I'm even more confused now. :-)

I think maybe we're talking about two different steps. The book says to
taper the shafts before gluing the paddle blade halves on, and points out
that this step is cosmetic and optional. Later on he talks about "rough
cutting the ends," where you cut the ends of the shaft to correspond with
the scoop of the blade. Then, finally when you're "grinding the blade"
I think is where you carve the shaft back so that on the back face it merges
with the blade surface about half way down.

I think the idea of this cosmetic tapering is that when you look at the
face of the finished paddle blade the shaft (which forms the center stripe
in the lamination) gets narrower at the tip.

But now I'm still confused because the book says "the faces that show the glue line ... is the face you will glue the blades on." but Steve says, "The glue line that you mention should show, if you laminated the shaft, on the face of the paddle along with the lines of the paddle lamination." Maybe the answer is that it doesn't really matter.

Chris
: No. It seems to be a bit confusing gluing paddles together. Before tapering,
: the cross section of the shaft out where the paddle blade halves attach is
: rectangular. The edges of the paddle blade halves glue onto the wider
: faces of the shaft. Since the blade is curved, most of that rectangular
: shaft will be behind the back of the blade out at the paddle tip. The
: taper you cut off is to remove that rectangular chunk, from tip of the
: blade back to about the midpoint of length of the blade so the back of the
: shaft matches the curve of the back of the paddle blade .

: Boy did that clear this up. Easier done than said.
: Dave