Laminated Greenland Kayak Paddle

I've been on a couple kayaking day trips which have been great, but I'm much happier kneeling in a canoe with a single blade paddle controlling all the movement. The sitting position in a kayak wreaks havoc on my back. Put me in a canoe on the other hand, and I can kneel on my heels for hours without discomfort. Given the popularity of kayaking over canoeing in recent times, I guess I'm in the minority. In addition, I've always found that the feathered, euro blade, plastic paddles used in modern kayak touring seem designed just to scoop as much water as possible to power you through the water. They've always been too cumbersome for underwater recoveries and finesse strokes to propel the watercraft. The simplistic but graceful lines of the Greenland Inuit kayak paddle on the other hand, seems much more ergonomic and suited to the task of long distance paddling and given my new found woodworking confidence with the single blades, I thought I would give a shot at making one.

There are plenty of sources on the net to guide the newbie. The two I relied on included Chuck Holst's guide on the Greenland Paddle and Matt Johnson's Video on the topic. Most sources recommend carving out of 2x4 cedar obtained at a home building store, but I wanted to dive into making laminated paddles and figured this would be relatively easy since the blade shapes are quite narrow (under 3.5 inches) and simple in shape.

I started off with a trip to Century Mill for some new stock. I ended up getting some maple, poplar, and walnut pieces jointed and planed into 1 1/8th strips. I chose this dimension because this is also the size for my canoe paddle shafts and wanted to have some for intended laminated canoe paddles down the road. I also scored some very affordable walnut and maple pieces by rummaging through their "shorts" pile...discarded pieces cut from other stock. In many cases, these were perfectly suited to rip into strips to form blade or grip areas. At up to a 70% discout these were great deals on otherwise "discarded" wood.

After getting the strips home, I selected the best one (a 90 inch Yellow Poplar strip) for the core and begun measuring & using the walnut strips for the blade sections.

There a many debates about the best adhesives with most people siding with epoxy. But given that this was my first attempt, I didn't want to get jugs of the mixing formulas in case the experience was a bust. Also, epoxy cures so hard that it can blunt hand tools quickly so I opted for a waterproof polyurethane glue (Gorilla Glue) that seemed appropriate for water-based application like a paddle.

After measuring the strips, I clamped each side of the paddle by vertically stacking them and applying clamps to the flat surface of the granite tabletop on the balcony (covered in wax paper to prevent any drips from supergluing to the table). After the 24 full cure time, I clamped the other side in the same fashion. Within 2 days I had finished the laminating process and begun to cut the rough shape of the blades with the trust hand saw and the blank was ready for shaping.




Shaping the blade was a breeze after working on the larger, irregular shaped canoe paddles. A simple cambering process and general tapering of the blade resulted in a paddle I was quite happy with. Carving the shaft (loom) of the paddle followed the same logic as a canoe paddle, except I used a rasp to slightly angle where the walnut blades met the poplar core, resulting in tiny "shoulders" where one grips the paddle during use.Most sources also mention rounding the tip into a semicircle shape, but I felt that the whole angular and linear shape of the paddle would be broken by this, so I left the edges straight.

On my 2007 Arctic Trip, we sea kayaked twice...once quickly spotting a solitary ringed seal and then a second time visiting an Arctic Tern rookery on tiny offshore island...now that was amazing! The terns are one of the most graceful and acrobatic birds I've ever seen. They "nest" on the island by simply laying well camouflaged eggs on the bare rocks. Eventually, they hatch into even more camouflaged chicks and we had to literately watch each step on the island for fear of stepping on them by mistake, all the while their protective parents would dive bomb and miss striking our heads by mere inches. I decided to decorate my inuit style paddle with an Arctic Tern burning on one blade and an Inukshuk symbol on the other to comemmorate my trip to Nunavut.


The completed paddle sanded down


Arctic Tern burning on one blade


Inukshuk burning on the other blade


Decorating the wall before varnishing and test run in the spring

May 5/08 UPDATE: This paddle has now been varnished. View it here.

Walnut Solo Kingfisher - Refurbish

Given that 99% of my paddling is done solo, I wanted to try customizing a perfect solo blade. I've read amazing things about Ray Kettlewell's Paddles and was particular drawn to his Quill design. Given that I prefer a shorter shaft, I needed to offset this with a slighly heavier grip area to maintain balance of the blade. For that reason, I tried a new grip style for me, the so-called Mushroom Head grip. I also decided I'd use up another piece of walnut given the enjoyment I got from the Passamaqoddy Northwoods paddle made weeks before.

