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36K views 63 replies 27 participants last post by  Chipncut 
#1 ·
What the heck is a Standup Paddleboard?

My older brother loves water sports. Lately he has taken up SUP (standup paddleboarding) because it is easier on old geezers like himself. I say that with the greatest respect….I hope I can be half as active as he is when I'm 60+. It is basically a very large surf board with a paddle and (you gueesed it) you stand up the whole time. It's great exercise, easier to catch waves and if no waves…just fun to paddle. If you are interested my brother has a great blog for beginners. http://www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog/?p=158

Here is a picture of the great Laird Hamilton making it look easy on a crazy wave in howling Kona winds at Hookipa Beach, Maui. Photo courtesy of MauiSurf/windsurf forecast, Giampaolo Cammarota
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Anyway…back to woodworking.. I decided to make my brother and myself paddles when we started discussing the sport. I'm thinking of taking it up as exercise to try and help my balance problems. A frequent visitor of his blog has similar problems and seems to be able to do it. It certainly helps the core muscles. I'm surprised how quickly its going together. I had a small window of shop time this weekend and got a lot done. I need to get them done by labor day since we'll be getting together at his race in Lime Rock, CT that weekend.

I cut a bunch of 1 1/4" x 1/4" x 8' strips of cedar and a few of mahogany.
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I cut one strip of mahogany narrower to accept a spline for the paddle blade.
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I was planning on steam bending the shaft but is was unnecessary. The standard way is a simple bent lamination. So I made a frame from MDF. The paddle has a 10 deg bend.
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Bent laminations…I used West Systems epoxy.
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Spline for the blade.
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Tough to tell but there is a paddle blade glued up in there somewhere.
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Glueing up the handle.
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Starting to shape the shaft with my Grandfathers drawknife…I love this tool.
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One of the clamps slipped off the block and left a mark..I should be able to fix it.
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The profile of the end of the paddle. I'll be tapering the back a lot and the face slightly.
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The handle after the epoxy hardened…ugly looking but lots of promise.
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Shaping with the drawknife.
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I decided to get creative and add an inlay of a Mako shark into the handle. I figured i'd cut a couple so I cut the slices and taped them together.
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One little Mako
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Sanding the blade.
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I carved out the outline of the shark and set the inlay in. I was a little nervous since I couldn't really see how it was seated.
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Shaping the back of the blade shaft.
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The finished blade shaft will have concentric ellipses running to the bottom.
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It's looking like a paddle
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I shaped the handle to fit comfortably in the hand and give a good grip.
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I couldn't wait and sanded down the inlay while the epoxy was still a lttle tacky.
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Looking pretty good if I do say so myself.
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I still need to put a 1/4" mahogany edge on the blade and then taper the blade. The blade will be fiberglassed as well as 1/2 the shaft. I should be able to finish the 1st one this coming weekend. I can't wait for him to see it. I just hope it performs as good as its going to look.
 
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#6 ·
My brother has an interesting story on his blog about an encounter with a school of tiger sharks that inspired the inlay of the shark. http://www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog/?p=251 I've been in the water with big sharks before and nothing else I can think of brings quite the same chill up your spine.

I chose the Mako because its found in the waters of both New England and Hawaii and is one of the fastest and most agile.
 
#10 ·
I'm with you Dorje-"yah, I think I'll make a paddle today"..
it's beautiful.

When we got our canoe, against Rick's advice, I bought an expensive paddle… oh how I love it. I love the look, the feel…

but to have made it myself. I can't imagine.

Well done
 
#11 ·
I'm amazed myself at how quick this is, but the fact is that it's really simple. No complicated joints to cut. Just strips of wood, some epoxy and clamps. I've used the drawknife, my hand held belt sander, and a random orbit sander to shape it. The cedar is soft enough to shape easily. Of course that said a few weeks of careful planning and research went into the design. Danny Brown at Whiskey Jacks was kind enough to share his methods with me.

Any of you could easily do this. One thing I do plan to do is to get more clamps. I've decided that these are going to be Christmas presents for all my siblings. They all have canoes and/or kayaks so its the perfect gift.

I clamped up the final outer strips on the blade tonight and will shape and sand the whole thing tomorrow. I'll fiberglass the back and edges of the blade the following night and then put the finish on and get started on #2 this weekend. I'll be sure to blog the rest of the process.
 
#16 ·
Shaping the blade

A couple of pictures of glueing up the edges from last night and then todays lunch break. I didn't even eat I want to finish this so bad.

Spooky night operation.
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Edges glued up
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Lunch break today.
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The drawknife lets me remove material fast. Gotta be careful though, real easy to take too much.
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It also can take a almost paper thin shaving.
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After some sanding
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and some more….the back
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This little 3M sanding pad with their new sandpaper works really well.
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I came into the house for a few minutes and it rained while I was gone. The blade got a little damp on one edge. I hope it doesn't cause any staining or other issues. It figures…I wanted to put on the fiberglass tonight. I'll have to wait to be sure it's completely dry now. I should get it done tomorrow.
 
