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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Greenland--Laminating and 'Glass
Posted By: Shawn Baker In Response To: Greenland! (Robert Woodard)
Date: Wednesday, 28 April 1999, at 10:45 a.m.
> Since I laminate 2 - 1x4's together to make a 2x4, I'm thinking of
> sandwiching in a piece of fiberglass in between and make the paddle
> thinner. Anyone have any experience with this?You'll need a planer for the following idea: To make your paddle lighter, yet not lose strength, use weaker, lighter wood for the center and stronger, (heavier) wood outside. Plane down some spruce or redwood to 1/4" or 3/8". This is your core. Then, you could use something slightly stronger, like cedar, for another layer. Then, use a layer of Doug. fir for high strength and impact resistance.
I do this with my regular paddle shafts, but when the max. width of any ply is only 1 1/2", I can do the cutting on my tablesaw. If you wanted full 3 1/2" width, you'd have to employ the planer.
If you wanted to be really creative, you could use 5 plies for your shaft and just 3 plies for the blades (which won't end up being as thick)
As the Big Legume said, the glass won't do much good on the inside of the paddle. Like Pete said, glass on the shaft could give you nasty splinters. So, I'd say your option (if you really, really wanted to get some glass in your paddle) would be to maybe glass the faces and/or edges of your blades. You could glass a bit onto the shaft, but due to the potential for you to place your hand at the shoulder of the blade, be very careful of the potential for splintering. I think a Greenland paddle that might be used as a pole could benefit a lot from having a fiberglass rope edge on the blade.
Look at Mitchell paddles--they make some nice paddles, and their rope edges are tough. I have a friend who uses a Mitchell for WW paddling...that 'glass rope edge saves the wood from A LOT of dings!
Shawn
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