JEM Watercraft

Not sure about you guys, but one of my paddles has the handle oval shaped down near the blade. It is longer fore & aft than it is wide back and forth sideways. This feels comfortable in my hand.

They call this a "witness grip" or "alignment grip".

The idea behind it is to so it fits in your hand and aligns the blade to the water without you having to look at it.

I have 63" Bending Branches brand paddle that has shaft shape like that. It is my favorite paddle, found it in a bargain bin for not too much which was a plus. I think the traditional way to make a paddle uses a spoke shave type of plane. Which wouldn't give you a perfectly round machine made dowel like handle.

Great information! Last night I used the empirical method of grabbing some rake, broom, etc. handles and "paddling" with them to see what felt comfortable. I came up with 1 1/8". I guess you guys DO know a thing or two. I started drawing everything up last night, and will be ripping and gluing tonight or tomorrow. I'll post pics.

skiabq wrote: I think the traditional way to make a paddle uses a spoke shave type of plane. Which wouldn't give you a perfectly round machine made dowel like handle.

I have a spokeshave and I intend to use it. Probably have to sharpen the plane blade first though, it's been a while. Spokeshaves technically allow you a lot of flexibility in profiling a piece - making it oval, tapering differently, etc. In practice, I can REALLY screw up a piece of wood with a spokeshave. "Yeah, I MEANT to make it that shape...with the divots out of the middle...the guys on the board said it would make it faster. Honest."

jcubero wrote: I guess you guys DO know a thing or two.

Who Us Boy do we ever have him fooled.
Don't you know that old saying , it is almost as old as Jack..... "Even a blind hog will find an acorn now and then".

Chuck.

Yeah but three blind hogs finding the same acorn starts looking purposeful I think at least one of you guys is peeking!

In all seriousness I'm very glad you guys are here. Being one o' them IT guys, I tend to overmeasure everything to 1/64" and agonize over not having exact plans from start to finish. "Analysis Paralysis" they call it. I'm not generally one to just grab a hunk of wood and start whittlin' until it looks good 'nuff. I actually know the rake handle was 1 1/8" because I have a micrometer I use to measure diameters on round objects.

I need to relax and do some canoeing. OTOH, When I started putting my canoe together, all my QA measurements came out, everything was square with practically no adjusting and there was no measurable frame twist. So I guess it does pay off now and then. The only thing I have to be careful of is having enough mahogany for all the gunnels AND paddles.

Oldsparkey wrote:... Don't you know that old saying , it is almost as old as Jack..... "Even a blind hog will find an acorn now and then".

That was a truffle, Chuckie, not an acorn. I don't waste my piggies on just common, old acorns. I can find those things with my bare feet.

Truffles is scrumptious. Add'em to those boiled goobers.

Skiabq,

you are a genious. 11/8" dia shaft, = 9/16 radius round over bit or as you call it quarter round bit. Why didn't I think of that?

Thanks mate

Oldsparkey wrote:

jem wrote:even though I had the felling he wanted it for flipping pizzas in the oven , the bum.
.

Haha, sorry to tell you, there isnt any flipping done in a pizza shop. That would end up very messy. I work in a dominos, and i can tell you, once the pizza is out of the oven we only use the peel for putting the pizza in the box, and the occasional swordfight. Haha good luck with the paddles guys.