Hi JJ, paddles come in all shapes and sizes and there are no right answers. Greenland is home to some of the most interesting wooden kayaks but trees don't grow in Greenland... so you can make a good paddle (or the whole boat for that matter) from wood found on the beach

You sound like you are on track. I would just follow through with your plan and do what makes sense to you. There are a number of ways to make hollow paddle shafts. Search the Archive www.kayakforum.com/KayakBuilding/Archive.shtml for keyword "birdsmouth" or go to www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/Archive50.pl?review=58405 Go ahead and use softwood if you like, use fiberglass if you want, my experience is fiberglass doesn't add much to hardwoods in this type of application (but I have not made a paddle from hardwood).

There is another way to make a hollow Greenland paddle by simply stripping around small disk... the disk acts as a spreader in center of the loom (shaft) and the strips are able to twist/taper down flat at each end. I'm working on one of those now. Good luck with it.

www.ChipSandresky.com