Just following up from my previous threads I started on my DIY Western red cedar Greenland paddle in the last couple of weeks. This is gonna be long, but I'm hoping it's useful to other first-time paddle makers. And might give the rest of you a few chuckles between head-shaking and eye-rolling.

Thanks again to everyone who weighed in with advice!

Here's a photo I took this morning, after using the paddle on its maiden voyage on the Potomac (from Fletcher's Cove):
https://sailwithdulcinea.shutterfly.com/pictures/144#140 (A few more are in that same album.)

BLADE TIP PROTECTION

This was the part of the process I found most tedious and least intuitive.

The first weekend in June (I think it was), I finally applied the West Systems 655 thickened epoxy to my blade tips and the first 16" or so of each edge. I wanted it to be white, to resemble the whalebone tips the Inuit used. But I wasn’t going to pay the $40 to buy the pigment at marine-supply store. (Seriously, $40 for pigment when I already forked over $30 for your epoxy? They don't make you do that with paint. What gives?!) So I added to the resin and hardener a dollop of white, water-based acrylic art paint that I had lying around.

It worked acceptably well. It did take some time to dry, and it came out what I then thought was too white. It was also uneven, since I painted it on too thick in one coat. So almost 24 hours later, sanded it down with 80-grit, to roughen it up and take off the shine. Then (using the same cheap art paints) I mixed up some white with a little acrylic burnt sienna, to make a very light beige. Then I painted this over the white epoxy/acrylic coat and let it dry.

Then I decided it was too thick (above the level of the wood rather than flush, as bone would be) and too beige, so I sanded it down. Then I put on about three coats of Behr latex-based decorator’s white ceiling paint I had on hand, sanding between each coat. I like that it's a matte finish and looks more like bone. Once it dried, I slathered on a thick coat of 655 two days ago. It dried very yellow and thick; I'm sure 655 looks fine over bare wood, but over anything white, it's yellow.

So I sanded that down a good bit yesterday. It was REALLY hard to remove, even with 80-grit paper and an RO sander. As an experiment, I painted more ceiling white over the tip but left the other tip as it was before trying the paddle on the water.

OIL TREATMENT OF THE REST

I was eager to try the paddle today (Saturday), so last night I applied some leftover Epifanes Teak Oil Sealer, which is linseed oil combined with what smells like diesel fuel, DDT, and the souls of dead kittens. It worked OK, but the odor was god-awful. I applied it outdoors and still had a hint of a headache. Even this morning, after leaving the paddle outside all night. Even after handling the paddle just now--after it's been used in the water--my hands still smell like this stuff! If I were buying oil, I would go with the tung oil/citrus solvent mix or something else non-toxic.

I guess it worked OK on the wood; the wood was gorgeous when I first oiled it but dried out a bit after I used the paddle this morning.

RESULTS ON THE WATER

On the river today, the paddle was fun to use overall. I didn't find the GP design much slower--and even if it is, I have a bad elbow I'm trying to get to heal. I definitely liked being able to do huge sweeps more easily, like when I had to do a U-turn in my 17-foot boat. The GP does get your hands wetter, but if you're trying to avoid water, you're in the wrong sport. In fact, the hardest aspect of using it was getting it in the car.

My paddle is about 220 cm. Every formula I can find online would say this is more than long enough for a 5'9" guy with 32" arms--but it was just long enough. Again, my boat (Pygmy Coho) is 23" in beam at the cockpit.

I did find the loom area (such as it is--a gradual taper from each blade, with no shoulders) too narrow. Holding the paddle where it's about 2.5 or 3" got tiring on my thumbs. Apparently my natural grip preference is with my hands pretty far apart (about one hand wider than shoulder width on either side) and using a higher angle to the water than most prefer.

Interestingly, I didn't find the paddle as quiet as I'd expected--so I'm going to sand down the edges to be much sharper. And I might make the blade faces even flatter. I did notice some vortices off each blade. I'm not sure how to fix that--or if it's even possible.

The white paint I put on over the epoxy last night seems to have held up in the water--which is surprising, in that it's not a glossy paint but very matte. Conversely, the epoxy along one edge, applied over white paint, flaked off.

Despite my endless re-attempts with the paddle tips, I'm glad I protected them, since this part of the river has some big rocks. Plus the white tips make me more visible to other boats--and they look cool. I like that they evoke what the Inuit were using as far back as 1,000 years ago.

You may notice the paddle has a slight arc. No idea how this happened; I measured everything before I started and kept re-marking with pencil. I suspect the board wasn't as straight as it appeared. Or maybe I flubbed the planing.

LESSONS FOR OTHER NOOBS

1. Use a very sharp blade on your hand plane.
2. If making the center of the loom oval, make sure it's in the right direction! Mine is vertical (parallel with the blades) rather than perpendicular. (I'm going to sand it down to fix this.)
3. Don't think you can just sand out gouges from your plane later; they take forever to remove, and you'll have to go deeper than you think.
4. If painting tips/edges, don’t be lazy. Tape next to every single area.
5. Don’t use old brushes unless they have no residual paint stuck in them, because it will come off in the epoxy.
6. Use a new plastic pallet knife; old dried paint will flake off with the epoxy.
7. Use latex gloves, because epoxy WILL get all over your hands, and it’s hell to clean off.
8. Epoxy won’t stick to paint very well, but paint will stick to epoxy. But that means you need to protect the paint with something--and obviously, that can't be epoxy. The only solution I can think of is to mix epoxy and paint or just use epoxy, if you want the tips to be the same color as the wood. Or you can darken the epoxy with graphite, etc.
9. A great container for mixing epoxy is a plastic quart container of Tivoli gelato. First you will have to eat the entire quart. Do it; it's delicious.
10. If I do another one, I'll probably use a hand saw rather than hand-planing everything. I got several large Ziploc bags of cedar shavings (to use in drawers as a moth repellent), but it took forever.

FUTURE PLANS

1. Sand down the epoxy/paint on the tips and edges yet again. Mix some of that Behr ceiling white with the 655 and reapply--but in very thin coats.
2. Shave down the loom at least 6" on each side, to make the loom span wider, leaving maybe 24" of full width (3.5") on each blade.
3. Re-oil. I guess I'll use the Epifanes again, since I still have half a quart left. It's expensive stuff, and even though it smells like nuclear waste mixed with Donald Trump's hairspray, I don't want to throw it away nor have it in a landfill. I'll wear the respirator this time.

Thanks again, and happy paddling!