Making a t-grip handle with dowel

[oopsiflipped]

I found an old Savage c1 paddle floating around, problem is it doesn't have a t-grip. My Galasport has a dowel handle that I like and I was thinking that would work. Any tips as far as what wood and adhesive to use?

Gabe

[Jim P]

Any hardwood should be fine. I've seen ash, cherry, walnut, maple you name it. I just made one from Sassafras, with a Maple dowel to insert into the shaft. Built up the dowel with west system and some glass wrap to make a snug fit in the shaft. Used JBweld to bond into the shaft - nice quick setup once you get the handle in alignment. Three coats of west system epoxy on the grip shaft, two coats of poly, then glued it in. Could use west system to glue to shaft as well - I just happened to run out and did not want to wait to get it on the water.

[Nate]

I actually just made a different t-grip for my new Galasport paddle. I feel the ones they provide you with aren't a good size for my hand. I've had good luck with very simple t-grips. This time around I made a dowel out of maple (although I have used Cherry once) and just drilled a 15/16ths inch hole in it using a drill press. Finished it with a linseed/beeswax oil based finish of some sort, and epoxied it onto the shaft with the West Systems epoxy. I did this to a mitchell of mine as well and it has held up really well.

I would caution you from making a grip with the "T" being made of two separate pieces of wood. The idea of having the grip with a separate piece of glued wood extending into the shaft seems counterintuitive to me because the more joints you have, the weaker the system will be and the higher the chance of it somehow failing.

[Louie]

Clinch River does or did all his like that, West System epoxy is what to use, if done right the glue joint will be stronger than the rest of the paddle

[Al Greve]

As a Galasport dealer I install their T-grips often. Their grips are soft wood and simple to install be using West System. At the same time I apply one coat of West over the handle to seal and protect it.

[ezwater]

Nate---You're right in theory, but I have a Clinch River paddle that I lengthened by drilling the shaft plug for two parallel dowels. The dowels went into the mortise of a custom t-grip. Then I mixed epoxy, microspheres, and microfibers to glue the whole mess together. (Little bits of Kevlar edge tape also were used where the epoxy met the shaft and the grip.)

Now, this sounds like a nightmare but it is about as light as if there were softwood in the 1.5" gap, and it has performed with no sign of failure. The dowel-and-epoxy bridge is smaller in cross section than the main shaft so that it clears the fingers wrapped over the grip.

You can do the wrong thing the right way and come out OK.