Before you even touch the paddle, there's a lot to notice. First you can easily see the veneer quality. If it is highly figured, it means that the maker paid twice as much- or more- to provide extra showy
woods for his customers. Structurally there's no difference with plain, unfigured veneers, so cost-conscious production paddles are likely use common veneers at the lowest possible cost. Are there cool
looking stripes of veneer in the blade? They cost the maker extra too ($1.50 a stripe in my paddles!) It's an aesthetic difference, but it shows a sense of direction about what the maker thought he was
making. Good quality paddles- or the highest quality paddles?From a distance you can also easily see the quality of the ash in the shaft plates. The best ash has grain which runs very straight with very
consistent grain thickness. It should be aligned so the grainlines run approximately perpendicular to the powerface of the paddle to present the strongest possible grain configuration. If you are checking
out a curved powerface paddle, you should check where the ash plates are cut off in the blade shape (different places on different sides- near the throat on the powerface and near the tip on the backside). Often
this is where paddlemakers will set the worst woods in the plates- so the worst of the plate will be cut out when the plates are cut into to accommodate the blade shape. These are stress risers and the wood
quality can really have an effect on a paddle's endurance when the paddle is under full load. Jimistyx plates run all the ways to the tips to avoid this stress riser.
You can also assess the
aesthetics from a distance. Is the finish thick and substantial looking? Or is it stretched out or thin looking? Very few paddlemakers use three base coats of epoxy for their finish like Jimistyx
have. Also- how do the blade woods look? In a great paddle all the blade wood and shaft plates are book matched. That is- they are made of "sister pieces" which were essentially next to each
other in the board. This gives the highest level of symmetry of density and flex for the blades and shaft. Do the woods colors "get along" with each other? Or is it yet another case of
"Yikes! Stripes!"? Also see how the shaft is faired into the standard thickness of the blade. Is it a smooth transition? You don't want it too 'cheeky ' in here. This is one of
the reasons "trik style" (centered- like a canoe paddle) is better- it reduces the blade dimensions to the minimum necessary.
But to really know the paddle you have to pick it up. Hold the paddle as
you would if you were using it and see if your hands tell you that the grip areas are the same size. They don't have to be, of course. But it gives some idea of the dimensional integrity of the piece. Paddle
in the air a few strokes and get a feel for the "swing weight". This is how the blade weight feels in relation to the shaft weight. Then flip the paddle end for end and try the grips anew with
hands trying the alternate grip areas now. Often people have one hand fatter than the other and this affects how the size of the grip feels. You can test the swing weight in this new hand position
also. By now you should be able to detect if one blade is heavier than the other. It happens.
Take a second to check out the edging work- especially the "snake heads" where the edgings fair into
the shaft. Good quality work has little or no fat glue lines in this area. Fat glue lines are not structural but do indicate the paddlemakers mastery over this aspect of the gluing. Are the edgings
wood, dynel, or urethane? Wood- especially hickory- can be tough enough to last for many years but it can also "breath" when the finish breaks down and ultimately start causing more finish and the blade
glass to start to release. Urethane can be hard top bond to and sometimes urethane edgings hold up while the rest of the paddle fails around them! Dynel tips are laid up with epoxy so they are compatible
with all the other epoxy used for bonding, glassing, and finishing. Take a peak at the tips also. They are hard to really see but you can get an idea of how professionally the maker dealt with this aspect by
looking closely.
Then I like to twirl the paddle in my hands. This tells how balanced on a true dead center the paddle is. This might or might not have bearing on how well it works. Bent shaft
paddles are way off center and some people like them. But it probably affects how it throws- it yer a paddle throwing kind of paddler. What is really telling for a paddle is to do a slight flex test.
Hold the paddle at maybe 70' to the floor. If you hold it at a flatter angle you can end up putting too much weight on it and breaking it in front of the owner! So put the tip somewhere where you won't hurt
it too bad- like the top of your foot if need be. Have your top hand underhanded and just slightly flex the paddle 1/4" to 1/2". Look down the length of it as you are doing this and look for stress
risers (areas of inconsistent flex). Often common plated shaft paddles are too stiff near the throat and too flexy near the tip. It should all flex smoothly and consistently to a certain "stop
point". This is where the shaft is really starting to work and you don't need to press past this point. You're just checking how consistently the shaft flexes and how resistant it all seems. It
should flex a bit- easily, and then really hold up. Be sure to flex both sides if it's a kayak paddle. Using book matched sister pieces of wood really helps this flex stay consistent.
Now's a good time to
check edging thickness also. The edgings of the blade should remain a relatively fixed thickness and not go from thin to thick sections (except for where they are fairing into the shaft). Often production
paddles are shaped with shapers which are difficult to render ideal specs with (because of microscopic flexing of the blade and tool). A well shaped blade can be a speck thicker for the tip and thinner for the
upper blade of an asymmetrical shape. But if there are thick sections of the edging, that probably means the body of the blade is also too thick and so it's packing unneeded weight. Structurally- the blade
is just there to support a given amount of edging. How consistent and tweaked that spec is a real difference between custom blades and production blades. Custom blades are brought into dimension with a
grinder which is much slower but gives higher control of the final dimensions. Edging thickness has direct bearing on the swing weight.
Take a look down the shaft longwise to make sure it is straight and that
the dimensional transitions of the shaft are handled smoothly. You can also see if there are machine marks from the shaft shaping stage this way. Then you might want to twirl and paddle a few more strokes
with it to re-assess the swing weight and by now you should now know a lot about the paddle in question. You should have an idea of the ash density and the shaft core density also. It should have a tough but
not heavy feel. You also now have an idea of how the blades flex- and so how strong they might be. Ash quality is the premier determiner of quality for wooden paddles, but blade specs and finish quality are
a close second. A good wood paddle can easily last decades- so choose well!
