Don,

I don't laminate my paddles, but if I did, I would still be very choosy of grain. Be especially critical of the shaft, runouts here and at the shaft/blade transition are very prone to breakage. My understanding is that laminations allow you to use smaller (easier to obtain) strips of high-quality wood, rather than allowing you to get away with second rate lumber. Hopefully the "strippers" will chime in as many of them have built beautiful laminated Greenland sticks.

Regarding grain, I noticed that the Betsie Bay "Greenlander" laminated paddles produced 10 years ago had a vertical grain shaft (running to the tip) with flat-sawn blades. I assume that flat-sawn was chosen for the blades to make splits along the tips less likely. A newer BBK paddle that I inspected had vertical grain for both the shaft and the blades.

Some folks like to use flat-sawn lumber to create a "springy" paddle and claim that it gives them a "kick" to their stroke and is kinder to joints and muscles. I prefer a very stiff, strong paddle, and have always used vertical grain. Historically, and today, paddles in Greenland are made with vertical grain. In pre-contact days the lumber for a paddle was split from large logs of driftwood. Today many Greenlanders pick through stacks of dimensioned lumber, looking for that "diamond in the rough", just as we do.

Best Regards,

Greg Stamer