: I'm building a paddle as shown in Nick's book. My book is the 1997
: edition. I'm a little confused about tapering the ends of the
: paddle shaft. Nick says (page 164 top) "You should bve
: planing the faces that show the glue line." Yet Figure
: 10-2d shows a dotted line that I assumed was the glue line. (I
: already planed one end before I noticed the discrepancy with the
: text...). The blade halves then are glued onto the planed,
: tapered surface, right? Or did I get it all wrong in my mind?
: Figure 10-2e has the shaft rotated by 90 deg, right? So in the
: end, when I am looking at the face of the blade, the glueline
: will be facing me, running all the way into the end of the
: paddle.

: Appreciate any clarification. Thanks!

I made a paddle using Nick’s book a few years ago. His method is to shape the ends of the shaft to match the concave spoon of the shaft on the power face and to shape the back of the shaft to curve convex tapering from the shaft major diameter to zero at the tip. The two sides of the shaft stay untouched and parallel to each other so the edges of the two pieces of the blade glue onto these flat parallel sides. The finished paddle will have a center constant width stripe of the shaft wood in the middle of the blade the length of the power face and on the back side of the blade the shaft wood will be a rounded raised stiffening rib.

The blade can also be made into one thin full width piece then glued onto the concave curve of the shaft end. This is the common method in attaching one-piece plywood paddle blades. Then the shaft sides under the blade no longer need to be flat or parallel and can be shaped prior to attaching the blades. However, this is not the method in Nick’s book.

: Regards,
: Rich