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#1
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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 |
#2
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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 |
#3
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#4
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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 -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 |
#5
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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. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 |
#6
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#7
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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. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 |
#8
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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 |
#9
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#10
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"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 |
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