[bertwert]

Today I cleared off the workbench and started making another canoe paddle, my third attempt.

Nice! Laminate or from a single piece of wood?

Also make sure that you shave the blade thin enough, I always get nervous leaving it too thick, and then it's a pain to paddle with, having to exert more force to keep it upright as it tries to bob up in the water.

[Just1MoreDave]

Nice! Laminate or from a single piece of wood?

Also make sure that you shave the blade thin enough, I always get nervous leaving it too thick, and then it's a pain to paddle with, having to exert more force to keep it upright as it tries to bob up in the water.

Three pieces of western red cedar, most likely from BC. My Home Depot sells it as a rough sawn 2x4. I have to sort through the pile to get a piece that's straight and knot-free, then leave it for a while to dry out.



Cedar is not a typical choice because it's pretty soft. It would probably last a minute in whitewater. But we've had a paddle for 50 years that is made of (I think) Eastern White Spruce, which everyone likes. It is about 0.5 kg, super light. I'm trying to copy it, and cedar is the closest wood I can get to Eastern White Spruce, which is not really commercially harvested. Home Depot cedar is ~$10 so it's not an expensive experiment. Here's the old paddle, with 2 repairs:



My first two paddles (ash) look good but the blades are definitely too thick. I would work on them for a while, think I had finally removed just enough wood, and they'd still be 25-30% over the recommended weight.

[bertwert]

Three pieces of western red cedar, most likely from BC. My Home Depot sells it as a rough sawn 2x4. I have to sort through the pile to get a piece that's straight and knot-free, then leave it for a while to dry out.



Cedar is not a typical choice because it's pretty soft. It would probably last a minute in whitewater. But we've had a paddle for 50 years that is made of (I think) Eastern White Spruce, which everyone likes. It is about 0.5 kg, super light. I'm trying to copy it, and cedar is the closest wood I can get to Eastern White Spruce, which is not really commercially harvested. Home Depot cedar is ~$10 so it's not an expensive experiment. Here's the old paddle, with 2 repairs:



My first two paddles (ash) look good but the blades are definitely too thick. I would work on them for a while, think I had finally removed just enough wood, and they'd still be 25-30% over the recommended weight.

From what I've seen on the web, cedar is a fairly popular choice, and most whitewater paddles are fibreglassed anyways. The one that I recently made is just from a SPF 2x6 that was lying around, as I didn't want to laminate (side note, what would you use for laminating a paddle, I can't find a clear answer online), then I finished it with some spar varnish. The couple times that I paddled with it on flat water, I liked the shape, though the shaft could be a bit longer, and the blade is way too thick, making it bob up and some more fancy soloing strokes can't be done well.

[Just1MoreDave]

I used Franklin Titebond III. In big letters on the front, they say waterproof. In the tiny letters of the tech section, they say it's not approved for "below the waterline" use. The same statement applies to polyurethane (Gorilla), cyanoacrylate (superglue) and at least some epoxies. I think this is a combination of "at some point this glue will fail" and "we don't feel like the testing to prove that point is cost-effective" and "we're not paying if your boat sinks" . I know resorcinol is approved and is the glue used in marine plywood, but it's not all that consumer-friendly. Epoxy glues have a problem breaking down under UV exposure. And no one on the internet has made a mistake applying the glue per directions - failure is always the glue's fault! My choice was based on ease of use, I had some, used it before, lots of clamps, excellent glue line*, the paddle won't be underwater all the time and backup paddles are available. My canoe has a ton of glue repairs, literally a thousand hull patches, so paddle glue failure is the least of my worries. I'll use Epiphanes spar varnish, supposed to be highly UV resistant and durable, definitely a premium price.

*The stock was 1 3/4" thick so I sawed it to 1 1/4". Then I could test the scrap piece to see if the glue line fails.

[Racer X 69]

Been up to all kinds of stuff lately, since the Big Shed is closed.

Listening to my vinyl collection.

Replaced my malfunctioning integrated receiver.

Got the camera out and mounted my latest lens, a Zuiko 35mm f2.8 shift lens (amazing minimum focus distance!) and tried my hand at some stereo gear porn.





The replacement receiver doesn't put out the power the other one did (130 watts vs 100 watts) but it sounds better. The failing unit had developed a bad habit of making some very odd noises, coming from deep in the electronic bowels of the circuitry, and not from whatever program source I was trying to play. It started out much like some of the noises you experience in an MRI machine, and just as loud. After several system resets that noise went away, but then it started making a noise like bacon and eggs sizzling in the pan at breakfast. It would go away after a few minutes, but before long the snapping and crackling would begin to creep back in.

I got a deal on it, it was a trade in at my local mom n pop stereo/car audio/home theater/furniture/appliance store.

[timb64]

1)Stay alive

2)Stay sane

3)Stay married........

Not all necessarily mutually compatible!

[edom31]

Got the camera out and mounted my latest lens, a Zuiko 35mm f2.8 shift lens (amazing minimum focus distance!) and tried my hand at some stereo gear porn.

really loving your setup, especially the light. What model is that Pioneer?

---------- Post added 04-03-20 at 07:06 PM ----------

1)Stay alive

2)Stay sane

3)Stay married........

Not all necessarily mutually compatible!

I'm happy with #1 - I'll bat .333 any day of the week

[Racer X 69]

What model is that Pioneer?

PL112D.

Bought brand new late 1970's.

[Digitalis]

A while ago I won a bid on Ebay for several hundred feet rolls of ISO-25 B&W 35mm film, with all this time on my hands I might as well start rolling my own film cassettes. If the film isn't that great I can just donate it to the photography school where I teach - nothing teaches you how to make a good print like a bad negative.

[edom31]

PL112D.

Bought brand new late 1970's.

Those were built to last. A new belt once in the lifetime and some re-lube and it'll forever spin.

[robgski]

Gardening, cleaning out the garage, and sorting old photos to be scanned.
I will pay someone to do the scanning, since I am still working full time, albeit remotely, and my weekdays leave me little time or energy to do that task.

I like the idea of planning my next photo projects and photo trips, I hope we'll all be able to move about soon.

[Just1MoreDave]

I finished making the paddle. I'll varnish it when the temperature is a little more stable. I don't know what my next project is, but I have a lot of wood out there.

[Sandy Hancock]

Luckily, anaesthesiology is still an essential service, so although my workload (= income) has probably halved, I still get out of the house reasonably often.

That said, I now have my home knife making workshop up and running. My proof-of-concept billet (five layers of alternating 1095 and 15N20) has been hand hammered down from 50mm x 20m x 20mm to roughly 110 x 43 x 3.5. Once I get it a bit flatter and more uniformly thin I'll cut it up and re-stack it to make 20 or 25 layers of damascus, then I may repeat the process for 100+ layers.

After that the hard work will start. My plan is to do as much shaping as possible with hand forging, and a minimum of cutting and grinding. By the time it's all finished I suspect the worst of the pandemic will be over

[Digitalis]

Once I get it a bit flatter and more uniformly thin I'll cut it up and re-stack it

Isn't it more traditional to fold it over than cut?

[Sandy Hancock]

Isn't it more traditional to fold it over than cut?

Yes, but I am using a gas forge, which produces much more scale on the surface of the billet than a coke forge

I have found it impossible to get scale-coated layers to forge weld, so I gently grind off the scale to bare metal and then cut the billet into several equal sized pieces, stack them tightly and start again.