The combining of two hobbies brings you closer to both.

     When my wife and I moved back to NC I was able to get back into a past hobby and profession not available to me while living in IL.  During this past summer I worked as a raft guide at the National Whitewater Center returning to a profession I fell in love with while in college at Appalachian State University.  While I do not yet have a woodshop I have had access to my father-in-laws table saw and bandsaw along with my growing supply of traditional hand tools which I put to use on my most recent project.  While working at the USNWC I broke my guide paddle and was in need of a new one so I felt what better time to try my hands at building one.  I started by laminating strips on cherry and maple creating what would latter make up the paddles shaft. I added strips of oak, walnut and some more cherry to one end creating the beginning makeup of the paddle blades.  This was just the beginning though as then I broke out the spoke shaves and hand planes to start the process of shaping. I used the spoke shave to rounding the shaft to get the perfect shape for my hand and the hand planes and shaves to thin down and shape out the blade.  After this shaping I added two peices of quilted maple to the ends of the blade to add extra strength hand tie all the stips of the blade together.  When this was all complete I created a round tenon on top of the shaft to allow the attachment of the T-grip which was hand carved and shaped with rasps to the perfect shape and fit to my hand. Finally to add strength I used fiberglass and epoxy on the shaft and down the middle of the blade.   I feel this project turned out great and after weeks of use now it is still holding strong and been really great to use at the park let alone a great topic of conversation knowing I built this paddle myself. Hope you enjoy the photos. Let me know what you all think.