Greenland paddle, varnish or not
 

I have just about completed carving my Greenland style paddle. I am trying
to decide if I should varnish it or not. Any suggestions?

Kristopher

On 1-Sep-2004, " wrote:

I have just about completed carving my Greenland style paddle. I am trying
to decide if I should varnish it or not. Any suggestions?

Varnish can make it look pretty, but you end up with a hard surface that
gets slippery. You can dull down the varnish. Blends of varnish and
oil also reduce the gloss and slipperyness, too.

Personally, I prefer just oil - tung oil specifically. It's easy to
apply and gives decent protection. The surface texture is that of the
wood and is reasonably grippy.

If you're using western red cedar, consider not finishing it all. It will
hold up well. I prefer the colour of oiled cedar, though.

I find that putting epoxy on the tips is good for protection from
wear. You can add cabosil for increased wear resistance or put
fiberglass on the tip, but epoxy alone is easy and works fine.

Mike

I'd varnish the blades and oil the shaft. Protecting the edges with 3
coats of epoxy or polyester resin is a good idea. Epxoy can be purchased
in small twin tubes as "household adhesive" at your local discount
hardware department for under $5. Otherwise it's pricey. Polyester can be
bought in pints or half pints in the body repair section of you local
discount auto parts department. The last I bought ws a quart for $14. Next
best would be to put extra layers of polyurethane plastic varnish along the
edges.

Varnish will keep water, which can add weigth, from soaking into the
blades better, and the oil will keep the shaft "textured" which helps
prevent blisters which a smooth varnish can cause. If you decide to
varnish the shaft use a non-gloss finish or lightly sand after the varnish
has dried for 3 days or more. A traditional oil is 1/2 linseed and 1/2
volatile solvent, kerosene in the old days but any paint thinner will do.
The solvent helps the oil penetrate the wood grain and then it evaporates
off, just like it does in oil based pints and varnishes. Linseed oil is
the oil used in oil paints and its cheaper than paint. Kerosene was used
to kill any fungus in the wood which could cause rot on wooden boats,
maybe paint thinner does too but it's not an issue with a kayak shaft
which gets plenty of ventilation.

It would be interesting to weigh the paddle at various times during the
season to see if it is absorbing moisture and gaining weight.

" ) writes:
I have just about completed carving my Greenland style paddle. I am trying
to decide if I should varnish it or not. Any suggestions?

Kristopher




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William R. Watt ) writes:
I'd varnish the blades and oil the shaft. Protecting the edges with 3

Just to add that I oil the home made spruce spars for my sail boats with a
rag soaked in ordinary cooking oil (old jug of corn oil I stopped using
for cooking in favour of canola oil). This works fine. If you don't want
to buy special oils it would be fine for the shaft of the paddle which is
not in the water.

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John Fereira ) writes:

A quart of boiled linseed oil runs about $7. A quart of mazola corn oil is
about $5.

You'd go out and buy a quart of linseed oil to use a couple ounces on a
paddle sahft when you could just reach into your kitchen cupboard for a
couple ounces of cooking oil you already paid for? Chances are you'd
already have paint thinner on hand to thin out the linseed oil. If not,
you'd have to buy a quart of that too. That's the only reason I suggested
cooking oil.

You're correct that I haven't made or even used a Greenland kayak paddle.
The only kayak paddle I made has aluminum blades which didn't need any
finish and stand up better to wear than red cedar. I did refurbish an old
ash canoe paddle on which I epoxied the edges of the blade because I had
some epoxy on hand, varnished the blade with polyurethane because I had
some polyurethane varnish on hand (which I had purchased for 25 cents at a
garage sale), and oiled the shaft with linseed oil because I had some of
that and some paint thinner on hand. (You can buy linseeds, aka flax seed,
at a health food store and make your own linseed oil, and some day I might
try it to see if it's cheaper.) If you have to go out and buy all that
stuff retail just to finish one Greenalnd paddle it can more than double
the cost of the paddle considering a piece of red cedar doesn't cost much.
I have lots of red cedar on hand salvaged from the floorboards of a
backyard patio deck when I refloored it. I've cut up that red cear for
gunwales, chines, thwarts, a sprit and all kinds of things boaty. There's
nothing like making a paddle, or a whole boat, for free and I encourage
every paddle maker and boatbuilder to try it.

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Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. The paddle is a nice clear piece of
pine. I have plenty of epoxy around from building the rest of the boat. I
will probably varnish up to the looms, after I try the paddle out for a
while and make sure it fits well.

Kristopher

On 3-Sep-2004, (William R. Watt) wrote:

You'd go out and buy a quart of linseed oil to use a couple ounces on a
paddle sahft when you could just reach into your kitchen cupboard for a
couple ounces of cooking oil you already paid for?

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

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

Mike

"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.



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