I'll have to try the burnishing technique. It sounds like a good idea. In general, I've always found pine to be much heavier than WRC, but this piece wasn't. The finished weight is only 2/10ths heavier, and it's slightly thicker than my other paddle (almost an 1/8th of an inch). Even the oiling of the WRC seemed to help, though. It was only when I was still carving it that it seemed I kept banging it into things and denting it. It hardly has any more dents now after months of use.

Thanks for the tip,
Mark

: Mark,

: If you don't want to use a hard finish or protective edging, you can make WRC
: paddles slightly tougher by burnishing the completed paddle (a scraper
: burnisher or even a thick polished screwdriver works). In some parts of
: the arctic bone was used in the same fashion.

: I save pine for paddles used for surfing and other demanding applications as
: my pine paddle, although strong, is substantially heaver than my WRC
: paddles. BTW, my solid WRC paddles are vertical grain and they are very
: stiff.

: Greg Stamer