Baby One More Time

I can't believe I'm titling this post after a Britney Spears' song but what can you do?

Last night after supper I did the final shaping of the new paddle. I then hosed it down to bring up the grain. While it was drying I headed off for our final pool session until next fall.

I'm happy wih the results thus far.The paddle is stiff while still fairly light (31 oz) and, if I may say so, looks good to boot. All pictures in this entry were taken after the initial wet down. I have not added the trademark black band in the images.

When I returned home from the pool, I gave the paddle a quick touch up sanding, put on the black reflective bands, applied a coat of epoxy to the tips and a coat of tung oil to the remainder of the paddle. The oil brought the look of the wood up nicely. The epoxy went on smooth but that's another story!!!

Here's a few shots after wetting down with water:




I said that the epoxy was "another story" because the friggin' stuff was still tacky and soft after 7 hrs drying and there were a few fish eyes (spots where the epoxy does not adhere to the wood but runs off to leave bare spots). I'd like to express how I really feel but you never know who's reading this blog!!! I am getting disillusioned with epoxy resin as a protective coating. I follow the 1:4 ratio of accelerant to resin as per instructions but I don't seem to have much luck - be it amine blush, running/sagging or improper curing. I beginning to think that I'll just coats the tips with tung oil and "let the chips fall where they may" - or should I say "let the paddle chip when it falls!" (hahahahaha).

If the coat is not cured when I get home this evening "up she comes", i.e., I'll strip the tips and go with good ol, easy-to-work -with tung oil!!!

Also, the epoxy yellowed the tips - taking away from the nice white bone-like look that I wanted!!