You could do the whole thing with a belt sander and 60 grit paper. Lots of ways to shape a paddle. I like a satin finish polyurethane for a finish. Not traditional, but effective.

: Well, my daughter had her first unexpected capsize in her Sea Flea.
: Fortunately just a week prior, we had practiced a capsize + wet
: exit (no skirt, but still needs to get feet out + swim away).
: She did spectacular - kept a death grip on her paddle the entire
: time and only had big eyes, but no panicking. My buddy emptied
: her boat in no time flat and she was back in after a quick post
: mortem + reassurances.

: I give 90% or more credit to the paddle. It's a Bending Branches
: Cattail. It's a kid-specific paddle, but it's still obnoxiously
: long for her. Kids tend to get the paddle vertical at the side
: of the boat and then it pulls them down. I've watched kid after
: kid do it - usually their floppy-ness keeps them out of the
: water.

: SO... I've been mulling it for a while. And I have Bryan N's book
: on carving a GP. Because this is my first try - I'd like to pull
: this off as cheaply as possible. So - what wood could I get for
: this?

: And, what's the bare minimum tools-wise to be able to do this
: realistically? My dad has a band saw that I can cut the blank
: down with. However, I don't own a block plane or spokeshave or
: draw knife (though, the spokeshave & draw knives scare me
: just looking at them).

: Thoughts? Opinions? Witty commentary (yeah- I know, RTFM)?

: -Doug