canoe maker

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.

From a now expired Ebay listing showcasing a hand-carved Tiger Maple paddle...

"This is a one of a kind Hand Carved Algonquin style CANOE PADDLE. I made this using traditional hand tools from a single piece of beautiful figured tiger maple (rock maple). This paddle has stunning sculptural form and brilliant almost iridescent wood grain pattern. This paddle is based on examples of traditional Abanaki, Passamoquoddy, Maliceet paddles (the same native Americans who built the spectacular and technologically advanced birch bark canoes). I have always admired the amazing and beautiful sculptural form in the original native American paddles made from various American hardwoods including Birdseye and tiger maple, Cherry, ash. Many were decorated with incised designs, I prefer the pure shape and highly figured wood.... 

This paddle offered in this auction is 67-3/4"" long, blade is 7-1/4" wide (as thin as 3/16"in places) shaft is 1- 1/4" thick at widest point and weighs approx 2- 1/2 pounds. Signed "SK" (Steve Kovach) with my personal brand on end of grip."

Included in the array of photos was an additional set of some of the other paddles made by the same seller. Nice collection with some lovely grain patterns...

An Ebay posting found today of a Tiger Maple paddle. Seller claims it is late 19th century from the Penobscot Nation in Maine...




Seller's Description:

A beautifully made and gracefully shaped canoe paddle from the Penobscot nation of northern Maine. The wear and color of the lovely surface makes it evident that it is significantly old, most probably late 19th century. There is no damage. It is 56 3/4" long by 4 3/8" wide.

LiveAuctioneers.com has a new listing of a set of beautiful looking vintage paddles. They feature slender Northwoods style grips (mislabeled as "Adirondack Style" in my opinion) and are carved in Tiger Maple. Both are 60" long but are unsigned and undated...

An earlier post about Michael Weiser's paddle warping problem got me thinking about preventative maintenance on the thinned tip of the Maple Northwoods Paddle. While I'm quite diligent about maintaining my paddles with oil frequently, I thought that perhaps the delicate end grain of this paddle may need a bit more protection.

The paddle had been decorated with a fake burning of Copper Tip protector and figured it would be an interesting touch to add some glossy varnish to this decorative embellishment, both to make it look more "metallic" but also to seal the end grain more thoroughly.

After delicately brushing some thinned coats of spar varnish to the tip as well as to the design with a brush, I ended up with a nice glossy finish. Here are some shots which captured the difference in tone in the varnish tip versus the oiled blade...




Varnish & Shiny "Copper Tip"

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

Slowly but surely, the Maple Northwoods paddle is coming along. Given that the maple is so dense and heavy, the blade needed to be thinned considerably to reduce the weight. Many of the paddles are reduced to 3/8" thickness (3/32" edges) for flex but this one was shaved down to 3/16ths and paper thin edges to reduce weight.


Nearly Complete
The grip still needs some additional shaping and serious sanding to even out irregularities and tool marks, but overall it feels quite comfortable. The top is just nice enough to fit my broad palm and the ribbed grip sections are just the perfect width for my hands for using the northwoods stroke. Noticed afterward that the grain of the grip section seemed to curve right at the location of the rippled bumps, only to straighten again in the flat sections between - sort of like a neat contour line effect on a topo map.


Grip nearly complete
Despite not fully completing the grip, I got impatient and eagerly began decorating the blade. I first wanted to add a pyrographic version of the old copper tip protectors mentioned in a previous post. Around the blade remaining blade circumference, a basic chip carving motif was added. In the center of the blade, I ended up replicating another scroll pattern taken from Frank G. Speck's Double-Curve Motive in Northeastern Algonkian Art. Given that the this paddle design seems to have evolved from Abenaki / Penobscot origins, it seemed appropriate to use some Penobscot designs from Figure 4 of Speck's publication.


Penobscot Scroll Pattern


Pencil sketched decoration
Now I just need to find some time to do the actual woodburning. The dark pattern should contrast nicely with the pale maple wood.

UPDATE - April 19/2010 - Decoration finished - Part 3 has posted here

Another antique paddle from Gould Auctions. This one is a slender birdseye maple paddle with a beautiful aged patina and nice elongated guide style grip.

A SUPERB and "BUSY" Birdseye Maple Canoe Paddle in an untouched and original surface. Its honey colored patina is superb as well. Found recently in a home on Lake Cobbosseecontee, Maine. Measures 66" tall.

Another blank that had been lying around for a while is a Northwoods style paddle made from soft maple stock. While I've never been a fan of beavertail-shaped blades for solo paddling, I wanted to try and make one from the famous plans by Garrett and Alexandra Conover. An online reprint of the Rick Water's article outlining the paddle's construction is found here and includes a reduced picture of their plans.


I was able to find a copy of Wooden Boat Magazine (Issue #67, 1985) at the Toronto Reference Library with an enlarged image image of the plans and used this for the general dimensions of the blade. In this case, as the paddle was meant for me as a solo blade, I ended up replicating the lower design, a smaller "Bow Paddle" with shorter length and smaller blade area.


Blank drawn out with extra chalkline piece
To squeeze every last usage from the maple stock, the paddle was drawn offset from the centre of the board and a chalkline run down the other side where a 1 1/4" piece could be salvaged for making a laminated shaft down the road (it has since been glued up to make another paddle blank).

As I had already tried the basic northwoods grip on a Walnut Passamaquoddy paddle back in '08 and wanted something different. In the end, I settled on the Scalloped Grip outline in Graham Warren's book and similar to the one outline in his recent YouTube video.

Instead of simply scooping out a flattened palm area, however, I envisioned horizontal "speedbumps" across the face of the grip delineating each gripping station. This was crudely sketched down the side of the grip and then I started shaping by feel using various rasps. These shots were taken late last fall (late October) after the area had cleared out of tourists.


Rough idea; Rough carving


Carving out by the lake late last fall
Still some more carving of the blade and grip area needed but all in all, this one is shaping up to be an interesting (to me anyway) grip design. Maple is of course, quite a heavy, dense wood so the blade will be thinned considerably to reduce the weight. This nearly completed paddle is yet another one back in the city waiting for some more free time to finalize.

March 16, 2010 Update: Part 2 has been posted HERE

Kathryn Klos over at the Wooden Canoe Heritage Forums posted a link of a YouTube video by none other than Graham Warren, author of the main textbook of modern paddlemaking. The 6 1/2 minute video entitled "Song of the Spokeshave" shows Warren carving out a maple paddle with an Algonquin blade and a scalloped grip. Perhaps the youtube release is a preview of his Paddlemaking DVD I blogged about earlier

Great footage with a super sharp spokeshave tool which makes his carving seem effortless. I was quite surprised to see the initial thickness of the blank being cut out with the bandsaw. Seems to be 2 inches (or more) thick! To save time and effort, the blade was thinned with an electric planer before finishing touches (the background music certainly masks the horrific noise of this power tool).

I especially like the final shots of the scalloped grip, a design I tried out on my first paddle at the Canadian Canoe Museum. At the time, I didn't know exactly how to carve out the shape so just kept working on it until it felt comfortable. All in all, a great little video feature of carving out a paddle.