Vob span

Historic Passamaquoddy Paddle Part 2

My last paddle project was temporarily put on hold after the birth of my son. But in an effort to resume a little bit of normalcy in our daily baby routine, I finished off the grip section during a brief respite from diaper changes and burping duty.


Incomplete grip area; Completed burning
I was actually working on the decoration of this paddle the night my wife's water broke and will always associate it with the panic and excitement of my son's early delivery. As such, I decided to dedicate this one to him and burned his full name, date and time of birth in the empty triangular space on the grip. I'm hoping it'll be a family heirloom and he'll appreciate it when he's old enough.



The Dedication Inscription
To seal it, the paddle was oiled rather than varnished to give it a more natural, matte finish. The fact that oiling is so much easier than varnishing is a plus. A quick 15 minute job for a single layer rather than the much more time consuming affair with varnish, solvents, safety gloves and a wailing baby in the background. Over the last few days, I've been adding additional layers of 1850s Circa 1850s Tung & Teak oil to give the paddle the desired sheen I was looking for. Here is the final result posing with Toronto's first snowfall in the background.


1849 Historic Passamaquoddy Replica
I really like these abstract scroll designs on certain paddle blades and plan to do more of them, hopefully eventually getting enough detail to replicate the c.1878 Maliseet Paddle I posted on earlier.