Re: [Paddlewise] Stick paddle

Chuck,
   
  I use slow cure epoxy, specifically West System. As soon as I mix it, I brush it on with a foam brush, just like I would a thin coat of paint or varnish. The brushing on is done immediately, well before the epoxy begins to cure, and then left alone until cured.
   
  I agree that repairing a ding in epoxy is more work than with just a tung oil finish. That's part of the reason I don't add paint or vanish to my epoxy coated wood paddles. I can just sand the ding a little, dab on a little epoxy, let it cure, and sand smooth.
   
  Again, epoxy or tung oil are both fine, and which is used is just a matter of personal preference. If I wanted to be more traditional and paddled a skinboat, I'd match it with a solid wood Greenland paddle coated with tung oil, which is exactly what I used for a while in the late 1990's.
   
  Duane
  

cholst_at_bitstream.net wrote:
  Duane said:

> Epoxy has to applied in thin coats, usually two, to prevent drips. I
> have coated about ten wooden paddles with epoxy and never had any drips.

Do you use a slow-cure epoxy? I find that especially as it starts to cure,
the normal-cure epoxy gets hard to brush out thin. Anyway, I found that
epoxy doesn't protect the paddle from dings appreciably better than tung
oil (unless you apply several layers -- and why go to all that effort?)
and is harder to repair, especially if the last coat is polyurethane
varnish.

Chuck Holst
Currently gluing together a new set of kayak saddles (with built-in
storage for Greenland paddles) using West System epoxy.
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