: Oil finishes and oil/varnish blends (which is what most
: "Danish Oil" and similar finishes are, combined with a
: lot of thinner) work just fine and paddles finished with them
: don't absorb any appreciable amount of water.

: If you epoxy finish a paddle, you should varnish it for UV
: protection. Personally, I don't like hard film finishes, as they
: will all eventually crack, allowing water into the wood and
: trapping it there, ultimately causing rot. I find oils and
: blends to be much easier to live with, plus I like their look
: and feel.

: BTW, unless you've already have bought the "penetrating
: oil" finish that you're thinking of using, I would suggest
: buying varnish and pure tung oil (or "boiled" linseed
: oil) and mixing your own. With the commercial finishes, you're
: paying a lot of money for a product that's typically more than
: 50% mineral spirits. Thinning really doesn't help penetration
: significantly, it makes the resulting finish more porous and it
: requires more coats to achieve a satisfactory finish (if it's
: 50% thinner, it makes sense it would take twice as many coats as
: with a product with no thinner). Also, if you blend your own,
: you can play with the oil/varnish ratio to get the combination
: of look. feel and durability you like. 50:50 is a good starting
: point that will produce a finish that looks and feels like oil,
: but is considerably more durable than oil alone.

I havn't yet tried mixing my own "danish oil" but I might at some point. I use Watco in the paddle class since the students can easily get their own. But I don't like the feel of Watco so I use tung oil afterwards. Yeah I know, belt and suspenders finish, but it works. For me it lasts longer than just using tung oil and still has the nice feel of the tung oil finish.

I too don't like hard finishes, the varnished paddles and oars I've used all have developed rot in some areas, usually at the tips where the finish wears then traps moisture under that hard finish.

Bill H.