WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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THE NORTH WOODS PADDLE

by Rick Waters Many a paddler has stood in mystified silence watching a skilled team of North Woods travelers plying their seemingly delicate paddles across the waters of canoe country. Somehow it seems impossible, or at least improbable, that large, loaded traveling canoes could be propelled with so little apparent movement by the paddlers, with such fluid grace that scarcely raises a ripple to hint of the path of the paddle. Yet the canoe, as if governed by a mystical force, not only behaves, but behaves quickly, cleanly - the way an arctic char might use the water of it's realm. Much of the secret lies in the paddle, and the technique best suited to its use. With practice, much that is mysterious at first settles into a sophisticated balance of properties that blend canoe, paddler, and paddle into graceful harmony. -- Garrett Conover

While the eerie cry of a loon cascades across a lake in northern Maine and the sun becomes a golden glow in the west, I help our guides Garrett and Alexandra make camp. I am sore and aching from a day of paddling, while Garrett claims only to be "pleasantly tired." He explains that the difference in our degree of fatigue is not due to conditioning but, rather, due to the paddles that he and Alexandra make and use and the North Woods stroke they employ while paddling. I had noticed a difference in the movement of their canoes - no bobbing and weaving like my canoe but a smooth, straight, silent path while their bodies rocked slightly back and forth. Garrett and Alexandra Conover operate a guiding service called North Woods Ways out of Willimantic, Maine. They lead canoe and camping trips through northern Maine and Canada all year round. They have made a commitment to studying the basic and refined skills and crafts of people of the northern forests. An abiding respect for the beauty and practicality of these northern ways prompted them, along with others, to found the North Woods Arts Center, which they operated for a number of years out of a post and beam lodge they built in Atkinson, Maine. Although now closed, the drive that created the center lives on in Garrett and Alexandra, and they continue to do research each year in the far north among the Naskapi and Montagnais peoples of Quebec and Labrador, as well as the woods people of northern Maine. The purpose of the center was to preserve these skills and crafts, not only through research, documentation, and publication, but also through hands-on educational experience. Information comes from many expert sources, and they once offered a wide variety of classes including: snowshoe making, crooked-knife construction and use, basketmaking, wood and canvas canoe building and repair, paddlemaking, post-and-beam construction, log cabin work, skin tanning, the use of birchbark, and blacksmithing. Field courses consisted of a two-week Maine Guide competency program, workshops in North

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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Woods paddle techniques and whitewater skills, and winter camping instruction. Much of this work continues today, offered by the Conovers and friends Rollin Thurlow, Jerry Stelmok and Dave Mussey, each out of their respective businesses. The spirit of the North Woods Art Center lives on, even though the enterprise itself no longer operates. Garrett and Alexandra learned many of the skills they teach from the late Mick Fahey, a noted veteran of the North Woods (see note 1). Perhaps the most obscure of all knowledge that Mick passed on to them was the North Woods stroke, the paddling stroke employed by the Indians, voyageurs, guides, trappers, and anyone else involved in serious canoe travel. Yet in a sense, the North Woods stroke and the North Woods paddle epitomize Garrett and Alexandra's life's work and all that Mick passed on to them. For they have not only preserved the knowledge of how the North Woods were traveled and the skills to make and use the paddles, but through guiding canoe trips, they are also preserving the need for efficient canoe travel. The North Woods stroke is considerably different from the J-stroke we all learned at summer camp. After camp has been made and dinner eaten, Garrett sits near the campfire and, to illustrate the differences, he mimes paddling a canoe. "The J-stroke overuses a few muscles and expends a lot of needless energy. In addition, you need to compensate continually for not heading in the direction you want to go. You end up crabbing down the length of a lake." He shifts on his fireside perch to illustrate the oblique sitting position used in the North Woods stroke, and his voice rises as he sings the virtues of a stroke evolved over generations of constant use. "The North Woods stroke places all your muscles in a line and uses them all a little bit. It is a very efficient stroke involving subtle arm and body movements that enable you to paddle all day with little fatigue. The paddle flexes instead of your back." (see note 2). The paddles that Alexandra makes are works of art. They blend graceful, delicate lines and flexability with strength and utility. Comparing a store-bought paddle to one of Alexandra's North Woods paddles is like comparing a fast-food hamburger to a gourmet meal. The first thing one notices about a North Woods paddle is that half of the shaft is handle. The paddle can be gripped at the end or any one of three "grips" carved along the side of the handle. This allows the paddle to be used as a long or short paddle with equal comfort. The edge of the handle is scalloped to allow the canoeist to find the "grip stations" without looking. The shaft is narrow (1" in diameter), and the long, narrow blade is thinned before the tip to reduce weight and increase flexibility. The paddle can be used from a standing, sitting, or kneeling position and in any type of water. Each paddle is custom made to fit the height of the owner, and each blade is carved to get the proper strength and flex from a particular piece of wood. Alexandra is remarkably adept with an axe and can literally split a pencil line. Using an axe and a crooked knife, she can make a paddle in a day. Garrett and Alexandra, however, are not bound to an ethic that prohibits the use of power tools. She has made over 300 paddles (as of 1996 - ed) and has only recently obtained access to a bandsaw. She recently purchased a portable power plane to assist with the initial stages of thinning down the blade. The fine finished lines are produced through the use of a spokeshave, wood rasp and crooked knife. To augment their regular income, Alexandra and Garrett make several North Woods

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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paddles each year for sale. Due to the diversity of their activities, however, they are not interested in full-time paddle production. What follows is a step-by-step description of how to make your own North Woods paddle. Paddle plans and an instructional brochure written by Rick Waters is available from the Northwoods Canoe Company.

