Well guys, I had some wood out back, and thought it would to do a project. The first thing that popped into mine was a paddle, but not a traditionally made one, but a one piece "quicker" version.
Now, this at total took me an hour and thirty minutes. I used my wetterlings axe along with the RC6 to see what it could do.
So, here is the first picture. this is after a bit oh shaping, enough to know which direction I was going.
Now as you can also see, theirs a nice crack going down the side from weathering, but it ended up not being a problem. if you were lost and need a paddle, this would work fine, not a piece of art but it would work.
Now here were are with the general shape in order, still needs work but were getting there. this is a nice design because there is no splitting needed here, just shaping. Also, when I cut off the piece I need from a ten foot poll, I used the axe and made insanely short work of it all. this is where an axe really shines.
While I've only made a few of these, each one I make I like more and more. One thing I've learned is that an axe is an essential when making something like this, Im sure on softer wood, you could use a machete, but trying to do this with an over sized knife, while still possible would take hours. Even a folding saw would just be a waste of time. Here we are doing some general shaping of the head. I like the get the head area done first, then the handle then the paddle then the top of the handle.
Now we have most of the shaping done here, still needs work for sure though,
Now all the shaping I was going to do last night. After this stage some shaving is needed with a knife. Now a draw knife and a crooked knife would have been the best here, and even the axe would work, but I had the RC6 for some finishing work.
So as you can see the RC6 has a good time with some shaving, not the best but it worked. I would have like to have this knife convexed, or another convexed or scandi style edge for this work.
More to come.
Now, this at total took me an hour and thirty minutes. I used my wetterlings axe along with the RC6 to see what it could do.
So, here is the first picture. this is after a bit oh shaping, enough to know which direction I was going.
Now as you can also see, theirs a nice crack going down the side from weathering, but it ended up not being a problem. if you were lost and need a paddle, this would work fine, not a piece of art but it would work.
Now here were are with the general shape in order, still needs work but were getting there. this is a nice design because there is no splitting needed here, just shaping. Also, when I cut off the piece I need from a ten foot poll, I used the axe and made insanely short work of it all. this is where an axe really shines.
While I've only made a few of these, each one I make I like more and more. One thing I've learned is that an axe is an essential when making something like this, Im sure on softer wood, you could use a machete, but trying to do this with an over sized knife, while still possible would take hours. Even a folding saw would just be a waste of time. Here we are doing some general shaping of the head. I like the get the head area done first, then the handle then the paddle then the top of the handle.
Now we have most of the shaping done here, still needs work for sure though,
Now all the shaping I was going to do last night. After this stage some shaving is needed with a knife. Now a draw knife and a crooked knife would have been the best here, and even the axe would work, but I had the RC6 for some finishing work.
So as you can see the RC6 has a good time with some shaving, not the best but it worked. I would have like to have this knife convexed, or another convexed or scandi style edge for this work.
More to come.
