Re: [Paddlewise] Technology guides paddle design.

From: cholst <cholst_at_bitstream.net>
Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 19:01:28 GMT
Jack Fu writes:

> When the Eskimos (or related peoples) designed their paddles,
> what materials did they have to work with? Driftwood? Bone?

Driftwood with (in Greenland) bone edges. But that driftwood included some 
pretty large logs, and many Inuit paddles had wider, lanceolate-shaped 
blades than the modern Greenland paddle, which appears to be only a few 
hundred years old. I think the main reason for the narrowness of the 
Greenland blade is to allow it to be held anywhere along its length. In 
Baffin Island and many other places, paddle blades were much too wide for 
this. 

Chuck Holst

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Received on Tue May 15 2001 - 13:22:33 PDT

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