: Hello everybody,
: I could lay my hands on a beautiful piece of meranti wood.
: It seem fairly heavy, but it´s perfectly sized for a greenland paddle.
: I could always use it to break icebergs and hunt icebears.
: Any counsel would be welcome-
: Thanks Joaquin

I'd suggest using some of it in a laminated piece to make your Greenland paddle from.

It is hard to find a perfectly defect free piece of wood to make a paddle from. And you WILL find a defect if there is one in the wood, not at the best of times either (if Murphy's law is in effect near you). It is also almost irresistible to make a paddle from a piece of wood with just one tiny little defect on the loom. The rest of the paddle looks so good, how can that one little knot be a problem. BUT IT WILL!

Is much easier to use epoxy to glue up a totally defect free blank to make your paddle from.

I make my native paddles from northern white cedar and hardwood pieces.

I've used mahogany, cherry, and Australian lacewood with the cedar to increase strength and add visual interest.

I glue 1/4" strips of hardwood to the sides of the cedar shaft (full paddle length). The hardwood strips are parallel to the blade faces of the paddle. This creates an I beam structure. These hardwood strips end about a foot from each blade tip since the blades will taper and the hardwood is not needed there.

Then I glue a couple pieces of 1/4" hardwood strips on the blade sections perpendicular to the blade faces and add cedar to this to achieve the blade width.

Sometimes I add hardwood wear edges to the blades and apply fancy veneers to the tip face ends. I add a strip of polypropylene cloth to the tip for abrasion resistance.

If you glue with epoxy and seal the whole paddle with epoxy wood blackening or graying will be prevented.

This paddle blank lamination method allows you to use all kinds of hardwoods to jazz it up!

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K