I was even more eager because I had signed up for the MEC Paddlfest back in September of '07. All my paddles were now up at the cottage, so with 7 days until the event that included paddling tutorials by Becky Mason on Classic Solo Style, I wanted to have my own special paddle to try out for the event. So the work began in earnest with minimal time for taking pics. I did manage to get a shot with all the shavings and the completed work.

Not wanting to give up using this canvas, I set out to quickly burn some artwork. The delicate nature of the blade reminded me a hummingbird, so I decided to burn some images of these. I ended up rushing the pyrography job in order to get done before the minimum 24 hours varnishing time need to seal the paddle before use. It wasn't my best work, so I never ended up taking pictures of it.

Off to the event I went on a very chilly fall Saturday. I stuck around for a bit but after some frustration with cancelled workshops, I left the event without even dipping my paddle in the water. The following week, I tried it out at the cottage (with better weather) and thoroughly enjoyed it...my favourite paddle shape + grip combo so far. The paddle then went back into the locker room for a few months. By the time December arrived, I decided the artwork was too amateurish for the blade and decided it was time for an extreme makeover...paddlemaking style.

Using some Circa 1850 varnish remover, I thoroughly scraped away the spar varnish on the blade and then used a Random Orbital Sander I had acquired on sale (at Loblaws no less) with 220grit sanding disk to delicately remove the pyrography. Given that I had rushed with the original art job, the burnings were quite superficial. All this while Toronto experienced its first snowfall. Despite the cooler temps, my Arctic experience and the SW exposed balcony made it comfortable to work in T-Shirt

Instead of repeating the Hummingbird pattern, I instead decided to burn a Kingfisher, a common bird in cottage country. In particular, I recall seeing one resting on a broken larch tree branch overlooking a narrow lake edge. It allowed me to get pretty close before flickering off with their characteristic song, like a teacup rattling on a saucer. The long, narrow shape seemed suited to try a perspective piece, so I tried to re-create that lakeside image.


Burning the image on the dining room table...the blue background is an old beach towel to protect the furniture.


Close up of the Kingfisher and larch branch


Whole paddle
I'll have to wait until spring and wamer temperature before I can varnish safely on the well-ventilated balcony, but overall, I'm quite content with this makeover. I've already re-used this technique to refurbish another commercial paddle I bought 2 years ago (and never liked after using it on a trip)...more on that later.

April 17/08 Update: The blade has now been varnished and completed. You can check out the results HERE

Arctic Whitewater Paddle

Even though I haven't really paddle any significant white water (easy Class II at most), I wanted to try the White Water paddle design in Graham Warren's book. The write-up mentioned that it should be made from a stronger hardwood and left a bit thicker in order to prevent a breakage when in use. I decided that this would be a great time to try out some Soft Maple (actually quite hard) for this attempt. I ended up with a great 5/4 piece (10 ft long x 8.5 inches wide) that I had Century Mill plane down to 1 1/8th and cut into two 60inch long boards. One of these would be the whitewater and the other is still in locker room waiting for a paddle selection.

Unfortunately, I ended up not taking any photos of the process, including the technique for carving out the angled T-grip...something I regret. But I do have pics of the final work. The artwork was inspired by my 2007 Summer trip to the High Arctic (800+ km north of the Arctic Circle). A soft eco-adventure stay at Arctic Watch Lodge included some amazing vistas, 30 polar bear sightings, a local muskox herd, and amazing birdwatching. While on a daytrip rafting down the Cunningham River back to camp, our 13yr old inuit guide spotted a lone bull muskox. We pulled ashore and stared at it for quite a while before it snorted and slowly hunkered back over the tundra. These become my inspirations for the artwork


With the completed paddle back in August


The Muskox side of the blade


The other side


The Polar Bear side of the blade
Overall, I found the maple a bit of challenge to work with, but I later found out it was because I had dulled the spokeshave blade after making 4 hardwood paddles with it...so a sharpening stone and honing guide were necessary purchases at this point to keep this hobby going. Maple is also a very dense wood, resulting in a heavier than normal paddle I would want for a whitewater run. I'm already considering making another in the future from lighter woods and laminating hardwood edging.

