New projects in the shop

Thanks to Riikka from Tromsø, who just sent me this wonderful picture of her home built kayak.

Working as a craftsman sometimes feels like a great privilege. It is obvious, and people often tell me so. But of course that's not the whole story. Organizing your work can be pretty difficult and frustrating. But yes, when all is organized, and you just have time, some nice pieces of wood, your favorite hand tools and a job to do.. That's when you feel privileged. It is truly joyful, and while doing your job, your thoughts may wander off in time and space. The last couple of weeks, I have been testing out some very nice oak I got last year. It's been seasoned well enough for certain purposes, and I badly wanted to try it.  

I cut some of the oak into thin long pieces, suitable for kayak ribs and edges for reinforced Greenland paddles and surf paddles. It sure looked nice, perfectly straight grain and very dark color.. great smell too. While doing so, I got an order for a surf paddle, and a reinforced paddle. I immediately started working on them. The customers were from Kristiansand, a bit south of here, and funny enough, the oak comes from Kristiansand also. Asbjørn is the owner of what must be some of the finest oak forest in Norway. The oak in my hands, of course come from his sawmill... And now some of the very fine oak  returns to Kristiansand in the shape of some very fine paddles.

 

With the the same oak, I recently built this nice hybrid Greenland kayak - It has the looks of a normal Greenland style kayak, but has extra stringers in the hull, to give it a slightly rounder hull shape. 

Finally, I started building a new ultra light baidarka, or iqyax this week. I'll describe the process in detail over the next weeks, as the work proceeds.