Jim,

A hobby of mine is building golf clubs. The club head is attached to the shaft with epoxy and to repair a broken shaft the epoxy must be softened amd the broken shaft removed. This is similar to the job you are doing with the paddle ferrule. A few suggestions:

The epoxy that I use for golf clubs breaks down at 185 degrees F. I think the epoxy we use for our paddles and kayaks would be nearly the same. The trick is to slowly heat the ferrule and allow the heat to move through the metal to the epoxy below. If you heat the outside of the ferrule too fast it will get much hotter than you need and it will discolour before you get the heat through to the epoxy.

Wrap a wet cloth around the paddle shaft above the ferrule and then wrap some Aluminium(sp?) foil over that to protect the shaft from scorching as you heat the ferrule.

I have heard of people using boiling water to soften the epoxy bond, I haven't tried that method but it might be worth a go for your paddle.

You might also want to keep pressure on the ferrule by attatching vice-grips to the ferrule and hang a weight off of them. That way you will know as soon a the epoxy releases and you won't get the paddle any hotter than needed. Put some tin or aluminium strips under the vice-grips so you don't marr the surface of the ferrule.

Good Luck!

Ken

: I tried unsuccesfully to remove a stainless steel ferule from from a paddel
: that I made. I glued it on with System 3 epoxy with a mixture of cab-o-sil
: and micro ballons. I even tried heating it with a torch but it would not
: let go. It was almost to the point of turning the stainless steel blue. Do
: you know why the epoxy would not soften?

: Jim