Marlin,

I can't claim to have used Dynel, but I've played around with epoxies, fiberglass, additives, etc. for a while.  I am planning on making some paddles using some of the techniques I learned working on composite aircraft and cedar strip canoes.

Here's an adaptation of one of those techniques: Get some thick polyethylene sheet plastic material (4-6 mil), as well as some thin (1/2-1 mil) stuff.  Try to get it from a roll so that there are no folds or creases in it.  Cut an oversized piece of each thickness plastic for your paddle blade.

Use a felt tip marker to mark the thick piece of the plastic the exact shape that you want the final size of the fiberglass to be.  Mark it ~3/8" longer than the blade so that you can make the "tip".   Also make sure to mark it so that you know which side the ink is on (epoxy dissolves felt-tipped pen marks and will discolor your wood).

Flip the inked piece over so that the ink is down on your work surface.  Place an oversized piece of fiberglass cloth on top of the plastic (your blades will be stronger if you run the threads diagonal to the blade edges, or "on the bias").  Pour on some mixed up epoxy, place another blank piece of plastic on top, and then squeegee the "sandwich" to wet out the cloth.  Use enough epoxy that the sandwich is a little wet.  You don't want a "dry" layup because it will also have a rough finish.

Now... use a "pizza cutter" rolling razor knife (Fiskar makes a good one that is widely available) to cut cleanly and neatly through the "sandwich" following the lines that you marked on the plastic.  Carefully peel away the thin piece of plastic, and lay the wet cloth with the thick plastic backing on your paddle right where you want it.  Squeegee or press it into full contact with the wood and eliminate any air bubbles, but don't peel off the thick plastic yet.

This gives a neat (almost glove-less) layup exactly to size, without frayed glass edges.  The thick plastic will keep the cloth sticking out straight past the end of the paddle, particularly if you can tape some cardboard or other backing on top of the plastic to keep it in contact with the blade, and then lay the paddle plastic side down while the epoxy sets up.

When the epoxy is "green" (gelled up and the cloth stiffened but still not fully cured), flip the paddle over and repeat on the opposite face.  Now you have a fully glassed blade with a fiberglass "channel" at the tip for the Dynel, fortified epoxy, etc.  If you stand the paddle on end with the tip up, you can pour or pack the end-treatment into the channel.  My preferred mix is a stiff epoxy/microfiber/phenolic microsphere mix that is both tough without being brittle.  Once it all cures good and hard, you can peel off the plastic layers and have a nice, slick surface.

If you want a really rugged paddle, you could then surface abrade the edges slightly and wrap them with a 2" wide strip of 2 oz cloth laid on the bias... again, use a plastic sandwich to keep the application neat and avoid lifted, displaced strands.  Use very thin plastic for this one, because the thick stuff won't bend around the narrow edge of the paddle.

If you don't want to wrap the blade in glass (or it's already wrapped), you can get the same results using clear packing tape to make the channel at the paddle tip.  Just  abrade the paddle tip well enough for the epoxy to soak in and make a good bond.  I have been known to make a thin mix and paint it onto the wood first.  If the wood resists soaking it up, I'll heat it with a heat gun to open the pores and help wick the thin epoxy into the fibers to get a really good bond.  Then, I put the thick mix on while the first coat is still green.

Have fun!

WS

Marlin,

There are lots of different epoxies available, but when it comes to doing wood & glass layups for room temperature curing, it is largely a matter of preference.  I tend to stick to West Systems because it is the first epoxy I used, I always have some left over stock, and I've gotten used to it's properties.  The resin is thicker than some other makes which gives me less dripping and running, and helps when filling the weave to get a smooth finish.  The down side is that it takes longer to wet out the cloth, particularly when cool, and it can pull the cloth if you get aggressive trying to squeegee out the excess or work out a bubble.

A lot can be done by adjusting the temperature of the room, the epoxy, or the working surface.  I think temperature has much more to do with how well an epoxy handles than any "proprietary formulation".  On my first woodstrip canoe, I mixed 2-3 pumps of epoxy into a dixie cup, then put it into a larger cup with ice water in it.  The chilled water kept the epoxy from starting to cure for hours.  It also thickened it to a very viscous gel.  I used a throw-away acid brush to transfer the glue into the cove in the wood strips for edge-gluing the hull.  As the epoxy hit the relatively warm wood, it would thin and brush out very nicely.  I had plenty of time to position the next strip, staple it in place, and then go on to the next strip.  I never had problems with the epoxy going off too early, and I could do about 4 strips at a time.  Now I just use yellow glue, but the ice water trick worked great and taught me a lot about how the epoxy handles with temperature.

When wetting out glass cloth, sometimes I'll use a heat gun to thin out the epoxy and speed up wicking into the wood fibers.  Keeping your resin and hardener slightly warmer than the room (~90-100 F) really helps with the pumping and mixing.  But it also accelerates the curing, so be ready to pour or spread it out soon after mixing to slow it down and keep it workable.

I once saw a canoe with some unsightly white speckles in the cloth.  Every place that the warp and the woof of the weave crossed, there was a tiny white spec.  It turned out that the epoxy the guy used was just too thick to completely wet out the fabric, and these were minute air bubbles left in the glass.  I've heard it said that perhaps the glass didn't have the "right" sizing on it.  Commercial fiberglass is sold with a "sizing" that helps it to wet out properly.  It is some kind of coating that improves the surface tension, etc.  So far, I haven't had any problems with this.  I just buy stuff marketed for hand layups from reputable firms.  But if the epoxy is too thick, it won't  thoroughly wet out the cloth without a lot of extra work with the squeegee.  So make sure that you are either using a thin formulation, or that your work area is warm enough.  If it just doesn't seem to work easily enough, pull out the heat gun.

It's fun and enlightening to take scraps of glass, wood, and some epoxy and seeing what you can do with it by varying temperature.  You can also use heat lamps or just 60-75 watt light bulbs in a portable clamp-on fixture with a reflector (they have 'em at my local hardware store) is sometimes helpful in providing just a little gentle heat in the right place to pre-warm the layup, help in wetting out, or in accelerating the cure.

I've heard that the MAS epoxies work well too, but I don't have any first-hand experience with them.

As for plans... sorry!  The 'net is my preferred resource also.  If I don't find it there, I don't find it.  I don't recognize the name... is this a discontinued model by the current Bell company?  They may be willing to sell (or even give!) you the dimensions.  If it is a historic model, then you may be able to get some information through the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (I think that is their name).

If you can find an existing hull, you can also take dimensions directly off of it.  There are instructions in various places on how to do this, but in general you will need to be able to set it up on blocks and take off datum points.  I haven't tried that before, but it doesn't look to be too difficult.

Your post got me itchin' to make some paddles myself.  It will make a good spring project while I wait for the summer trips!

WS