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The Hole Paddle
This paddle is a real attention-getter. It will improve your behavior and quicken your disciplinary response. (Ouch! Ow! Ow! Ow! Yes sir!)
The paddle in the photo was made from a 1-foot by 10-inch board of red oak, sold for 25/32” thick. The actual width was 9½”; the actual thickness 0.792”.
Address the board on a table. Go down a quarter-inch or so from the top and draw a horizontal line (use pencil -- see diagram below). Six inches below that line draw another.
Measure off an 8-inch segment on the top line, leaving an equal space on both sides. Do the same on the bottom line. Draw vertical lines connecting the ends of the 8-inch segments, giving a box, 6” by 8”.
Mark the upper left corner of the box “H”, the upper right corner “J”, the lower left corner “A”, the lower right corner “B”.
Find the mid points of the top and bottom lines, and connect them with a vertical line. Call the top point of that line “K”, and the bottom point “C”.
From “A”, go up 5½” and mark the point “N”. From “B”, go up 5½” and mark the point “P”.
From “N”, go down 3½” and mark the point “L”. From “P”, go down 3½” and mark the point “M”.
Draw a line from “K” to “N”, and another from “K” to “P”.
From “C”, scribe a one-and-a-sixteenth horizontal line, straddling “C” equally on both sides. This is the paddle’s handle, an inch-and-a-sixteenth wide. Call the left end of the inch-and-a-sixteenth line “D”, and the right end “E”.
From “D”, go left one-and-seven-eighths inches, and call that point “F”. From “E”, go right one-and-seven-eighths inches, and call that point “G”.
Draw a line from “G” to “M”, and another from “F” to “L”.
Drop perpendiculars from “D” and “E” to the bottom of the board. You can trim some off the bottom of the handle after it’s cut out, if you want.
This gives the outline of the paddle. The one in the photo was cut out with a scroll saw, but I have used a coping saw, and it can be done in a couple of hours.
For making the holes, do not exceed the number of holes in the photo (20). It could even have fewer. More is less effective. Use small flatwashers (#10’s will do just fine) as a template. Arrange them on the paddle in the places you want them, and carefully make a dot on the wood in the center of each one.
Drill a 1/16” hole at each dot, then widen the hole with successively larger bits (1/16, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2). If you have in-between sizes, use them as the hole gets larger. If you increase the size too fast, you could split the wood.
I finished the one in the photo with boiled linseed oil. You just slosh some onto a rag and rub it on there, being careful to not leave any excess. Repeat this every day or so, until it looks nice. Don’t overdo it.
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