Woodworm whilst making a Concensus Paddle.
Hello folks
Forgive the long absence but I have been ill with the flu twice and at the same time have been trying to keep on top of furniture orders!
I did however manage to pinch a few hours to make this rather interestingly designed paddle.
The design comes from Graham Warren's excellent book on 100 paddle designs.
It is the result of plotting the blade shapes of many paddles and coming to a concensus of all the results to arrive at this rather subtle blade shape.
I decided to make it from a piece of cherry that was home grown in my garden.
During seasoning the plank had developed a severe amount of cupping.
This wasn't of too much concern as the paddle blade is not very wide.
I marked out and cut out the blank.
It was then I noticed some rather large pesky worm holes!
I decided to continue in the hope that
the blade shaping would remove them as much as possible and any living contents!
As it turned out I was unable to remove the holes entirely so I filled them with 2 pack filler and proceeded as normal shaping sanding and oiling.
I decided to give it a grip that would help the balance as I am getting to like this kind of grip since I made an Ash Otter tail with one on a while back.
I oiled it over several days and it will need more as time goes on.The timber was well dry as it was sucking up the oil well to begin with.You will notice the filler I used is darker than the surrounding timber but in time the paddle will darken so it will become a better match.
The big question is what does it paddle like....
Cheers
Alick