DIY mash paddle wood?

Want to make my own mash paddle for my all grain batches. What wood should I use and where can I get it?

Most people use maple. You can get a 1x4, 1x6 or even 1x8 piece at your local Lowes/Home Depot. Avoid soft wood and treated wood. Many prefer to avoid oak, even though it's a hardwood, because of the fear of tannin leeching.

I used oak. Used a piece of 1x3. Cost me $7 at hardware store.

I used a piece of ash on the below mash paddle. Maple is another good choice.

You can find a selection of boards at a good lumberyard or woodworking shop like Rockler if you have one nearby.

Any closed grain wood would work well, Maple is probably the best and widely available. Cherry is another good choice but expensive.

Randar, that is an awesome looking paddle, great job.

I must agree, I saw some paddles in my search for answers and I think I like yours the best. Well done sir!

Thanks all. I'm headed to lowes shortly to pick up the maple wood.

dan6310 said:

Randar, that is an awesome looking paddle, great job.

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Thanks guys. It took a ridiculous amount of time. Keep it simple and functional and you'll be happy with the outcome... spend your time building something like a ferm chamber instead of all that extra time hunched over a scroll saw.

Randar said:

I used a piece of ash on the below mash paddle. Maple is another good choice.

You can find a selection of boards at a good lumberyard or woodworking shop like Rockler if you have one nearby.

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This mash paddle is a thing of beauty!! Did you have extreme wood working skills prior to making this, or learn on the fly?

TriangleIL said:

This mash paddle is a thing of beauty!! Did you have extreme wood working skills prior to making this, or learn on the fly?

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I am by no means a wood-working expert or cabinet maker or anything of the sort. DIY-hobbyist of many things, so I had a basic plan of how to do this and then learned along the way.

What about poplar, can it be used?

Poplar is pretty soft. It will be easy to work, but will not hold up to abuse as well. The maple usually sold at the big box stores is soft maple, but is harder than poplar. If you can find a piece of hard maple, it will be harder to work, but will hold up the longest. That has been used for bowling pins. It is also a diffuse-porous wood, less likely to hold wort and grow bacteria than oak or ash, which are ring-porous and, well, more porous. Wood finishers will use fillers to fill the open grain on those, but I don't know how those fillers would do in 150* wort. Bacterial growth shouldn't be a big deal for an hour mash pre-boil, but I'd still make sure to rinse that pretty ash paddle well fairly promptly after use.

Brickout said:

What about poplar, can it be used?

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Poplar (while technically a hardwood) is pretty flexible and not very tight-grained... hence why they use it for painted trim and detail work. By feel you can usually tell by weight of the wood. Oak, maple, ash, cherry, etc are all extremely heavy for their dimensions when compared to species like beech, birch, poplar, etc.

ThreeDogsNE said:

Bacterial growth shouldn't be a big deal for an hour mash pre-boil, but I'd still make sure to rinse that pretty ash paddle well fairly promptly after use.

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Oh, most-definitely. I don't know anyone that lets their wooden paddle sit in the mash for the whole hour, either, so a few brief contact periods with the mash and a spray-rinse does a mash-paddle good.

how did you make those holes in the wood? thanks!

scottvin said:

how did you make those holes in the wood? thanks!

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Sorry to the OP for this incidental hijack...

Drill press to make pilot holes, then I threaded the scroll saw blade into the slot before reattaching... then cut each detail piece.

Thanks for the replies on the poplar. I had a scrap and was wondering if I could use it.

Uhg, no maple at lowes. Still searching for some good wood.

We have maple at home depot.

I just picked up 3 feet of maple from home depot.($6.75) Now I have to think of some sort of design(pattern) for it. I figure I'm gonna have this for a while, I may as well put something cool on it.

Any ideas?

I am limited on tools. Jigsaw, drill, sand paper.....yeah it should work, or I'll make it work

Kmcogar said:

I just picked up 3 feet of maple from home depot.($6.75) Now I have to think of some sort of design(pattern) for it. I figure I'm gonna have this for a while, I may as well put something cool on it.

Any ideas?

I am limited on tools. Jigsaw, drill, sand paper.....yeah it should work, or I'll make it work

Click to expand...

Despite what my mash paddle ended up looking like, I would suggest keeping it simple. A series of holes of various size is a good way to go, IMO. If you have a spade bit set you could probably get away with just using the drill for the pattern and the jigsaw for the outline. I used a router to cut the outlines and round the edges, but you could do it with the jig saw and some patience (and a lot of sanding)

I've made mine with a jig saw, sandpaper, drill/hole saw bit, hammer and chisel. The hole saw bits are helpful as the paddle is much more efficient at breaking up dough balls if it has some holes in it. I go for bigger holes (that I can at least stick my finger in) for cleaning purposes. I used the hammer/chisel to thin out the paddle portion but honestly it's a lot of work and probably not worth the effort.

Maple is the way to go. And +1 on Randar's post that keeping it simple is probably the way to go. Nothing worse than getting a fancy, complicated design only to have it split on you...ask me how I know.

Yeah I think you are right. I'm gonna keep it pretty simple. I tried drawing a simple sketch of what i wanted to put on the paddle. AN ARTIST, I AM NOT! I think my 5 year old nephew could do a better job. Maybe I'll ask him......lol

I'll let you know how it turns out.

I made one out of oak dowels a few years ago using just a saw and drill press, and it's worked great. Shaped like below.

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Used a larger diameter (3/4"?) dowel for the handle portion and the two side peices and ran smaller diameter (1/4") dowels across through those. I then ran very small diameter dowels as pins at each joint to hold it all together. I'll snap a pic when I'm home if I get the chance. Simple and effective.

Here's a pic.

This is mine that i built from a 30" piece of hardwood flooring.
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