Another Booksource

In a post back in December, I mentioned I'd be ordering Graham Warren's 1st publication, Making Canoe Paddles in Wood from his site - Moosehead Canoes & Paddles. It arrived and I've been reading it thoroughly. While not as detailed or photo-rich as his second publication, Canoe Paddles: The Complete Guide to Making Your Own, I found it to be a fantastic read. In fact, some of the illustrations (computer sketched) fill in missing details I was searching for in the 2nd book.

In addition, there are 10 paddle plans complete with detailed dimensional offset tables and even a brief historical blurb. Many of these plans were not published again (or were modified) in the followup book. Here is the listing of paddle designs:

• Northwoods (Penobscot)
• Malecite St. John River
• Beothuk
• Ottertail
• Ashwing
• Beavertail
• Sugar Island
• Western Cree
• Hudson Bay voyageur
• North West Voyageur

All in all, a great little publication. It mentions Graham's intention of writing another Advance Paddle Making book, and I would gladly stand in line to get the 1st copy when (and if) it ever gets published.

Walnut Passamaquoddy / Northwoods Grip

After my modest success with the Cherry Maliseet and Fusion Paddle, I next decided to tackle another intriguing design. Graham Warren refers to this as the Passamaquoddy style...a narrow ottertail shaped blade and an elongated grip with carved stations for a variety of gripping positions. Upon doing some more searches, I come across some photos on Doug Ingram's Red River Canoe site outlining this grip in Cherry and Black Walnut. Another description was found on the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association site, a reprint of a WoodenBoat Magazine article (Issue #67) describing Garret and Alexandra Conover's Northwoods paddle.

I was sold and wanted to try it out and decided to try this as my first attempt with Black Walnut. An expensive wood for sure, but I loved the dark chocolate look and was under the impression it was an easy carving wood. I ended up with a nice piece of 5/4 planed stock from Century Mill and begun the work. Most of the outlines on the paddle would of course be shaved off, but I wanted a visual of what the process might be before proceeding.

While sawing out the blank on the balcony, I tried to maintain a single long, curved cut resulting in large "waste pieces". Immediately I thought these pieces could be re-used if I ever wanted to delve into laminated paddles...months later I would re-use these pieces in my first laminated paddle attempt. More on that paddle later.

As soon as the blank was cut out, I placed with for a pose with all the balcony plants I had moved to the far end of the balcony. Everything was fine, until a few days later I noticed many of the plants starting to turn a yellowish colour. I thought it was the hot, dry summer and the direct SW exposure of our balcony, but later learned that Black Walnut shavings and dust contain a potent biological toxin, juglone, that is a growth inhibitor for competing plants. Oh well, live and learn.

Shaving down the blade was pretty straight forward and in fact, photos from this paddle were used as part of a previous post on Shaping the Blade (Part 2). The wood itself is a delight to carve with a spokeshave which produces long curly strands of aromatic shaving. These quickly piled up. Seems wasteful, but the shavings are used as tinder firestarter at cottage. I've also read that the natural toxin juglone is an irritant if inhaled to other animal life, so that may keep the squirrels and pesky gulls from finding their way down the chimney.

On to the grip! I bought a special tool just for this carving pattern. A hook (spooning) knife from Lee Valley...felt like splurging and have since used it many times. In addition to this, a simple curved gouge and trusty spokeshave were all that I needed to smooth out the carving. The unique carved pattern essentially leaves a a series of diamond patterns along the face and sides of the grip while leaving indented areas for you to grasp along any one of the "stations".


The grip was then further shaped with a rasp to round over the edge and with a spokeshave to taper and thin some of the lower section. At the time, I didn't want to mess around too much because the effort it took to carve out the shape, so I left it quite thick. When I compare to some newer paddles, this one seems quite bulky...a common mistake for beginners. I'll definitely try this grip pattern in the future but ensure I thin it out more. At anyrate, to visually emphasize the Northwoods grip style, I burned the indentations at full temperature and added some diamond patterns on the face to connect with the diamond patterns on the carving. For the blade, I was inspired to try an owl burning given that a few weeks before I had briefly spotted an one (I think it was a Long Eared Owl) while walking in some forest trails at the cottage. Here's how the final work turned out


Decorated grip pattern


Long-Eared Owl in White Pine


The whole paddle