MichiganKayaker.com

I made my first Greenland style paddle! It was not anywhere near as hard as I thought it would be. I got the confidence to do it after watching a free on-line video by Matt Johnson. I also got some helpful hints from Dave Braun from QajaqUSA.

My advice is to get a 3" block plane. I used that a lot. In fact, that tiny tool was so easy to control I used it for most of the planing. I would also recommend borrowing a power planer. I borrowed one and it cut hours off the initial planing. And finally, get good wood. "Good" for me was completely vertical grain at the ends of the board. I did botch a first attempt at my paddle because I basically went to Lowes and grabbed the first cedar 2x4 I saw. Whoops. The second one I picked was near perfect.

Make one of these yourself. The more we make, the better we get. I am buying a power planer today. I also bought a Japanese handsaw. That helped with some of the cutting. Any questions, feel free to email me.