Dan,
I made my first GP about a week ago. I haven't used it yet though. I went to Home Depot and purchased an 8' 2 x 4 SPF or something like that (in other words not too picky on the kind of wood). It looked nice and had a few knots. This was to be a first try so I didn't sweat it. I did it all by hand and it took about 5 hours total. I can cut that down to 2 hours if I have the blank bandsawed to the rough shape by a friend. I plan to make one more paddle and will keep the other blanks around in case they are needed. One thing I saw as a common thread through all the material I read and advice sought was that paddles break, sometimes unpredictable. Of course good wood choice and type of wood can sway the odds in favor of not breaking. I figured for five bucks and a measly 5-8 hours of work for two paddles, I'll take the chance on Home Depot wood. I did use the Watco Danish Oil that everyone was recommending a while back and it worked beautifully. I'll post some pics soon.

--Tony

: I've got it in my head to carve a greenland paddle. Sunday was a rain day
: here, so it's off to Lowes, HD, and a local place to riffle the lumber.
: Only cedar to be found is 1x fencing, and knotty stuff at that. Reracked a
: unit of studs, nuthin'. Forget resawing 4x stock - if it's 4x, it's a
: treated deck post. There is clear 1x4 pine, but flat, running grain. The
: 1x4 doug fir was the highlight of the trip - clear, nice grain, fairly
: close to quartersawn if chosen well. Wasn't noticeably heavier than the
: clear pine, tho both were getting up there. So, my options: 1)Epoxy up the
: doug fir into a 2x4-ish thing and have at it. Will I regret the seam thru
: the thickness of the blades, and any thoughts on aligning the grain in the
: glue-up?

: 2)Same as above, only with the clear pine.

: 3)Back to the studs, picking one with only a couple dozen penciltip closed
: knots (i.e. am I being too picky?)

: 4)Beg, plead, cry, promise beer, or whatever else it might take to get
: someone to give up the secret source of good softwood around SW Ohio.

: Any ideas?