: I'm starting my first Greenland paddle tonight, and after looking around at
: wood options it got a bit confusing. I ended up picking up a quartersawn
: stud grade 2x4x8' that was totally clear, figuring if I got the wrong
: thing I'm out all of $1.95.

Jeez that's a tiny fraction of what that would cost here !

Here's a pic of four paddles. Ignore the one with a black loom, that's a
bought GP. The bottom one is a euro-style paddle. The third one down was
my first carved paddle - an Aleut rather than a GP, but most of the same
considerations would apply. That one's made from cheap flat-sawn spruce,
one plank for the blades, and a much smaller piece laminated on for the
loom. The grain is quite coarse, and there's a sizeable knot right in the
middle of one blade (unfortunately, this photo was taken to de-emphasise
the knot, so it's at the far end...). This paddle is epoxy-coated. It was
pretty easy to carve, and hasn't warped at all. The top one is made from
two 5/8" planks of Western Red Cedar laminated together, both have fairly
close grain and I chose to match them in a way which should have minimised
movement. The darker wood laminated on in the loom area (both sides) is
African Padauk, added because the WRC planks I had were not quite thick
enough, and a hardwood outer lamination adds to the stiffness and durability.
This was also very easy to carve (the ten hours time to make includes the
time laminating the blank). This has only an oiled finish, but it has
warped slightly since this photo was taken .... The oiled finish is much
nicer to handle than either the epoxy-coating of the Aleut (and Euro)
paddles or the high-gloss varnish of the commercial GP. The latter, in
particular, makes my hand slip with monotonous frequency, despite how
attractive the paddle looks.

Andy