canoe maker

A while back, a query posted on the WCHA Paddlemaking Forums led to a discussion about the use of metal blade tip protectors on old paddles. These pieces of thin copper or brass would be formed into a pattern, folded over the tip of the paddle, and then tacked or stapled into place. Graham Warren's original paddlemaking book, Making Canoe Paddles in Wood contains such a pattern and mentions making the tip by recycling a piece of "central heating pipe".

Two experienced posters displayed pics of their unwanted tips, some brass one from Rollin Thurlow and a copper one from Ross Bros Canoe Company


Brass Tip


Copper Tip
An online copy of Popular Mechanics (July, 1934) has a an article entitled, "It's Easy to Repair a Canoe". The pic on page 109 shows a metal tip pattern with instructions to nail it onto the front of the blade and clinch the nails on the back to prevent splitting.


Metal Tip Repair
The general consensus on the WCHA forums was that such paddle tip protectors actually cause more damage as the nail or staple holes permit water penetration and eventually lead to rot. For some paddle makers, the old-time aesthetic appeal is a desirable addition.

The beautiful paddles crafted by Doug Ingram at Red River Canoe recreate this appearance with modern materials. A post from his blog, Wood Be Creative shows the process of routing out the blade tip and filling in the tip with coloured epoxy set in a mold. This gets sanded down to the final appearance.

While I've got no intention of damaging the tips of my paddles with nails or staple guns, I'm intending to add a woodburned, pyrographic image of this tip design onto the Northwoods style paddle I'm working on. We'll see how it turns out.

A very interesting post on the Cherry Gallery's current items (March 2010) page...

Seth Steward Model Canoe Paddles
This is a pair of model canoe paddles made and painted by renowned Maine artist Seth W. Steward (1844-1927) of Monson. One paddle is decorated with a painting of a brook trout chasing a fly on the blade and a canoe on the handle. The other has a painting of a moose on the blade and a rifle on the handle. These are the longest Steward model paddles that we've seen.
Dated 1901
5.5" w, 45" long
$5,600

One of the followers of my little blog, the folks at Sanborn Canoe Company, have a fun little promotion running the month of March. In an effort to come up with an inspiring name for their cedar laminated beavertail paddle, they've started naming contest. The successful submission will paddle away with one of these lightweight, laminated beauties.


Sanborn's yet un-named beavertail design
The online entry form has some extra hints and info along with the official rules that I've posted below:

1. Only valid email addresses are accepted.
2. Contest ends March 31st at Midnight.
3. The guys from Sanborn Canoe Co. will vote on our favorite name and after the winner has been notified we will post the results.
4. We will ship the paddle for free to the lower 48 US States. Anywhere else you pay normal shipping rates.
5. Tell your friends.

Good luck to everyone who tries and spread the word.

Had a chance last night to check out the Toronto version of the Outdoor Adventure Show. While not exclusively a paddling expo, there were plenty of canoe related booths interspersed amongst the camping shops, travel booths, and other sections. Unfortunately forgot the camera so no pics for you, but hopefully the links below will provide some nice internet browsing & distraction.

Commercial brands such as the new Badger Paddles were well displayed, especially their funky water colour stained paddles. Canadian Outdoor Equipment had a selection of Lolk paddles for viewing. First time I got a chance to check out these paddles since the company has no internet presence and few distributors but a nice reputation for quality. Great stuff, but without taking away from either company, I personally found the pear grips to be too small and standardized for my enjoyment.

Also on display were the new 2010 Canvas Woods Packs for sale at the steep price of $235 CDN. Better quality than some of the others I've seen recently, but I'm still glad I ended up salvaging/renewing my pack for around $50 for the pack and leather components.

What really caught my eye was a noticeable interest in paddle making as there were 3 different booths with handmade paddles were being carved at the show. After finally meeting Mike, a fellow Toronto canoeing blogger, we had a nice chat about paddles designs over at the booth of Sticks & Stones Wilderness School. The booth was being manned by founder Skeet Sutherland who was working on a sweet looking paddle with a modified grip. Mike mentioned the style was very much like the design of W. Bruce Smith who seems to be another local paddle maker with some beautiful designs.

The Canadian Canoe Museum had their fantastic booth with a shaving horse setup and some paddle blanks being worked on. Had a chance to talk to Workshop coordinator Beth Stanley about pack baskets and Curator Jeremy Ward about his fantastic 36 foot bark canoe featured in the Ray Mears Northern Wilderness series. Seeing this behemoth being poled upstream was a real highlight of the show. Posted the YouTube clip about it below (footage at around 1:20 mark).


If anyone in the GTA is interested in attending, the show runs until tomorrow Sunday, February 28, 2010, from 10am - 5pm.

Here's an interesting bit of historically significant paddle art. The David Drummond designed book cover of The Woman Who Mapped Labrador which details the amazing canoe journey of Mina Hubbard. Details of her route were superimposed onto the paddle for the cover art. If I ever complete an epic wilderness journey one day, this might be a great way to commemorate the trip.


Hubbard's sole motivation was to complete the journey begun by her Husband, Leonidas, who died on the original expedition. She blamed his death on the ineptitude of his traveling companion, Dillon Wallace and decided to avenge her husband a few years later by completing the journey in his stead with no outdoor experience to her credit. Not to be outdone by a city woman, Wallace also set out to complete the journey and a competition of honor ensued. Wallace seemed to have an aversion to using local knowledge and help, but Hubbard did not reject the concept. By relying on Naskapi and Innu guides she completed the journey first.


Dillon Wallace, 15 July 1903
The Virtual Museum of Canada has an online exhibit of photos regarding the first Hubbard expedition and the subsequent one by Wallace which has some great photos of the group with their expedition paddles and other gear. Note the length the paddle which might've helped with poling in the shallow, rocky waters, but I can't picture this being anything but cumbersome when paddling except in the deepest of waters.

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