I’ve been making and selling kits for canoe and paddleboard paddles for awhile now. Doing that has helped me realize one of the things I really love doing – conjuring up tools to make other things. I really like standing in my shop and thinking – “there has to be an easier way to do this”. Generally there is. From that first thought I go to my second thought – “there has to be a way I can make the exact same thing over and over”. Again there usually is. From there I go to my third thought which is – “Can I make this any cheaper or faster?”
It is a process, an iterative process. Some things I’ve gone and done and redone and redone yet again. Each time getting a bit closer to a final form that makes it easier, quicker, or cheaper. Not unlike, I imagine, what real industry and real manufacturing is like. Make a prototype, a proof of concept. Now you know it can be done. Use the thing. It works? OK now look at the materials and hours. Is anyone going to buy it? Wait a minute back up. Is there even a market for the widget in the first place?
This is where I’m at with the jigs for making a twisted shaft laminated wood kayak paddle. So far so good. My prototype paddle worked. The twist has not yet come out of the shaft, a good year after creation. Likewise, the curve is still in the blade pieces. Best of all, I have convinced myself that my idea has a market and that the average Joe paddler might actually even want to make his or her own paddle. My only proof (hope??) is in the cedar strip world of canoes and kayaks. Chesapeake Light Craft for example is in the business of selling the plans and the parts so people can make their own boat from about 50 or so (+/-) plan sets that CLC sells.
I love the thought that goes into a project like this. Doing it the first time with canoe and SUP paddle kits and plans has given me some perspective on this. Those relatively simple canoe paddles and plans have also made me realize that a one piece laminated wood kayak paddle is a bit more ADVANCED, which is the word I’ve been building towards. Holding my prototype in my hands is an AMAZING feeling though, which is the other word. I do take some pride in knowing that I figured this stuff out in the privacy of my own wood shop and in the small world of my own thoughts and experiences.
Now if only there is a market for kits to make your own kayak paddle! The hardest question of all, likely unanswerable until I am all the way in it and doing it.
Time will tell.
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