"Michael Daly" ) writes:

Linseed oil polymerizes. Cooking oil goes rancid. Which is the better
deal?

I haven't noticed any smell on the spars I've treated with cooking oil.
You might want to avoid cooking oil if you leave your paddles where
animals might get at them. But then you'd want to wash the salty
perperation off the shaft as well. I've seen a wooden paddle with the
shaft gnawed and boats with the seats gnawed out of them by porqupines for
the bum persperation salt.


BTW, tung oil is better than linseed oil if you're putting something in
the water all the time.

I did recommend varnishing the blades. I suspect kayak paddles spend 99.9%
of the time in somebody's closet.

Hell, my grandfather used to rub beaver fat into his boots and they were in
the water a lot. I've not tried beaver fat on paddle shafts. I don't know
if they have beaver in Greenland. It might not be traditional there.



--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned