Bent Lamination Feathered Wooden Kayak Paddles

After reading Doug Alderson's letter on building paddles, I decided to try it myself.I really liked his method of laminating shafts, but I really wanted to build a feathered paddle shaft.

The instructions below contain exerpts in "quotes" from Douglas's original article.

I built a stiffback from several layers of 1/2" plywood stacked,screwed, and glued together. I let the top ply extend out 2" to facilitate easier clamping. I then ripped a 2x4 3' long at a 70 degree angle. (Rip it about 5 degrees more than you want the feather angle to be--the wood will "spring back" slightly) Screw this to one end of the stiffback.Screw another 2x4 down flat on the other end. It should look something like this:

Cut laminations as Doug describes,"Shaft material is cut from well seasoned clear lumber or premium kiln dried stock. (Douglas Fir or SitkaS pruce) A good quality carbide tablesaw blade can leave a surface suitablefor gluing without further machining. The middle three layers can have3/8" holes drilled every 1 1/4" to lighten the shaft. Lay upthe 'holey' layers so that no two holes intersect each other. No loss instrength - worth the effort. To drill the holes - drill the rough stockbefore ripping to thickness. Outside laminations can be of Fir or Ash insteadof Spruce. Spruce is lighter but is not very resistant to knocking about- it blemishes easily. I use Spruce - keep it light."

"note: approximately 1 fluid ounce of resin is required for eachof the shaft laminations and each layer of cloth on the paddle blade (80sq in)."

"Five or seven laminations of wood and 6oz fiberglass cloth arelaid up..."

Glue every layer, and clamp one end to the flat end of the stiffback(Red clamps) Put one clamp on the opposite end to keep the laminationsaligned (Green clamp)

With a partner's help, twist the green clamp until the bottom of thepaddle laminations rests against the angled 2x4. Clamp this end and clampthe middle as needed to keep the laminations together.

Then, a lengthy period of planing and rasping ensues until the shafts are ovalled and fit nicely in the curve of your thumb and forefinger. The bend in the laminations is fairly obvious in this photo:

The blades are then attached based on the type of blade installed.

Fiberglass Blade

"Feather" Wood Blade

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