Making My Own Paddle Part 3 – Finishing the Paddle

     As is typical with some things I get into, I was a bit obsessive with the finishing of my self-made paddle after I brought it home.  I used 60, 120, 180, 200 grit sandpapers both hand sanding and with a palm sander to polish up the finish and also create the transition profile from blade to shaft the way I wanted it to.  It has a nice ridge that extends about 8 inches from the initial transition, and I aggressively took material out of the blades on either side, so it is close to consistent thickness all the way to just before the tip.

     I also filled in a small indentation on the shaft with epoxy mixed with wood flour from the sanding, and polished up all the surfaces with medium and 0000 steel wool, to an almost shiny surface.  By holding the paddle up to a light source, imperfections were identified and sanded out.  Yep, like I said, a little too much obsession for just a paddle… even before the finishing.

     I was thinking initially of maybe woodburning something into my paddle, but at this point I don’t know if I need to do that.  I now know this piece of wood quite intimately and will quite easily be able to identify it, either from a distance or up close.  I was quite happy with it already.

Now for the obsession on how to finish it.After much research, I decided on polymerized tung oil. I am almost a tung oil expert with the amount of info I have read on it.  It’s certainly not a simple brush on one or two coats on the surface and you are good to go type of finish, it’s much more involved.

Tung oil is one of the best ‘drying oil’ finishes available.  Drying oil means it forms a plastic-like film as the molecules in the oil cross link to each other, otherwise called drying, or polymerizing.  Tung oil cones from the nut of the Tung tree  and as a finish, it is similar to linseed oil, but it doesn’t yellow with time and is less likely to form mildew as linseed oil can, and also more expensive.  Tung oil is one of the oldest wood finishes known, the Chinese used to use it to protect ships hulls from the water.  It comes from the oil of the tung tree nut.  The resulting finish is deeply penetrated into the wood, is hard, flexible, and will form a watertight barrier.  It fills pores and voids in the wood, so it also makes the wood less likely to dent when impacted.  The standard tung oil apparently takes forever and a day to dry/polymerize by itself.  Polymerized oil is oil that has been heated up to partially polymerize it already and greatly speed up the drying.  I went to Lee Valley which sells proper real tung oil, really one of the only places that sells proper tung oil in Canada.  It is thinned with solvents to 50% oil, as polymerized tung oil is as thick as honey in it’s pure state.   The tung oil Lee Valley sells is actually made by Sutherland Welles and branded for Lee Valley.  They also sell a sealer, but it’s not worth purchasing it.  The sealer is just an even more thinned tung oil to 20% oil, which you can easily do yourself by adding a solvent.  I learned this after the fact, so I purchased a 1litre bottle of the poly tung oil (which is a costly $45, that was the only size available from Lee Valley!), and a 250ml bottle of the sealer, which I intended on using for the first couple coats.

     The idea at first is to get the finish to soak deep as possible into the wood by highly diluting it with a solvent.  In my case I chose Turpentine, which is the best solvent to use, but also the most expensive type of finish.Turpentine also helps bring So I diluted the sealer by about half for the first coat, which would make it only 10% tung oil.  It was very thin, allowing it to soak in and penetrate as deep as it could.  Initially wiping on the oil transforms the wood instantly into a thing of beauty, bringing out the full grain, so amazing looking, I couldn’t stop looking at it.  While the oil and solvent was soaking in, I also wet sanded the paddle with 800grit wet sanding paper.

      This followed with maybe 10 more applications of gradually lowered ratios of Tung oil to solvent, and sanding with some steel wool in between.  After several applications, it starts soaking into the wood.  After that, it’s basically filling in all the small indentations, pores and imperfections on the surface making a super smooth finish.  For almost all of the coats, the oil was wiped from the surface and rubbed in as it thickened.  After working with it for this project, I’ve found polymerized tung oil to be an interesting finish, as you can adjust it for how you want the final finish to look and feel.  You can make it so you feel the grain by applying less coats.  Tung oil buffed with 0000 size steel wool is very beautiful in this way, and matte.  However, I couldn’t resist I choosing to have a slightly higher finish build on my paddle, for more protection against scratches, water and for a beautiful high gloss finish.  But it is a little trickier and less forgiving.  I applied 1-2 coats thinned with turpentine and not wiping it off.  But you can’t touch the surface, and make sure you  apply evenly.  I made the blade higher gloss than the handle.  The handle will get matte anyways from the handling.  It took me several weeks of applications where I am now satisfied I can stop finishing it and actually use it.  Although I have yet to use it and see how it weathers ages and wears, I’m ultra happy with my choice of polymerized tung oil over boiled linseed oil.  Brings out the grain amazingly, and seems like it will have a good protective layer, it also looks clear and not yellow like linseed oil, also does not smell much at all, unlike linseed oil.  I highly recommend the polymerized tung oil.  Another tip I have learned is to squeeze the bottle and get rid of as much air as possible from the bottle for storage, so it doesn’t polymerize and get gummy during storage. 

