Free Oar and Paddle Plans

There are many good free plans for oars, canoe paddles and kayak paddles including Aleut style

Here is a collection that I have put together. If I missed some let me know.

Making your own nice wooden oars is very satisfying. Here are a few plans but also good articles for paddle and oar making

Email me if a plan link is broken. I try to update everything often but the internet is a fast paced place. (and I'm quite pokey)

Choose your material carefully so you don't end up with a warped oar :( as I did in my wooden oar making experiment.

Free Paddle and Oar Plans

• Lightweight Laminated Spoon Blade Sculling Oars Designed by Rick Thompson, and offered on Ruedi Anneler's pages. Free plans pdf.
• Free Plans for Simple Oars Article by Spark Geissler
• Free paddle Plans Plans for a canoe paddle from an old book in my family
• Free paddle plans, single and double bladed, from Michael Storer. Famous for his Goat Island Skiff. He has a new row boat design.
• Greenland Style Paddle Building Article by George Ellis. Guillemot kayak .com
• Instructable on Making a west greenland style kayak paddle
• Chuck Holst Greenland Paddle Plans pdf file with youtube video from Matt Johnson.
• New Zealand's National Sea Kayaking Body Several plans for Greenland Paddles
• From PDRacer.com Quick and easy oars.
• Pete Culler Long Oars. PDF either opens or downloads depending on your settings.
• Woodworker's Journal Make a Northwoods canoe paddle
• Oeko Travel Classic Oars
• Toledo Community Boat House Oars
• Free Plans and instructions to build Oars Bob Smalser builds some nice oars as a wedding-gift for his oldest son.
• Aleut Eskimo Style Kayak paddle from Chris Brown. Step by step with photos and diagrams. His experiences and experiments.
• Nice drawing for a Free Aleut style paddle In Italian, get Google to translate but the plans can easily be figured out.
• A useful article on Greenland paddle Compared to Aleut, In Italian! get google to translate. Paddling technique.
• Geodesic Airolites has a oar page
• Free Paddle Plans and instructions from Words n Wood fun ramble through many woodworking projects.
• Outdoor Life has a quick and easy oar page. Not super fine but quick and easy!
• Bob Gillis carves a nice canoe paddle from the Primitive ways website
• Free Canoe Paddle Templates from Ashes pdf page. He also offers some nice stripper canoe plans.
• Some nice oar plans Almost free, you have to buy a back copy of Wooden Boat Magazine. 3.50 US.
• The Art of Manliness has a nice article on making a canoe paddle. Not quite plans but worth having a read.
• Kajakkspesialisten has instructions including measurements for making a Kayak greenland paddle.
• Ron Liskey has instructions for mkaking a canoe paddle. Lots of info on sizing and designing the paddle. PDF format. This is a google search, my other link was broken.

If you plan on making wooden oars or paddles check that the dimensions are good for your boat, longer is usually better.

Paddling.com has an interesting page on the basic Kayak Paddle Shapes This is a very comprehensive article well worth reading.

I try to be accurate and check my information, but mistakes happen. Some free plans are good but others are worth exactly what you paid for them.

Small Print

This information is for general knowledge. If you plan to build a boat, make a wooden canoe paddles or wooden oars, or anything, check and recheck. Work safely. I have not tested most of these plans so there could be mistakes. I include on the side panel, some amazon links. This helps me pay for the website. The links are relevant to the subject and I choose them myself. I try to keep the quality of the products reasonable, but I don't test them. Unless I say so I am not recommending anything.