JEM Watercraft

That is a nice looking paddle. I may have to give that a try.

Any suggestions on correct paddle length? I stand 5’10” or about 178cm. The paddle is, at present, 5’ 6”. Also any info on good timber to use (Australian/available timber) would be greatly appreciated

Mate, I like Oregon, (Douglas Fir) for the shaft. Lots of the old "Queenslander" style homes are made from it.

Hoop pine is also very good. hoop is also superb as gunwhales when you are ready to install them.

Re the blades, i think Tassie oak is about as good as it gets. I laminate my blades using whatever i have lying around. I like meranti cedar and hoop laminated side by side. Western red cedar on its own is a bit soft for the abuse I put my blades through.

Thanks Mick.
Not much Oregon around here, mores the pity. If there was, the Termites have cleaned it up long ago. I’ve got an old NT Electricity Commission ladder that’s made of Oregon, but reckon the Missus would go crook, as I’ve set it up in the kitchen to hang all the pots and pans from. (Cupboards give me the sh!+s) I’ll find out what’s available in Darwin. Meranti I know is no dramas, the other kinds I’ll research. I’ll be going up to Darwin mid-year, so will pick up a selection of timbers then.

Most of the stuff out here is construction timber, like Selangor Batu, or some other imported Indonesian hardwood – Heavy and for the most part, pretty weathered. .
I may be able to salvage more of that Tassie Oak table, especially if I only need strips….

..and “someone” on this forum was using Hoop Pine on his Sas gunnels and said “I think I found a new favourite wood”, so early in the piece and on the strength of that I picked up a 6m length from Bunnings. Once that’s been ripped for gunnels, I should have plenty left to play with

That’s one pretty paddle. Is the handle set into the Meranti in the middle, or is there a ‘sleeve’ over the blade and handle?

Cheers,
Whirly

Mate, i forgot to mention, My paddle is 51 inches long or about 1295mm

re the shaft, I started off with a piece of meranti about 32mm wide and 19mm thick X 1295long.

I laminated the blade to this in strips 19mm thick (to match the thickness of the meranti shaft. when I got the blade width that i wanted, i then built up the shaft with hoop on either side at about a thickness of about 8mm X 32mm. This gave me a roughly square shaft that I shaped down to around 28mm diametre with a spoke shave. The blade, I just planed and sanded to shape.

It is a pretty basic paddle but works well enough for me.

Re the hoop gunwhales, thank you but the idea was not mine. I didn't know what Aussie timber would best suit so i asked the question in an Aussie woodworkers forum. A renounded Aussie designer and builder recommended Hoop. i tried it and now, wouldn't use anything else.

Hope this helps a bit mate.

Thanks again Mate, I'll keep all that in mind. There'll probably be a number of paddle making forays in the future, the hollow shaft was just the first. I do like that method and will play around with it, but will do some solid shaft jobs as well. That first one, I'll gloop some resin down the shaft after gluing the blade on to help strengthen the join, and see how that goes.

Need some advice with a resin issue. I put down a saturation coat, which went no problems.


I let that dry and then ran a strip of glass tape down the keel line and gave the hull another coat of resin. The weather had turned damp and cool, with monsoonal showers for the last week. The reason I mention this is that the last coat remained tacky. I gave it a few days, but it never really hardened and I was hesitant to start glassing with that layer on there.

I’ve given the hull a wash-down with thinners and that seems to remove most of the stickiness. I may have mucked up the resin/hardener ratio, or it may be the last of the stuff in that container didn’t want to play anymore.

Question is, should I keep at it with thinners until there is no tackiness, or will an over-coat set that stuff?
Thanks in advance,
Whirly

Whirly.............I'm not sure about thiners as a way to clean up a bad mix . I would use acetone or possibly vineger both disolve uncured epoxy rather well...................

Good luck withit I'm sure some knowlegable people will chime in soon.....................belive me they are out there.................boat looks great.

Cheers Paul

Thanks Paul. Vinegar huh?, that I have. Will give it a go. I'd heard acetone was good to use, but I don't have any. Tried thinners on a small section first and it seemed to work. Not 100%, but it took a fair bit off.

scrape as much off by hand with a scraper as possible. Acetone, then sanding.

Vinegar can be helpful as well be acetone will do the job after you've manually scraped it down.

Thanks Matt, will do on the morrow......