Making a Laminated Bent-Shaft Paddle
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Constructing the Blade
The central blade pieces were glued to the
shaft. I used 1/2" walnut adjacent to the shaft,
3/4" cypress, then 1/4" walnut. Once this
portion of the blade was glued, I removed much
of it (as you can see below) before gluing the
additional soft maple blade pieces.
Once the central blade was trimmed to
thickness, I glued soft maple to finish the blade.
The pattern of the finished blade was drawn on
the upper side of the blade to facilitate cutting.
Notice that the grip was glued to the shaft at the
upper reaches of the shaft.
Blade powerface
Blade off-face
A 14° bent shaft
The glued blade was then sanded flat on the
power-face, and cut to shape. Once cut to
shape, I used a spokeshave to shape the blade.