So why does a bloke who has a bright yellow Big Game want to build a Greenland Paddle?

Well, before I had the luck to be bought a BG I had, and have had for years, plans to build a skin on frame kayak based around the Aleutian designs and a paddle to go with it. This  dream is borne largely from the fact that I m a skint, tight arsed northern bloke (they can be built very cheaply), but also I like making things and seem to have some sort of puritanical streak in me; must be some weird combination of Methodist and Catholic upbringing LOL! 

Anyway, I thought I d have a go at a paddle first; after all it s only a plank of wood carved to shape, isn t it? I needed a new/spare paddle and the one I got with my big game is pretty much bottom of the market and I was worried how much abuse it could take. 

For me it has several advantages.

I paddle unfeathered due to bad wrists, these paddles are unfeathered.

There’s less windage.

The stroke can be smoother, quieter and not being a bucket on the end of a stick is a bit easier on the muscles on the catch.

It has more blade length so you can use a sliding stroke if necessary for more power and again less windage.

It doesn’t matter which way round you hold it or whether you re forward or back paddling, it s just as efficient, as all blade sides are the same.

Wood is nice to hold, warm and usually floats.

It cost me £20 for decent wood, no way would I get a paddle for that.

Also when I do build my S.O.F kayak there are a whole range of advantages in terms of techniques like sculling braces and rolls as it actually has a aerodynamic profile so creates lift with out having to worry which way round the paddle/blade is.

Here are some links about them and making them ..

http://www.qajaqusa.org/QK/makegreen2.pdf  Step by Step how to measure up and make one, essential and interesting

http://www.carvegp.com Invaluable FREE video of making one from scratch.

http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/Building/GailPaddles/GreenlandPaddles.html examples of paddle shapes and dimensions

As look would have it one day I ended up at John Boddies Specialist timber yard http://www.john-boddy-timber.ltd.uk/news.htm at Borough Bridge. Despite all my reading I had it in my head that I needed a good plank of ash, knot free, and found a plank of American White Ash that was 10 x 6 x 2 that suited the purpose. Next time I would go for spruce or western cedar (traditional), cheaper, lighter and much, much, easier to work with but harder to find good knot free pieces of the right thickness, and not as strong so the final paddle may be chunkier. People have even used just a piece of regular 4x2.

Then I worked out that (from the first link above) with my build and frame the paddles dimensions would be 210cm tip to tip (which is actually more or less the same as my existing one), 4 wide at the blade tip (to enable me to hold it in my grip) and 70cm loom. After some looking around I decide to make the loom 60cm as that seemed more common and recommended, but also to do away with the shoulder at the loom/blade transition as some paddles are like that and it would help on weight saving, ash being heavier than the softwoods and still be comfortable for a wider grip.

The only tools I used were reciprocating saw, power plane, belt sander and basic chisel. All cheap, old and not in the best of health. It took me 6 hours in total over about 5 weeks. I finished the tips with a coat of epoxy resin and oiled the rest with several coats of teak oil as I just happened to have some in the garage but you could use Danish or Tung oil which are much more expensive. I turns out that teak oil is usually a blend of these oils plus linseed anyway so it should be fine. 

The steps are straight forward but not necessarily easy and call for pretty accurate marking out and constantly stopping, measuring and eyeing up your work. The above links give you all the detail and are essential reading if you want to make one. 

First mark out the length you need on the plank, trying to avoid any knots particularly where the loom/early blade will go. Cut it to size

Mark out the middle of the paddle, loom width and centre line for the paddle

Mark out the paddle taper from the loom end to tip

Either plane or bandsaw off the excess wood from the loom to the tip on all sides making sure you stay square across the blade and slightly outside your markings.

Mark out the loom and actual transition from loom to blade tip and either bandsaw, jig saw it or as I did cut to the line and chisel out the excess (the wood was too hard for jig saw and reciprocating saw. You now have the paddle blank. You can have a square tip or rounded, I used a plant pot to draw rounded ends!

Make sure all your mid, centre and edge lines are re-drawn

Now you need to start to get the profile for the blade, planing from the centre line to the edge lines on the paddle to give the basic profile. The last 10cm of blade are usually flat.

Once you done that it’s a case of using a plane and/or sander to refine that flattened diamond shape to an oval that flattens out towards the tip. Trying to eye it to keep each blade side and both blades the same. Callipers would be useful but not having any I just felt and eyed it so there will be imperfections but hopefully it won t matter too much.

When you think you’ve got it about right, check the balance of your paddle from mid loom. You may have to sand more off one blade to balance it or if they look the same, add a screw of two to one blade tip as the wood may vary in density and unbalance it even though you work is spot on.

Then fine sand, wet down, and sand, sand, sand.

Protect the tips with resin, GRP, varnish or whatever and oil, oil, oil !

Look back at it, admire it and annoy everyone by constantly talking about it’s sleek beauty.  Go on even stroke it a little and smile, I won’t tell anyone ..  LOL!