: You might also see if you can find some penetrating epoxy sealant. A primer
: coat with this, or a thinned epoxy, will soak into the pores of the wood
: which your sanding has opened, and you'll get some epoxy bonding of the
: wood fibers which you heard cracking. This will enhance the strength of
: the core of your paddle's handle.

Since I'll be meeting you this Saturday anyway, I'll bring along some CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer) and S3 Clear Coat to experiment with. I soaked my Shawn Baker birdmouth shaft in CPES 3 times, per mfr. rec. for complete saturation, and it added less than 2 oz. of weight on a 48" shaft. I like that the wood is stabilized and waterproof, but the shaft still has wood texture, not plastic.

PS, this is also a test of Polaroid Digital for Dummies.