Curved Shaft Paddle at Upernavik Museum

Measured Dec 4th, 97

Gail Ferris

www.nkhorizons.com/CurvedShaftPaddleUpv.htm

www.nkhorizons.com

gaileferris@hotmail.com

 

Curved shaft has an elevation in the center of 2 cm with a definite carving of the wood to obtain this semi-lunar shape.  The paddle is held with the curve of the shaft oriented so that the tips bow back toward the paddler. 

This gives the blade surfaces a more scooping type of bite to the water similar to a swimmers hand orientation in the 1st half of the crawl stroke.

The blades transition to the loom has a very shallow taper through out which is characteristic of paddles in Upernavik and the settlements as far north as Kullorsuaq with an over all shape seen in Tassiusaq paddles.

Edge is fairly fine even though made of coarse grained fir as is typical of paddles from Upernavik area where bone edges are not used rather the paddle edges are finished as smoothly and as sharply and evenly defined edges to minimize water dripping.

Smooth finishing of paddle surfaces without any finish to minimize water dripping is typical of this area Nikolaj Jensen at Kullorsuaq informed me.

 

 

Very shallow taper from tip to shaft similar over all shape as to Tassiusaq paddles.

Edge is fairly fine even though made of coarse grained fir Surface is treated with a whitewash like powder painted on or rubbed into the wood perhaps to make the paddle look less obvious camouflaging against a snow or ice background

The lower third of the paddle blade probably has broken off fairly recently because it has been reattached with a nail visible on one edge of the blade at 30 cm.

Bone tips are of very coarse bone.  No bone edges and it’s the first bone tipped paddle I have seen with a Tassiusaq over all shape and length.

Bone tip is 5.5 cm long with 1/4 circle rounded elliptical tip

Shaft is exceptionally square Total length is 230 cm the longest I recall measuring in Upernavik.

The transition from blade to shaft starts at 65 cm to add thickness for the shaft but the paddle overall has a very gentle taper from blade tip to shaft.  There is no zone of blade definition as is seen bone edged paddles from Disko Bay area.

There is no ridge down the center of the blade just a very soft arch.

End is a symmetrical ½ circle shape

 

 

Flat width dimensions in cm at the following distances from the tip to the shaft:

@   2.5 cm - 6.1 cm ;

@   5 cm - 6.5 cm ;

@  10 cm - 6.2 cm ;

@  20 cm - 5.9;

@  30 cm - 5.5 cm ;

@  40 cm - 5.4 cm ;

@  50 cm - 5.0 cm ;

@  60 cm - 4.8 cm ;

@  70 cm - 4.4 cm;

@  80 cm - 3.9 cm ;

@  90 cm - 3.5 cm ;

@ 100 cm - 3.2 cm ;

@ 110 cm - 3.1 cm ;

@ 120 cm - 3.1 cm ;

@ 125 cm - 3.1 cm ;

 

Maximum thickness at the middle paddle laid on edge

@   0 cm – 1.9 cm ;

@   2.5 cm – 1.9 cm ;

@   5 cm - 1.9  cm ;

@  10 cm - 1.9  cm ;

@  20 cm - 1.7 cm ;

@  30 cm - 1.8 cm ;

@  40 cm - 1.8 cm ;

@  50 cm - 1.8 cm ;

@  60 cm – 1.9 cm ;

@  70 cm – 2.0 cm ;

@  80 cm – 2.2 cm ;

@  90 cm – 2.5 cm ;

@ 100 cm - 2.9 cm ;

@ 110 cm - 3.0 cm ;

@ 120 cm - 3.0 cm ;

@ 125 cm – 3.0 cm ;