Ash and maple are the two types of wood to use when making a North Woods paddle, and it makes little difference which is used. Choose whichever is available. If you are starting in the woods, fell a tree 16-18" in diameter. Cut a clear section 6' to 7' long, depending on the length of the paddle, and split it through the center. Split this half-round in half, and you will have a quarter-round approximately 9" on a side. You should get out the piece near the outer growth rings but inside the sapwood, where the growth rings are the flattest. This is the same piece of wood to look for if you are buying a "blank" from a lumber mill. Paint the ends of the blank with hot linseed oil, parafin, or red lead to prevent checking, and allow the wood to dry for as long as possible. The blank should measure 5/4" in thickness so you can get a straight paddle, even if the board warps slightly while drying.

With a suitable blank laid flat, snap a chalkline along its length parallel to the direction of its grain and approximately centered across its width. The pattern, which shows to the right of the blank in the photo, and which should be

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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made from the drawing that accompanies this article, is then laid on the blank so its centerline aligns with the chalkline. The paddle profile is then traced from the pattern. (You can use a small block of wood with a nail in it to hold one end of the chalkline as shown, if you want to avoid driving nails into the blank.) If you elect to hew out your paddle by hand, begin at the bottom corner of the blade, but don't shape the blade tip until later. Remove wood by splitting it away, working your way in toward the marked outline. As you cut away wood where the blade begins to narrow, you'll have to take shorter cuts so as not to split off part of the blade. Continue this hewing process up the shaft to the handle, reversing the direction of cut by turning the blank end for end as necessary to take advantage of the grain runout or to shape the handle itself.

Hew away the other edge of the blank to its marked line, and your paddle really begins to take shape. If you have access to a bandsaw, you can reach this stage simply by sawing around the line, but leaving the tip square until later.

Now set the paddle on edge, holding it there with weights against its sides, and stretch a string above it. A C-clamp just beyond the ends of the paddle can be used, as shown, for holding the string.

Sight vertically downwards and place the

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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middle of the paddle's edge directly under the string, then make marks for a centerline at intervals along this edge. Connect the marks, using a flexible batten or straightedge, to give a continuous centerline all along this first edge of the paddle. Sight in from each end to confirm that the centerline is straight.

The next step, that of making a similar centerline on the opposite edge, has to begin by establishing endpoints for that centerline - a process that results in the blade and handle being in the same plane; to put it another way, this is a process that assures there will be no twist in your paddle.

After you've marked a centerline on both edges, mark the paddle measurements out from these centerlines and connect them with a straightedge.

Continue the paddle outline markings across both ends of the blank (This is the reason why the blade tip was left square).

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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Taper the blade by hewing to the lines, just as you did earlier for the profile. A portable power plane, a hand plane, or a spokeshave can help out here. Note that at this stage there is no crown to the blade; all surfaces are flat across the paddle.

Continue thinning the blade and handle. Crown the blade, as shown in the drawing, by removing wood on each side of the centerline.

The thickness of the grip can be made to suit your hand - anywhere from 5/8" to 1". Hollow out the area just below the grip with a gouge, spokeshave, and rasp until it's comfortable.

Now you can mark the rounded tip of the blade from your pattern, cut it out with a bandsaw or coping saw, and rasp it fair, rounded and smooth.

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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Continue shaping the blade, including the thinned area 6 inches back from the tip. Calipers that are a tight fit at the blade tip will just rattle when the area is shaved to the right thickness.

Round off the sharp corners along the blade's outline, and fair in the blade tip.

Start rounding the shaft by planing its four corners to 45 degrees until all eight faces are of equal width, just as you would do when making a round spar. Then plane off the eight corners and continue shaping until you get a 1" diameter round shaft, all the while checking for straightness and uniformity.

When you're satisfied with the shaft, fair it in to the blade handle with a gradual transition, as shown in the drawings. Scallop the corners of the handle for grip stations, using a crooked knife (shown) or spokeshave. Then smooth the entire paddle with a rasp, sandpaper and scraper.

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WCHA - The North Woods Paddle

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Finish may be either oil or varnish. Be aware that some oil finishes will not prevent the blade from cupping. Three or four coats of a high grade marine varnish will prevent any unwanted wood movement.

Copyright 1985, Rick Waters

Notes 1. See WoodenBoat Magazine Issue #67, article titled A Mentor Would Appear for more about the late Francis E. "Mick" Fahey. 2. See WoodenBoat Magazine Issue #55, article titled Paddling Like an Ancient for more on the North Woods stroke.

Reprinted by permission of the author. The original article appeared in WoodenBoat Magazine, Issue #67, November/December 1985. There were some minor editorial changes made to the information provided on the Conovers and the North Woods Art Center to bring the article up to date. All rights held and reserved by the author.

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