     The black cherry wood my paddle is made of is a beautiful material as well.   The grain structure, color and flaws in the wood are beautiful.  Mine happens to be two tone with different heart wood and sap wood colors.  It is a strong wood, although a bit more heft than the soft wood paddles.  I contoured my paddle at the shaft to handle transition to lighten up the paddle as much as I could, and thinned the blade so it is stiff to moderate flex.

     I may have obsessed about this paddle much more than I really intended to, but making your own paddle and finishing it a great project.   I like working with wood and I gained some experience and learned a lot about woodworking and the interesting tung oil finish I used.  I’m proud of my paddle now and my paddling will be more soulful with a paddle I made myself, instead of some low quality off the shelf paddle, even though they will perform similar.  The only problem now is I am hesitant to use my paddle and ding it up, I’d like to hang it on my wall.  But I made it for paddling, so paddling it is.  I am interested to see how the length and tripper style of paddle matches what I want out of a paddle.  Paddle on!

Related Posts:

Making My Own Paddle Part 1

Making My Own Paddle Part 2

Links:

Bruce Smith Paddles 
Tung oil history and uses

 

Making my own Paddle Workshop Part 2 – Done Woodworking

     So another 4 hour session last weekend at the Evergreen Ranch with Bruce Smith resulted in an almost finished canoe paddle that certainly exceeded my expectations.  We worked on the transitions and handles and fine tuned the profiles, thinning out areas that needed it, and sanded it progressively with 60 grit, 120 grit, and 180 grit sandpaper, and even steel wool.  I must say that my paddle looks really amazing, and this is even before I finish it or oil it.  And normally I am not even one to say this.  I am bothered by even slight blemishes, and my expectations going into this paddle making session was that I would end up with something that would look at least somewhat home made.  But this does not, it looks very professional.  My cherry wood has some beautiful coloring to it, streaks of heart wood and sap wood with some decorative blemishes in it.  I suppose my surprise is heightened by the fact that I have not used a real crafted canoe paddle before.  I am used to the $30 thick, soft wood rental special paddles with a layer of crappy, chipping off varnish on it and frayed paddle tips from past abuse, likely made in China, not one made out of quality hardwood that someone has spent 10+ hours crafting.

     I thinned the blade as much as I would feel comfortable with – it is flexible yet reasonably strong.   I wanted it light enough for long paddling days while tripping.  I just need to take care in shallow areas and when the canoe is grounded not to hit things with it or push off the bottom much, although some of that is inevitable when paddling small rivers and shallow areas.

       First is whether to stain it or not.  I do like the natural oiled wood look, but at the same time a darker color that still shows the grain would look great as well.  Then there comes the oil or finish.  Seems like everywhere you look there’s different recommendations for finishes, although the general consensus is Tung oil and/or varnish is a good protector for paddles.  Linseed oil was also recommended, but this yellows with age, whereas Tung oil does not.  Tung oil comes from the seed of a tropical tree.   But when you start looking into Tung oil, it is also very confusing, some are polymerized Tung oil (treated for better drying), some are natural 100% both of which are hard to get, I would need to get them from lee Valley or some specialty store.  The ones at hardware stores labeled ‘Tung Oil finish’  aren’t really Tung oil, they are a  mixture of oils and solvents with varnish and may not even contain Tung oil.  There’s also sealers too, which I don’t really know the purpose of, that you apply before the Tung oil itself.  Then there’s spar varnishes for marine use which may not necessarily be what you think either since the formulas have changed much recently due to volatile organic chemical limitations.  Sheesh, seems like I need a degree in chemical engineering just to figure out what finish to get.

Now I just need to decide on how to finish it, which seems like a daunting task in itself.

