I probably wasn't clear about the information I was looking for. I'm not as interested in protecting the paddle tip as I am in getting a nice clean line where the cloth ends about 2 inches up on the blade. My concern was strengthening the joint where the cedar blade meets the walnut tip, that's why I decided to use some cloth on the end. Here's what I did this morning.

I taped wax paper to the paddle about 2 inches up from the joint. Then laid the cloth down over the exposed paddle tip and overlapping the wax paper and tape. The wax paper is intended to keep the resin from soaking thru in areas where it isn't wanted. Then applied resin. Tonite after work I plan to take a razor blade and cut the excess cloth off right at the edge of the wax paper/tape line. Then I will apply a new layer of tape right at the edge of the cloth to keep a clean line again when the next coat of resin is applied. I'm hoping to avoid having to sand off all the unraveled cloth.

On another one piece paddle, I used the nylon rope edge some of you have described - it has worked very well - hard as a rock.