: The laminated paddle will be stronger and more warp and crack resistant.
: Assembling it from strips no wider than 1/4 inch is a little extreme. I
: think you could easily go up to an inch wide without problems and use the
: variation in widths and color to create an interesting pattern. (racing
: stripes?)

But am I really asking for trouble if I were to build a canoe paddle from a single piece of wood? Obviosly lots of people seem to do it, but is there a fairly significant risk of crackig & warpage?