continued up the shaft - the first time I ended up decorating a paddle from grip to tip. Here are some shots of the final work before oiling the paddle. The decoration on the tip was meant to be replica of the antique-style copper tips protectors I had posted on earlier.


Completed Paddle


Blade Closeup with "Copper Tip"


Grip Closeups

Rich Nash - Woodland Heirlooms

Recently received an email from Doris & Rick Nash of Woodland Heirlooms regarding a new website documenting Rick's fanastic bark canoes and other craftsmanship. I've posted some of Rick's works before documenting his amazing skill as a canoe builder and paddle maker. Feast your eyes on some of Rick's gorgeous work below:


Some of Rick's paddles


Chip Carved Crooked Knife


Model Bark Canoe

Anyone wanting to contact Rick and inquire about his work can do so by clicking here.

Trudeau's Birchbark Canoe

One of the earliest memories I have of seeing a birchbark canoe was a photo of Canada's 15th Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) paddling one. Recently I came across the same photo again on the net.


Trudeau in 1974
Trudeau was by no means the only world leader to comprehend the joys of paddling. I've already posted about young Franklin Delano Roosevelt's bark canoe. Intrigued to know more, I started investigating. Trudeau's canoe was apparently built in 1968 by Patrick Maranda of Lac Rapide (Quebec). It was commissioned by the Maniwaki Chamber of Commerce as a wedding gift for the Prime Minister.


Maranda Canoe built circa 1968

Not sure if it is still there, but on my way to the High Arctic in '07, I noticed a beautiful bark canoe on display at the Ottawa Airport Canoe. Turns out it was Trudeau's canoe on loan from the family.


Ottawa International Airport
In 1944, many years before his career in politics, Trudeau wrote an essay entitled, Exhaustion and Fulfillment: The Ascetic in a Canoe. Here's a selected passage

"What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.

For it is a condition of such a trip that you entrust yourself, stripped of your worldly goods, to nature. Canoe and paddle, blanket and knife, salt pork and flour, fishing rod and rifle; that is about the extent of your wealth. To remove all the useless material baggage from a man's heritage is, at the same time, to free his mind from petty preoccupations, calculations and memories. "

I find the last line particularly poignant as my life lately has been inundated with such "petty preoccupations" as he put it. In my mind I've already started fantasizing about my solo canoe trip planned for this summer.

To check out Trudeau's 1944 essay in its entirety, click here or for a bit of comic relief, check out this little Parody Skit (RealMedia Format) about the late Prime Minister promoting his memoirs. Loaded with a lot of inside jokes that probably only Canadians would understand, but comical nonetheless even if you are a Trudeau hater/lover.

Poplar Diamond Passamaquoddy - Part 2

Back during a strange warm spell in January, I enthusiastically rushed out to the balcony to start another padde, a circa 1849 Diamond Bladed Passamaquoddy from Fig. 72 of Adney's book (middle diagram below).


Adney's sketch - Diamond Bladed Passamaquoddy in middle
The blank had been cut from Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), a very easy wood for carving and one of the lightest "hardwoods" out there. While the bulk of the paddle had been shaped using the usual block plane and spokeshave, I wanted to improve on my crooked knife techniques. I found that the kiln-dried yellow poplar was still soft enough to be carved easily with crooked knives, so the grip and shaft were further shaped with these tools.

Adney's plan for the grip is tiny and as a result I had approximated the shape when cutting out the blank and purposely left the grip large and bulky with the idea that it could be customized later. The angled edges of the grip were carved out using my mini-crooked knife while the large-bladed Olivewood handle crooked knife worked well on the long shaft region. After fixing the blade, it has become a fantastic tool. Delicate shavings were twirling off around me.


Carving the grip with the Mini Crooked Knife


Shaft carving with the large bladed knife
Adney's plan shows the grip tapering out at the top until it becomes quite thin...too thin for my liking. I find the palm and forearm muscles get quite tired if you have to squeeze too tightly in order to grasp the paddle, so I left this one thicker than the plan suggests. After working on the angular edges, this is what I was left with.


Grip shaped
The whole thing still needs to be sanded, but the grip area has come along nicely. It is very reminiscient of the flattened grips featured on the Iroquois paddles at the Royal Ontario Museum.

May 30/10 Update: Part 3 has been posted

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.