Building A Greenland Paddle

 

Does winter weather have you down? Here’s a great project to get you ready for spring. Build your own Greenland-style paddle in a class given by New Jersey’s own Ray Killen. There is a nominal fee charged that include all materials, tools and instruction.

The class is given at the workshop that Ray built for himself behind his home in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Ray limits the class size to just three or four students so he can give each student the individual instruction they need in all phases of the building process.

I felt out of place at first because I had no previous woodworking experience. Ray assured me that even could learn to craft a paddle of my own. The other two students came equipped with their own hand tools and all I had was my trusty Leatherman tool which I did use once when I thought the teacher wasn’t looking. (I later found out he captured me on film using it.) Each student leaves the class not only with a completed paddle, except for final sanding and finishing, but with the sense of accomplishment for having built it themselves.

The class begins with Ray explaining the proper selection of wood to use. You then learn to build up a blank, make biscuit cuts, rough cut the shape on a band saw and then get down to the fun of working with the wood using hand tools for all of the shaping. Each student settles into their own work area and Ray moves among them, providing one on one instruction. I can attest to the fact that Ray has the patience of a saint! If he could teach me to make a paddle, anyone can take this class. Ray would walk over to me and seeing my latest mistake proclaim, “What the hell did you do that for?” I would simply smile and say, ”Character Ray, my paddle has character.” He would yank the paddle out of my hand and set to work correcting my latest gaff, muttering the whole time, “This guy Inuitsea is definitely some kind of character.”

At the end of the day I returned home with my own handcrafted paddle. When people ask me if I made it myself, I honestly tell them, “No, Ray did, but I helped.”

 

In addition to teaching paddle building Ray and his wife Margaret teach all phases of on the water paddling instruction. Both of them are American Canoe Association and British Canoe Union certified instructors. They can be reached through their website Katabasis.