Double Paddle Blade Spine

 17 Jan 22:

I scooped out some extra material on the back of the blade to reduce weight, but left a spine to maintain strength. To shape the concave trough I used our Skil 3x18 inch belt sander with a 40 grit belt, held at an angle and turned a bit so that the only one end of the belt contacted the surface, using the curved shape of the sander's drive roller to my advantage. I called this tool a sander but with a 40 grit belt it is really more of a crude carving tool, it can take off a lot of material fast. Normally the belt should be as flat as possible to avoid leaving a divot, but I used that angle to to make several passes along either side of the blade center line, eventually carving out small concave areas the length of the blade, about an inch wide. 

We also finished applying the 3rd coat of Minwax Polyshades, it dries fast if you varnish inside the house on Skipper's antique Singer treadle machine cabinet made from tiger oak. Just kidding, it's already dry here, I actually varnished on the dining table :)

Minwax Polyshades

 15 Jan 22:

Capn Jack came across a trick a few years back, Minwax makes a combination wood stain and polyurethane, called Polyshades. With Polyshades we can stain and add a protective coating all in one fell swoop. There are several shades to choose from, we chose Cherry because it sounded delicious. (Disclaimer: Don't taste it) Actually we chose Cherry because we plan to put some white and red stripes to the tips of the blade and this shade will contrast nicely. We considered straight varnish for the spruce wood, but it tends to have a bland finish if the spruce is more of the pine variety*.

*Speaking of Spruce, why spruce? It is a softwood, good blend of light weight and strength, commonly used for spars and canvassed decking on small boats. We picked up this "spruce" at the local building supply, it was sold as spruce but when it is marked SPF that means it could be spruce, pine or fir. As mentioned above, this spruce worked more like white pine. Not a bad wood, but spruce spruce would have been a bit lighter.