: I have enjoyed all the discussion and guidance for paddle building on this
: board. I've made several very nice paddles by now and would like to offer
: an analysis of my results at www.geocities.com/gwchitty . I guess the
: next step is building a kayak, but after building each paddle I swear off
: any more epoxy work. Then a month or so later I start thinking of
: improvements and I'm making another paddle. I can only imagine the stack
: of kayaks I will end up with in my basement.

After reading your page I can see why you swear off using your "epoxy".

Umm, hate to break it to you, but the material you are using is not epoxy. Epoxy does not use MEKP hardener. the hardeners for epoxy usually mix at ratios of 1 part resin to anywhere from 1 part to 5 parts of hardener.
Polyester resin uses a MEKP catalyst, though. So does vinylester resin. these typically use 1% to 3% of catalyst, so that would be about 100 parts of resin to 1 to 3 parts of catalyst. I suspect that since you are using a Bondo product that needs small quantities of MEKP to cure, that it is a polyester base.

Polyester smells. It has fumes from evaporating solvents. You don't get as much of a problem from epoxy.

As best as I can see, there is nothig structurally wrong with using polyester resin on paddles. It is good and strong, and has some desireable stiffness. If it works for you, and you can deal with the aroma, then you might as well use it and save some money.

Of course for those boats you plan to build you might want to try using epoxy

PGJ