Paddle for Charity Fundraiser

My last round of paddle making got quite the reception on Facebook, so much so that I ended up teaming up with a local kids charity that was running a canoe fundraiser. I decided to make them a custom paddle with their logo on it to be auctioned off.  The paddle is made from poplar with walnut strips.

 

I laminated the the shaft and wrapped the blade in a way that it looks like the walnut runs right down the centre of the glad and shaft.  A died epoxy tip was added to protect the end of the blade.

 

I painted the entire paddle with a thin coat of epoxy for protection, then a coat of poly to protect from the UV rays.  The paddle was a huge hit and raise them a bunch of money for their camp programs, it was a great fit for both of us!

Paddles…

I took a great paddle making class a few years ago, but haven’t had the time since to make another one.  My 4 year old keeps growing so she was due for another paddle.  She is in love with the colour purple so I grabbed a bit of purple heart along with some poplar and walnut and made her a little paddle for our adventures.

The second paddle was a present to my wife, after many years she was still using some junky old paddle lying around the garage.  Her’s is also in the picture above, it’s made from walnut and butternut and is very light.  Mainly used hand tools to plane down the blades and shape the shafts, worked out great. Both paddles were finished with spar varnish, wasn’t happy with the product and it smelt awful.  I’ve read many people say that poly is better as it is harder, and you don’t really need the uv protection for the limited amount of time it is outside, so on the next one I’ll use some poly instead.

Up next I’m making a paddle for a local kids charity to use for their silent auction.  Hopefully it brings in some big bucks for the organization, it will be auctioned off at a canoe fundraiser so hopefully it’s a good fit.

52 Create – Kids Canoe Paddle

52 Create, my weekly creative outlet for 2011.  While I’m super busy with biathlon stock building, it’s hard not to make a little something for my daughter once in awhile…  I had some left over maple and walnut from last week’s cutting board (which were made from left overs themselves…)  So using the same lamination procedure, I glued them up and ended up with a nice little paddle, custom sized for my daughter (hopefully she doesn’t grow too much by the summer…)  I’ll finish it with some left over polyuerethane, spar varnish would be better but I’m trying to use up old stuff, and she’s not going to be putting serious hours of canoeing with this thing. Can’t wait for her to try it out in a canoe, but for now I guess a chair will have to do…