Very nice!  I did a workshop with Bruce Smith in Fergus a few years back and it was fantastic.  Planning to make some for my kids this year. 

Shawn - I apologize for hijacking your post, but the topic is pretty close so I hope you don't mind.  

A few years ago, there was an event where you could buy a paddle for $20, paint/decorate it, then donate it, and proceeds went to Friends of Algonquin as I recall.  I bought two of the paddles, one for my daughter (the artist in the family) and one for me (the occasional woodworker but really just a hack in the family).  We never finished them, so I hope there were some proceeds from the $20.  The plan was to donate both, but that ship kind of sailed, and with what I've done (so far) with this paddle, I'd have a really hard time parting with it.

Still, I thought I'd share how mine is coming along.  It remains on my list of things to finish.  There's a ton of work in it so far, and a ton yet to go.  I had the idea of creating a fake park map on the paddle, done in the colors and styles that were used on the Algonquin Park maps of the 1980's.  Then I added a twist, or more accurately, a knot to it.  

This is one of the mathiest projects I've ever undertaken, and somehow I got that knot done.  In my mind, it was going to be smooth and round and edges would be undetectable.  It didn't work out that way, but I like it all the same.  I came up with a bunch of fake lake names, and drew the map on the paddle.  For example, Boot Lake is there, named after Boot Lake, but shaped like Italy.  The whole paddle is like that.  There's a lake on the grip in the shape of a palm holding the paddle.  

This is a project of momentum, and I lost momentum.  My original plan was I would post no photos until it was completed but maybe posting these will shame me back into action.  What remains is printing on all the lake names, doing the legend, little comments about historical "facts" and general notes.  A painstaking activity, my print is bad, but I worked out all the fonts from the old maps and bought the paint-marker-pens to do the job, so with a steady hand and patience I think I'll be ok.  Unfortunately, I have to do it with perfection, because...like a dope, when we moved this year I accidentally disposed of the green paint I had made up for the paddle, so doing touch ups would not be a good thing.

Here are a few photos.  Hopefully I get this thing done before I enter my dotage years.  

Apologies for the photo of the whole paddle, it really got overexposed.  Didn't realize, just took the pic with my phone and that was that. 






 

Last edited by MooseWhizzer Dave (3/04/2025 11:22 am)