A friend of my wife had a request for a set of beer paddles.  Something I’ve never tried before, but they seemed easy enough. I started by cutting a bunch of strips of walnut because I had a lot of smaller pieces from an old entertainment center that I tore apart to be able to reuse the walnut.  Most of the sections were thinner than I had in mind for these paddles, so I cut one-inch strips to glue up so that each paddle would be just under an inch thick after all the planing would be done.  To complete the design, I cut some strips of maple, padauk, and purple heart so that each paddle would have its own shape and color.

 

After cutting down the strips to the right length, I outlined them on my workbench to make sure they were thick enough, and then glued them all up (buy more clamps!). Once dry, I ran the paddles through the planer until they were nice and flat. With that done, I used a beer taster paddle that I bought years ago to assist with an outline to make a paddle shape.  But in wanting each to be unique, I found a glass that was about the right size and used it to make a half-circle shape on the top of a few of them.  And to make different handle shapes I simply tilted the handle of the paddle I had to create different angles.

 

Normally I’d use my bandsaw to cut these out.  Unfortunately, it died cutting the first one.  And it’s about a 40-year-old Black and Decker, so really not worth repairing.  So, I went to the scrollsaw to cut out several until I broke my last blade.  Then I switched to a jigsaw to finish.  I guess I proved there are a variety of tools one can use to make these things.  And the cuts didn’t need to be perfect, as I used the benchtop belt/disc sender to help form the shape evenly.

 

The customer had their own glassware they wanted to use for these, so I had to buy a new forstner bit that was 2-1/4” in diameter.  Now, this is where I could have made this project a lot simpler by making every paddle exactly the same shape.  Since they were all different, I could make a jig to put the coves for the glasses in the same spot.  So, this was a bunch of measuring and making sure I had things lined up precisely for each paddle.  Next time I’ll remember that uniformity and jigs are my friend.

 

To give them a cleaner look, I used my router table with a chamfer bit to add a chamfered edge all the way around the top and bottom of each paddle.  Then I did a bunch of sanding.  More sanding.  Wet them all down to raise the grain, and then sanded some more.  For finish, I used Danish Oil because it looks great.  And then added the finishing touch of the leather cord strap to the whole on the handle of each paddle.

 

Each paddle is a bit different shape, but the sizing is about 3-1/2″ to 4″ wide, 14″ to 15″ long, and a little under 1″ thick.

 

Items used: Walnut, Maple, Purple Heart, Padauk Tightbond III Wood Glue Danish Oil Leather banding

Planer, Clamps, Bandsaw/scrollsaw/jigsaw, benchtop sander, orbital sander (and sandpaper)

 

Thanks for watching and reading! Cheers!

 

Grant