I made a paddle in exactly the way Paul describes here. I took the shaft to an octagon with a spokeshave, after marking on the sides of the wood where I had to cut to. I left the ends square to attach the paddle blades. Then I went to a sixteen sided figure by eyeballing it, and rounded it with a strip of sandpaper. I used spruce for the handles, pine for the blades, and a surform and sandpaper to get the shape. I fibreglassed the ends, and finished the whole thng with varathane. It works fine. It's a little clunky (the blades are a little too thick, like a $9.95 K-mart canoe paddle), but that's a testament to my woodworking skills at the time (about 30 years ago), not to the basic principle.

You might want to try a couple paddles, and see if you really want an 8" wide blade. I did thirty years ago, but then I had muscles. I think I'll go with a narower blade now, and dip it in the water more often.

Considering how hard I worked shaping those blades, I will make my next paddle by shaping the end of the shaft to take a piece of 1/8" ply the shape of a paddle, and epoxy the blades. That way I can consider the blades disposable if I want to try a different shape, size, etc.

Good luck with your paddle Brian. I hope the end justifies all the work. You will certainly have a feeling of accomplishment when you put it in tha water.

> The three narrow pieces will be used for the handles of three
> paddles. Basically you'll just have to round the edges off of them,
> a rather quick job with a hand plane, drawknife, or spokeshave. I've
> done similar rounding with a belt sander and a coarse sanding belt.
> My father liked to use a table saw to cut off the corners, and turn
> the piece into an octagon before rounding it further, and of course,
> if you have a lathe which can handle stock 8 feet long you can use
> that. In short, there are a lot of ways to round it down to size.
> Don't do it yet, though.

> Take that strip of 1.5 by 2.25 material. Cut it into 4 pieces
> that are just a bit under 2 feet long. You are going to use these
> for making the blades of your paddles