At 11:07 PM 1/11/02 -0500, Niels Kistrup wrote: >At the Delmarva Paddler's Retreat, someone mentioned that a graphite paddle >could be hand-made by making a Greenland stick out of either balsa wood or >foam, then coating it with graphite. [This gives the impression that heat is >not needed.] > > >Question: Where do you find graphite in a liquid form, such it can be applied >like a paint or a resin? If I can get a particular product name, I should be >able to contact the manufacturer to find out how to work with it. I am just guessing here but I can't imagine liquifying graphite fiber. The more likely procedure would involve carving the paddle out of balso or some other soft wood, laying on graphite fiber cloth over the wood and filling in the weave with epoxy resin. It would be fairly easy to do if one constructed the paddle leaving the balsa blank inside. It would also be possible to coat the balsa blank with mold release or thin plastic and layup one side at a time and then put them together without a wood core. Seems like a lot of work. BTW, Ross Liedy has done quite a bit of work with carbon fiber cloth for cockpit combings. He could probably provide a source for graphite cloth (check out his website to get his email address at http://ross.secant.com). Look at the section on building the Outer Island and you'll find a link which shows how he contructed the cockpit combing using carbon fiber cloth. BTW, I just finished getting the forms all attached and aligned for the Outer Island I'm building last night. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Jan 12 2002 - 05:41:04 PST
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