Teal Paddles - Shellane Woodworking
Phone: 1-705-647-6205
Fax: 1-705-647-4649
tealinaround@yahoo.com

The process of making a Teal paddle or yoke starts with handpicking the trees. Russell carefully selects each tree from wood lots in North Eastern Ontario. The logs are brought home and sawn by Russell. The sawing process is the beginning and the most important process in ensuring the logs are properly cut so that the grains run straight and avoid stresses. This makes for strong, dependable paddles and yokes.

The boards are kiln dried in our own kiln for several weeks. Russell keeps a daily watch on the wood as it dries until it is properly cured.

The wood is then brought into the shop where it is further sorted and only the best boards are used for paddles and yokes to ensure a quality product.

The paddles and yokes are hand crafted using several operations from drawing the pattern on the board, cutting it out, to the final sanding - a total of 27 steps! The final step in sanding paddles removes just the right amount of wood to acquire the proper "whip" action. Russell gives each paddle and yoke the "flex" test to ensure their strength.

Finally the yokes and paddles are brought to the dipping room where they are dipped twice in urethane, sanded and then dipped a third time. Audrey carefully inspects each paddle and yoke before packaging them.

We use several types of wood. Ash is very strong and is a golden brown colour.  It has a straight grain and medium to coarse texture. Of all the woods we use, Ash has the most whip action. Birch has exceptional strength and a fine grain with even texture. It is our most popular wood for paddles. Poplar has a straight grain and fine texture. It is a white wood and very light. We make our oars from poplar for its durability. We also buy cherry and walnut wood from Southern Ontario. Cherry is a strong wood but very light in weight. It's colour is a reddish brown and it makes very beautiful paddles and yokes.  The walnut is chocolate brown in colour.

To see pictures of our manufacturing process, please CLICK HERE.

The making of GREEN paddles! At Shellane Woodworking (Home of the TEAL paddle & yoke),we have been striving to reduce our energy needs since buying the business in 2001. Not only do we make the paddles and yokes but we saw the logs into boards and then dry them in our kiln. It takes a lot of energy to make a paddle from a tree! Each year we concentrate on another aspect of our manufacturing process and have lowered our power consumption by 60%! The obvious ways of cutting consumption included buying new energy efficient electric motors, upgrading to a modern 3 phase generator, insulating the buildings and installing heated floors in the shop and drying kiln. We are very pleased with the energy savings (and therefore cost savings) that we have accomplished in our kiln. The average load of lumber takes about three weeks to dry. We dry wood almost year round to keep ahead of the supply we need. The kiln uses a dehumidifying process that causes the moisture in the air to condense on pipes and drain off into a holding tank. The electric dehumidifier/heater that was in use when we bought the business has been replaced with a convection style design of temperature difference from the outside and inside of the kiln. In 2008, we installed a solar collector to heat the water pipes instead of using the wood stove during the summer to run the kiln. This saves on wood consumption as well as energy to run the system. At Shellane Woodworking we are always looking for new ways to make things easier, more cost efficient and better for our environment. We believe that even a small change can make a big difference. So if you want to see the making of GREEN paddles, come out and see us on Sawmill Road New Liskeard, Ontario!

 You can order direct from us or you can purchase our products from any of our distributors - Click here for the list of retailers.

Canoe Museum in Peterborough - www.canoemuseum.net
The Wilderness Canoe Association - www.wildernesscanoe.ca
Barrie Canoe & Kayak Club - www.bckc.ca 

Shellane Woodworking
Russell and Audrey Shelton
R.R.#1
New Liskeard, Ontario
P0J 1P0
Phone: 1-705-647-6205
Fax: 1-705-647-4649
E-mail: tealinaround@yahoo.com