     Then there’s the application method.  I hear mixing oil with a solvent like Turpentine to thin it, and letting it stand upright in a bucket of it will have it wick throughout the material.  Then you can gradually apply thicker coats of oil in between drying and sanding.  Some coat the lower blade portion with varnish and leave the handle just oiled as this would create less blisters.  Some would just leave the whole thing oiled and that’s it.  Some people mix an oil with varnish and solvents to create a custom blend with a combination of properties.

     Bruce Smith recommends finishing with a boiled linseed oil. thinned with mineral spirits.  The applications start thin (higher spirit to oil ratio) to penetrate the wood to the inside, and get gradually thicker, about 9 applications worth over the course of a week.  After researching, I understand linseed oil gets yellower with age, whereas Tung oil does not, so I think I will opt for the tung oil and finish it this way.  Unfortunately I have to get some from Lee Valley, since I have no idea who has it around here, certainly the standard hardware stores don't carry real Tung oil.

Making My Own Paddle Workshop Part 1

     I have been thinking about getting a canoe this year instead of renting.  It would be nice to have something nicer and lighter than the beat up piece of crap that you get if you rent, not to mention have a boat that you know how it handles and are familiar with, and also the convenience of having it and using it whenever you want.  But, I also need some paddles for the canoe.  A friend of mine told me about a paddle maker nearby Guelph that hold make your own paddle workshops that sounds like something I’d like to do a lot, since I like woodworking and making my own things.

      The workshop was organized through a group at the Evergreen Ranch, an interesting ranch and  meeting space for the collective that meets there for music and other things such as this workshop.  The paddle maker is Bruce Smith who makes paddles and also conducts these popular paddle making workshops in the area.  Normally the paddlemaking is conducted in one 8 hour session but this one is broken up into two sessions two weeks apart to be much fresher for the second part.  Bruce prepares the blanks for the paddles, planes and removes a good bulk of the material, so you are only doing the important shaping of the wood, not tediously removing  the bulk.  I chose a Tripper paddle with a shaft length of 34”.  The wood is a black cherry for the workshop and is made out of a single piece of 1.125” thick wood.

     Bruce is a great teacher and it’s evident he has been doing this for a long time.  Even though it does take a little bit of physical activity to shave the wood, it is quite easy (at least for me) to do, and is much easier that I would think it would be.

     The first step to making a paddle after the blank is to mark the centerline and edges that you want to shave down to.  You want to shave the edges down to 5mm, and the Bruce’s method/design for the tip is to thicken it to 10mm at the very end to give it some durability for using the paddle to push off, or when you hit shallow bottom.  Some other paddle makers wrap the end in fiberglass or use inserts for this purpose as well.  

     Then you use a spokeshave to start removing material by beveling the edges from the middle to the thickness you marked on the sides.  The lower part of the paddle is then flattened so there is no ridge in the middle and the paddle is relatively thin before the tip, to allow some blade flex.  The wood, depending on the grain, knots, and other variables such as sap wood or heart wood, grain directions, etc, gives the wood a carving character, and it needs to be worked differently in different areas.  Sometimes pushing the spokeshave is better than pulling, or pulling at a diagonal is better than pulling along the blade to minimize chatter.  It is very much a feel thing than a straightforward just do it thing.

     Next comes the shaft, having to make an oval shape   The worry when doing this kind of work is that you will mess something up and take too much wood off.  As everyone always says, you can always take more off later, but you can’t put it back on.  The method for rounding the shaft is shave corners at 45 degrees, then give a stoke on either side at 22.5 degreest to make a polygon.  Do this for all four corners, then keep repeating until it feels like it should with your hand.  Then use the rasp to clean up any ridges and make the surface more uniform.

out of a rectangular cross section, and it is surpridsingly easier than I thought, with just a spokeshave and a flat rasp..

     Making my own paddle will be quite satisfying and is a fun thing to do to have a paddle for my canoe.  Next session in two weeks will be to finish the handle and transition form shaft to blade, rough sand then finish sand the paddle, then I bring it home to stain, possibly wood burn, and finish oil/varnish.  More photos and logging then!

The Portageur’s blog has an excellent descriptive writeupand photos of the steps to make a paddle when he did it in a Bruce Smith workshop several years ago, check it out as well.

Links:

W. Bruce Smith Paddles

Evergreen Ranch

Portageur’s Blog – Paddle Making with Bruce Smith

Art of Manliness – How to Make Your Own Paddle