#29 ·
Finishing #1 - Starting #2

I started #2 today. This one I'm shooting for better performance. I'm only using five 1/4" laminations this time instead of six and only one is mahogany instead of two. No lyptus in the handle this time either. The difference in weight is very noticable already.

Carving out the shark for the inlay
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Dry fit.
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The splines for the blade.
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I book matched the front and rear blade faces. The front is going to be cedar, the rear mahogany. The light cedar front will have a dark mahogany stripe bisecting it. The dark mahogany back a light cedar stripe.
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Here is the 1st paddle. I had already put on what I thought was the final epoxy coat but the cheap chip brushes I had left behind lots of bristles and brush strokes. Shortly after this I sanded the whole thing down again and won't finish it until I do both at once with the 207 hardener. I'm then going to finish them with 3 coats of varnish as our buddy Neil has suggested in my eopxy question post.
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To many bristles and brush marks…..get the sander out …...again.
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#36 ·
All done but the finish.

I completed the other paddle this weekend. Both are all done exept for the finishing. I've decided against doing any fiberglassing. I'm planning on using the West Systems epoxy with the 207 hardener and then 3 coats of Epifanes varnish. I'm going to wait for the warmer drier weather later in the week. I've noticed big differences in the epoxy finish depending on the weather.

I didn't take as many pictures of the process on this one…basically the same as the 1st with some minor variations. I did do some steam bending for the compound bend needed for the edge banding on the blade for this one.

LOL…my steam "system"....Sue was not impressed.
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I wrapped the paddle blade in plastic and used it as the form for the bending. I didn't get any picture of the actual clamp up.
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Here are the results though. I'm pretty pleased with it. Still need to get the epoxy haze off but was getting tired of the hand sanding.
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The back of the blade.
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I shaped the handle for comfort and good grip.
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Here are the two of them side by side. The second is about 2 inches longer with a slightly smaller blade. It is lighter and has a lot more flex than the 1st since it has only 5 laminations instead of 6.
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I should have them done next weekend and then they'll get tested the weekend after. Hope they perform as well as they look.
 
#37 ·
Super job Bob.
I'm thinking the smaller paddle is going to be your favourite when I look at the leverage you are going to need to pull those babies through the water.
The laminations turned out really nice too.

Bob
 
#43 ·
Time for the water.

We should be paddling these next weekend at Lime Rock . My brother is going to be racing over the weekend in his Peyote MKII in the Rolex Vintage Festival. It should be a great time.

Here are the finished paddles….actually I still need to varnish them but they shouldn't change much. The one on the right is the 2nd one. Much lighter than the 1st and likely to be the one my brother chooses.
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Blade fronts…I really like #2…I hope it performs well with the rolled edge.
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Rear…I wish I had used a piece of dark cedar instead of the mahogany on the rear of #2.
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Isurus oxyrinchus
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The Face. Both front and rear are book matched on #2
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You can't see this detail in the outside pictures. I scalloped the blade using my ROS.
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Lots of fun to make. I'm considering going into production. I could justify the buying of about 30 12" clamps that way…:) I'm at least going to make some for the rest of my siblings.
 
#54 ·
Paddles #3 and 4 and I finally get to use my Dowelmax

I've decided I really like making paddles. Very creative outlet and not only is it artistically challenging but the dynamics of the blade design are really interesting as well.

I've got 5 paddles in the works at the moment but #3 is different from my earlier ones. Straight shaft, teardrop, no laminations, dovetail. I added some geometric woodburning, somewhat primitive looking. It also has a channel, kind of the reverse of a dihedral feeding into the dovetail.

Paddle #3

I put in 8 3/8" dowels for strength along the blades.
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The Dowelmax is awesome. This is just the most basic of uses for it but it made perfect indexing easy. I can't wait to test it out on some more complex geometry.
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Glued and clamped with mahogany banding.
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Handle glued up
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Primitive shaft grip
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Blade graphic
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Channel and dovetail
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I need to shape the handle and I plan on glassing the shaft. The blade will just get epoxy. Then the whole thing a marine varnish for UV protection..

Paddle # 4

Paddle #4 is a 5 strip cedar and 1 strip mahogany laminated shaft with a 12 deg bend at the blade. The teardrop blade is poplar. I've removed a lot more material from this one and it's the lightest by far. This one is intended to be my surfing paddle. I've built in a slight concave to the face of the blade to catch the water more (at least that's the idea). I'm testing a lot of blade face shapes. I want this light, fast and able to accelerate the board quickly for catching waves.

It has a nice flex but is still plenty strong. I pulled and pushed on it very hard to see how it will stand up. Well beyond what it normally be pushed to on the waves. I figured it would be better to know how tough it is before I bother doing any epoxy and glassing.

I still have the handle to do and the finishing work but I think I'm really going to like this one. Not only the performance but looks as well. I haven't decided on any woodburning yet.

It would be even lighter done all in cedar. That's the plan for my wifes which will be #6

Slightly concave blade face
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I put a coat of epoxy on the back of the blade since I had some left over from gluing the handle.
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