Building a Laminated Straight Shaft Wood Canoe Paddle

The concepts are all the same - using epoxy to join shaft pieces together and blade pieces to the center shaft piece. A handle goes on the top end and some four ounce fiberglass is used to cover and strengthen the blade.

Differences include:

• whether or not the handle works both ways or only one way,
• in most cases two shaft pieces go on either side of the center piece with the blade. On a bent shaft, the blade pieces go on the first (bottom) piece and the four remaining shaft pieces go on top,
• on a straight shaft paddle I find it easier to join the blade and center shaft pieces first, whereas on a bent shaft paddle I like to join the blade and center shaft pieces last.