Yo Don

Greenland paddles are great and much easier to make than read about how to make. I would have roughed my greenland blank out with the bandsaw and done most of the shaping with a block plane. (small story, the wifes father gave me a little block plane which at some stage I dropped on the floor and busted. I left it for years and eventually got around to getting a replacement body for it. A quick sharpen and reassembly and that little beauty, quickly and smoothly made a serious impression). I used the spoke shave to trim the hard bits up where my little block plane couldn't get to.

This made a handsome looking blade. But, the year before when I made my first greenland paddle, I just attacked my original blank with a rasp which resulted in a pile of shavings, a bit of sweat and ultimately a nice feeling paddle. All the rasp marks left the blade looking a bit like it had been attacked by a beaver on speed, so I dealt to it with a belt sander.

Some rude modern day kayakers (gotta have hatches, rudders and euro blades and plastic kayaks) reckoned it looked ugly. At the time I had to almost agree. But that blade (originally a worm eaten, second, piece of western red 4 x 2, cost next to nothing and is a warm rich dark heartwood colour) feels good and remains my primary paddle after more than a year of happy paddling. When the time came to re-oil this beauty I touched it up with my block plane and spokeshave, gave it another sand and it feels even nicer and looks a little prettier.

Good luck with yours.

Cheers Pete