canoe maker

I recently received a comment from blog reader ManX who provided a link to his paddle project. The original forum post needed to be translated from Italian and from what I gathered, he split a plank from a log of Black Cherry (P. Serotina) wood back in 2012 and just recently finished carving a paddle inspired by the c1900 Antique Penobscot paddle posted back in 2011.


His post features plenty more photos but here are few showcasing his work...

� 2 American Chestnut
� 2 Sassafras, including a northwoods style with notched handle
� 2 black cherry

An Ebay seller is a photo featuring an interesting paddle grip design. Sadly no details about the origin or date, but the seller is from Nova Scotia and the long canoes and grip shapes are consistent with the East Coast paddling tradition.








Another photo featuring the same party has showcases the grip from a different angle...

Been away for quite some time and will have new content soon. In the meantime, here is a quick paddle related video sent my way by friend Rob Stevens...

A while back, I wrote a post about Norquay Company, a Canadian startup which is trying to put an artistic touch to utilitarian paddles. Their ever-growing series of artisan canoe paddles are manufactured by Teal Canoe in New Liskeard, Ontario with bold patterns painted on the blade.

Also featured on the site is their Leather Paddle Harness, a simple and rustic looking way of suspending a paddle.



With the recent completion of my 2nd son's heirloom paddle, I wanted to hang it and his brother's paddle in the basement man cave. However, I've found that most paddle hangers only function properly with a standard shaped pear grip and not with the elongated style grips featured on my own paddles. With a batch of leather scraps waiting to be used, I set out to make two of these styles of hangers.



I ended up using pieces roughly 4" long by 1.5" wide but this can be enlarged or reduced depending on what you want. Holes were punched in the corners.

An edging tool used to give some borders.


In my case, a piece of scrap lace was used that would not match the final color, but it didn't matter since it would not be visible in the final hanging. The pic below shows the partial lacing pattern (the final knot has not been tied yet)



After stamping my son's name and staining in a mahogany color, the leather harness was placed on the grip loosely. The tension created by pulling on the loop (right side) created an effective friction fit on the northwoods style grip. This would then been hung on a standard picture frame hook.



Here's a pic of it suspended in place...


And a final pic of my boys' heirloom paddles on the basement wall next to my bourbon shelf...

Here is an interesting set of paddles from the June current selections page of the  CherryGallery.com.










Back before Abercrombie & Fitch morphed into a casual clothing retailer, it was a major US outfitter for camping gear. One of their early catalogs (1916) is available online on archive.org. Page 53 of this document has a small writeup on their 2 paddle models. Here is the screen grab..




Looks like these paddles are their 6-foot "Algonquin" style which were priced at a whopping $1.50 back then.

Paddle maker, Luke M from Wales (see previous post HERE) has sent in photos of some of his new carvings.  Here is a group photo showcasing his latest full sized paddle and a small child's paddle alongside his restored axe.



The smaller paddle was carved from a piece of felled ash and the carving axe has a 3 � pound double bit with a cleft handle made from the same ash tree as his previous batch of paddles.

The full sized paddle was carved from a harvested log of larch. It was carved completely by eye and the design was copied from the 1875 Passamaquoddy ocean canoe paddle in the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It was finished smooth with a crooked knife and not sanded. Here are his photos of the paddle being roughed out with the axe and some finished views of it at a different angle to illustrate the grain.







Luke also sent in a photo of his two latest crooked knife blades. They are made from band saw blades. He used a forge made from two kiln bricks and a propane torch to make these, which he mentioned was an improvement from using a wood stove.



Thanks Luke for sending in your wonderful pics!