Friday, March 6, 2015

using carbon sleeves for fixing and making paddles

Yosi decided to make a carbon paddle, first he carved a block of styrofoam

until he got the shape he wanted

then he slid it into a sleeve of carbon

made sure it felt good and covered the whole carving

next he applied epoxy

massaged the epoxy into the carbon 

and let gravity do the rest

after a lot of extra epoxy, sanding and sanding  and another carbon sleeve his prototype is finished

and off he goes to test it in real water. He is very happy with the result and has learned a lot on the way,the next paddle will be better and lighter

I used a carbon sleeve to repair a fractured Aleutian paddle, actually I broke 2 paddles, one was repaired only up to the shoulder to keep the look and feel of wood, the other one got a complete covering of carbon

This paddle is great in rough water and good for surfing too.So now we can repair broken paddles . They change from wood to carbon  but at least you don`t have to go out and make a whole new paddle , unless you want to, that is.

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