canoe maker

Cherry Gallery - Adirondack Guide Paddle

November 2010 current items at the Cherry Gallery features an Adirondack Guide Paddle circa 1890...

A delicate cherry guide boat paddle with a lollipop top and a diamond shaped and chamfered upper shaft. Good original surface, with minor damage to one edge of the blade. Circa 1890
4.75" w, 66" h
$1,200

The "lollipop" grip the description refers to is similar to a historic one documented in Dr Gordon L Fishers's 2008 publication Guideboat Paddles: An Adirondack Treasure. Specifically, it resembles the grip design popularized by Adirondack Guide and Boatbuilder, Caleb Judson Chase and is often referred to as an Arrowhead Motif grip.


Arrowhead Motif
An online excerpt (.PDF format) of Fisher's book has some photos of the author carving out this interesting grip shape (see last page of excerpt - pg 60). The book has a nice schematic of this grip design with a table of offsets for the blade in the appendix section. I'm planning to get more lumber stock in a few weeks and figure I'll attempt this new grip design as a winter project.