Finishing Paddle #5

Once I was pleased with the shape and feel of the paddle it was time to move to the final stage - sanding and applying a finishing/sealing coat.

The sanding is straightforward. All of the shaping was done my hand so this step is really just to make the shaft and grip smooth and comfortable to hold. I used a random orbital sander across the entire surface moving up in the grits: 60, 80, 120. Then I wet the surface with water to raise the grain. It also revealed the color and texture of what it will ultimately look like. And let me just say - Oh. La. La.

I then took a sheet of 180 grit, wrapped it around paddle shaft, and, well, stroked it until smooth. I repeated with 220 grit.
At this point the paddle was nothing short of silky.
To seal and protect the wood I like to use a marine varnish. However, it does take away a little bit of the wood feel. There should be a warmth in the palms when holding a canoe paddle. Therefore the grip gets taped off while the blade and shaft get varnished. Then I removed the tape and applied three coats of Linseed oil.

I executed all of this while in conference calls. Hell of a way to spend a day. Making canoe paddles in the sun on the deck while still getting paid. There was a point I forgot to mute and a colleague chimed in with “is someone sharpening a knife right now?”. No Mike, I am not sharpening a knife. I am using a knife. I sharpened it before this meeting. And I will again after this meeting. Besides. It is a far less distracting than the dozens of kids wailing away in everyone else’s background, Mike.
I doubt this will be the last quarantine paddle I make.

Carving and Shaping Paddle #5

1) Joint and glue up

2) Tracing pattern

3) Cutting out blank (kick ass workbench to left part clear of Jig Saw blade)

4) Spokeshave

Damn everything smells great

Canoe paddle #5 made from a single Incense Cedar board

While shopping for lumber for a dining room table I stumbled upon a board of incense cedar. And the rain stopped, and the clouds parted, and a chorus of angels sang. I had no projects that merited this red and white marbled 1x8. Nevertheless, I left the store with it. (But not with the dining table slab I was looking for. Oh well, I guess I get to take another voyage to the glorious Crosscut Hardwoods in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle)

At some point it occurred to me that all the paddles I made are laminations of different species of woods. I have never used just a single board.

Step 1: Layout. I needed to find a way to get a paddle that is 8”wide and 60” long out of a board that was 5”x 96” x 1”

Layout: 1) Cut the board to the shaft length 2) Rip the shaft to wide 3) With the remainder, cut the blade to length 4) Resaw/Split in two the blade to create 2 pieces that are 20” x 3” x 0.5”

Step 2: Crosscut to shaft length of 60”. Not only did this allow me to save 36” of this immaculate board but handling a 5 foot board is a lot easier than an 8 foot one. Especially in my basement shop.

Step 3: Rip. I cut the 2” wide shaft out of the board on the Table Saw. (notice how my workbench acts as a perfect outfeed table)

Ripped to create two pieces: one for the shaft (Right) and a thicker piece that will be split into two for the blade (Left)

Step 4: Crosscut blade to size. Of the 3” x 60” that remained I only needed 20” for the blade. A quick task for the Miter Saw to chop that off.

Crosscut to the length of the blade.

Step 5: Resaw to book-match and thin blade. “Resaw” is the process of cutting a board along its thinnest dimension - like opening up a hotdog bun. I needed the blade to be wider than the 3” I had. Also, I didn’t need it to be 1” thick. So I took it to the Band Saw and split in half. Then I opened it up like a book so that the grain pattern is “book-matched”.

The blade Resawn to create two thinner pieces.

Opened up to Bookmatch the piece after it was sliced in half.

Ultimately I was left with 2 pieces that were 3” x 20” x 0.5” and one that 2” x 60” x 1”. When that was all laid out the blade is 8” (3+2+3) wide and 20” long. And the shaft is 2” wide by 60” long.

In the next post I’ll cover gluing and cutting the basic paddle shape.

One board cut into 3 pieces and layout out.

Let me tell you about my boat

I made a 15’ wood strip canoe out of Redwood. It is my masterpiece and one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. And it continues to be every time I go for a paddle.

I will go through the build process in other posts. For now I would like to tell you how it came to be.

In the fall of 2014 I was working 60+ hours a week and, according to the health app on my iPhone, I was walking at least a half marathon everyday. You see, the factory I was working at is 50% larger than Disneyland - it is ginormous and I was routinely pacing between my production line to the machine shop back to the line to the loading dock to the lab to the conferences rooms, on and on. Needlessly to say when the weekend came I wanted nothing more than to melt into the couch. And so I did just that.

From the time Lee Corso put on a mascot’s head on College Gameday to hearing Joe Buck sign off on Sunday Night Football I moved only to crack a cold one or make nachos. I watched every minute of football that was broadcast. This was a glorious chapter in my life.

Monday would come, as it always does, and it was back to the grind. I had nothing to show for my brief reprieve from building robots. Resting in front of the tv did a poor job of resetting a stressful work week. It all blended together. Making stuff is a leisurely activity for me.

The house we were renting in Half Moon Bay had a 2 car garage and, it being California, we didn’t park cars in it. It was used for storage and laundry and to house the kegerator. Furthermore, I have a 100” projector screen. Why not mess around in the garage with the games on?! This is so obvious in retrospect but felt like a profound eureka moment at the time. The kind of realizations that only occur after months of therapy.

Ok. Step one, pick a project and get tools. I had a cordless drill and a hammer. I am handy but my woodworking experience begins and ends with making a Pinewood Derby car in Cub Scouts. Needed to start simple. A chess board! 64 squares, some glue, a few clamps. *aside: it is actually more straight forward than that. Take 4 strips of a light color and 4 of a dark, glue together alternating between the two. Then take that block and cross cut it 7 times to yield 8 strips. Flip over every over one, glue those together and bingo, chess board. All I needed was a Table Saw.

I called my dad to ask if he had advice on buying a table saw. Before he could dispense anything he asked a fair question,

“What are you thinking of making?”

“A chess board”

“Ooooooh. Pretty ambitious first project.”

The hell! It is just a serious of 90 degree cuts. The exact thing a Table Saw is designed for.

I have a great relationship with the ol’ man. But he is a father and I am a son and I couldn’t help but hold contempt for his lack of encouragement. If he thinks a chess board is an ambitious project, well, I’ll show him …

Around the same time I got into the TV Show Parks and Recreation. A character on the show, Ron Swanson played by Nick Offerman, concludes the show by hoping in his canoe and paddling away. That boat was flawless. An idea began to peculate.

Soon after I saw on Twitter that said the canoe in the show was built by the actor. And he had a YouTube series detailing the process. In them he demonstrates the steps outlined in the Bible of woodstrip canoe building - Canoecraft by Ted Moore.

I bought a copy. Read it cover to cover the afternoon it arrived. Read it three more times that week and decided - yup, I can do this. It was beyond my skill set, sure, because, well, I didn’t have a skill set. But the book is so beautifully put together that it breaks down this herculean task into small manageable tasks. What’s the says - How do you eat an elephant … one bite at a time.

March 22, 2015 - Bought a table saw

May 22, 2015 - Bought lumber for the support/assembly frame (i.e. the Strongback). THE BUILD HAD BEGUN

May 28, 2016 - Launched in Pillar Point Harbor

There are few greater joys in the world than accomplishing a long term goal.

She floats!

Rick and I on the John Muir Trail