: Thanks Bill, As a matter of fact, the bird's mouth method
: automatically turns out a "bent shaft" paddle, in that
: the blade is inclined to the shaft, or loom, rather by
: necessity. Now the REAL trick would be to make a STRAIGHT shaft
: paddle using the bird's mouth method. :-)

: The bird's mouth bent shaft paddle isn't anywhere near as slick as
: what you have -- I have one too, made by Murray Marchment, see
: photo, weighs 12.2 oz (a medium Zaveral Flatwater or Power Surge
: is ~10 oz). The thing about the bird's mouth, however, is that a
: practiced woodworker such as yourself can easily crank one - or
: a small batch of them - out in two days flat. Call it four for a
: complete epoxy and fiberglass finish. As I said in my beavertail
: page, ease of manufacture is certainly a feature that's worth
: consideration in a homemade paddle, just depends on what you're
: after. And on top of being real easy to make, it results in a
: super strong, very lightweight paddle, and perfectly cheap
: paddle. It lacks refinement, but makes a splendid utility paddle
: -- that many do consider refined at that.

Btw, pretty canoe too :)

I just got back into canoe's after a several year layoff, sold my tandem Blackhawk that was a tandem only boat, just ran out of places to put it, though it was a lovely and fast boat. Last year I bought a demo Wenona Argosy in Royalex for running shallow streams. Forgot how much fun these things are :)

Someday I'll have to make a stripper canoe, not sure of the design, I like them like the kayaks, skinny :)

Bill H.