Matthias Wandel has made some unbelievable creations, like this Jenga pistol for instance.
Now he’s at it again, this time showing you how to carve a sweet canoe paddle on a bandsaw.
During a recent canoe trip, Matthias took a closer look at one of the Grey Owl paddles he was using. He thought, “Hey, this is something I should be able to reproduce using mostly a bandsaw.”
So he set to work roughing out the general shape of the paddle and using his paddle shaping jig to firm up the details. Luckily, the profile of the paddle is made of two straight pieces of wood, greatly simplifying its construction.
Some YouTube commenters have claimed that oak is too heavy of a wood for a practical canoe paddle,
Oak is way too heavy for a paddle. Next paddle, you need to cover it with a layer of glass or Kevlar. Naked paddles don’t last long, unless you just paddle on the lake. Also consider playing with layups of different woods.
Others disagree. Leonard said,
Some people say it’s over engineering. I think Matthias is a pretty smart guy. If you do things the easy and fast way then it’s just no challenge to the mind. He makes the jigs to get the angels and bevels, It’s a really smart idea. It challenges the mind and when ou see it in a finished project you get a lot of satisfaction out of using your brains. Plus you get a great project done. Keep up the good work. I really like your ideas on jigs, tools and machines.
How to make a canoe paddle using only a bandsaw.
Original video by Matthias Wandel
It seems that any piece of wood Matthias touches turns into something awesome! The jig he made allows you to rough out a lot of paddles very quickly. It’s probably not worth your time if you only need to make a few paddles. But if you want to make a bunch of them, a jig is the way to go.
