paddle/oar templates

[reinbilt]

Dear Forum

Does anybody have a resource for templates for canoe paddles and oars? I've tried Moosehead Canoes, Backlund Paddles, and Red River Canoe and Paddles with no luck.

Thanks for any help!

[Jon Etheredge]

<u>Traditional style Canoe paddles:</u>

1) There is this book available from the WoodenBoat store:


2) Seems like there was an article a number of years ago in WoodenBoat by Alexandra Conover about building a Northwoods style of paddle.

I am not sure of any sources for bent shaft paddle plans.

<u>Oars:</u>

1) The book <u>Boats, Oars, and Rowing</u> by Pete Culler has some dimensioned drawings and other good info. This one may be hard to find unless somebody has reprinted the book.

2) John Burke wrote an article for WoodenBoat about making a set of Culler style oars. There are dimensioned drawings in the article as I recall.

3) I am pretty sure that Mystic Seaport sells a plan sheet for one or more styles of oars.

4) Some boat plans include oar drawings. One that comes to mind is the 'York' Delaware Ducker plans from Mystic Seaport. I think they will sell you the individual sheet that contains the oar drawing so you don't have to buy the full set. These have a rounder, wider blade than the Culler style oars.

[Jon Etheredge]

I am not sure of any sources for bent shaft paddle plans.

I didn't have my copy of the book <u>Canoe Paddles</u> handy when I posted earlier. I just got it off the shelf and there are, in fact, plans for a bent shaft paddle included.

[LongJohn]

The WCHA has this article on making a North Woods Paddle which includes a small scale drawing and a link to purchase full size plans.

If you poke around on the WCHA site there are a couple other articles on paddle making in the "tidbits" section and more info elsewhere on the site.

- John

[Bruce Hooke]

Having used Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own to make a couple of paddles so far I can attest to it being an excellent guide with a lot of different patterns in it plus information on how to modify the patterns to suit your particular needs.

The first paddle I made was based on the Alexandra Conover article from WoodenBoat and yes that article did include a pattern. I made that paddle in the early 90's so the article dates from before then.

All three of the paddles I've made have worked well, but each one has also been better than the last as I learned more about paddles and got better at making them.

For $12, WoodenBoat sells a sheet of plans for 5 different oars:



With paddles, and I expect also with oars, once you have some detailed patterns to provide guidance on thicknesses and similar details then you can start looking at outlines of paddles and oars at the websites of people who make and sell them and use what you see on the web combined with the detailed plans to come up with just about any design you might want. However, the key to this is having some detailed information on hand as a guide, which, naturally, the websites of places that sell oars and paddles do not provide.

The Gidmark & Warren book also provides some great information on the reasoning behind different shapes and how to choose the shape that's just right for your intended use. The danger is that you will discover that no one paddle will server all of your needs so then you have to start making more and more of them!

There is some update information related to the Gidmark & Warren book at Graham Warren's website: http://homepages.tesco.net/~moosehead/canoepad.ht