They’re done. They’ve been varnished, tested, and sent back to the factory for the CNC machine to work its magic. Pretty cool how they pull the lines off the models for reproduction.
Excuse the Blackberry-produced photo.
They paddle quite nicely, I think. Both blades have a slightly narrower bottom, which is nice and quiet going into the water. The larger paddle has a nice, beefy blade area to give the paddler a good fulcrum; virtually no slippage. The other narrower blade is a little on the small side for me when it comes to acceleration, but once I took three or four strokes it worked just fine, and I like the weight a lot…I took a fair amount of wood off where it wasn’t needed for strength.
The big one needs a little more work on the top grip, but I can do that on the pre-production paddle and see how it feels then. On the small one, I think I nailed it.
Now we see what the computer makes of them. I can’t wait to see how symmetrical they are. And I can’t wait to see the first pre-production models for final tweaking.
Respectfully submitted,
Canoelover
Good to see you doing something with your hands that others can enjoy. The CAD person should take out the asymetries before cutting anything. You might need to look over the shoulder as decisions are made in this process. Typically one quarter of the shape is picked and mirrored twice to produce the final shape. Have fun.
Steve
Yeah, Steve, it’s fun. I put a big giant “USE THIS SIDE” for the proper line. Or they can do both and flip it over and take the average. It’s no more than 3/32″ off but it still bugs me.
Take care and happy T-day!