Scott,

had another look at the pic, and realized that Brian's comment about the grain runout describes the problem. I had assumed that the loom would have laminated strips, and that the paddle broke exactly at the end of those.

Even as is, had you tapered later, farther on the blade face, and not exactly at the shoulder, the stresses would have been born by the edge laminations as well, and it might have held. Would have been heavier though, and less effective when extended.

Brian'spoint about edge grain is very important, especially when the grain is as coarse as it appears in the picture.

risto

: risto,
: Sorry for the misconception that I had built some kind of radically
: "Ultra" light kayak paddle and posted a pic of it to show where
: it broke. This is just the lightest paddle that I had ever built/owned and
: I commonly use words like that to describe things. My internet time is
: sporatic and I can't always be on this board. Sometimes days will go by
: before I can read/respond to a post.

: I appreciate the comment about the transition zone overlap and will keep that
: in mind on the next one. I'm tempted to buy a scale to weigh this broken
: paddle, just to put a number on it. I'll let you know what it weighs.
: SMF