When I began paddling with a Greenland paddle many years ago. I, like many others, became enamored with it. I made many from wood. Then came a time where I was going to need a paddle that would travel on an airplane to Iceland, with me. At the time the Greenland paddle was rarely seen outside of a very small circle of people in the USA and abroad. In the paddling community, Greenland paddles were very rare to see. I wished to paddle while in Iceland and so needed a Greenland travel paddle.
There were no 2 piece Carbon Greenland paddles at the time. I became instrumental in developing the 2 piece paddle later produced by Superior Kayaks .
I figured that I finally had a good dependable travel paddle. Then a couple of things happened. The airlines started changing what they would allow as far as a carry on and also stowed luggage for the same money. The second thing that happened was a paddle I had lent to a friend, {because even though it could be flown with, it had to be put in a slightly longer bag} got dragged on the tarmac as the bag shifted on the baggage cart. The end of the ferule on one of the halves got ground down and needed repair. My friend used it and it worked, but I wished to have more protection for my paddle.
This gave to the rise of a paddle, which could be placed inside my suitcase and protected along with my socks and underwear and drysuit etc. Meanwhile, the airlines also cut down the accepted weight without paying extra. So combined with the car sizes we realized would be encountered upon arrival. This meant downsizing the suitcases from the large ones that held the old weight of 70 pounds to the next smaller size which held 50. Thus , I set about making a 3 piece paddle , but then determined it too was still too long for my criteria. I then went to making four piece paddle for travel. Nice … and they fit in a medium suitcase. This lead to the storm 4 piece and then I added a takeout loom piece {Making it a 5 piece paddle when in full length} The takeout loom idea has since been used by a few paddle makers to add a shorter travel paddle for market.

I did the storm with the loom piece because if something ever happened to my full length paddle while out on a 1 or 2 week trip. I wanted to be able to take my storm paddle and convert it to full length so that I wouldn’t be stuck with choosing to paddle in and replace my full length paddle or continue the trip and have only a storm paddle to use. I prefer to paddle with a full length when given a choice.

Since this I have become curious about the different handling of the historic modern Greenland Paddles. This gave rise to my delving into vacuum bagging and making an entire line of Carbon Greenland paddles of my own sizings.
In order to feel the paddling characterizes of the different cuts I had to make each of the types to compare them.
The Greenland paddles that I focused on where of 3 variations
The 1850’s and newer design {where the paddle is tapered from the shoulder to the widest point at the tip}, the 1750’s and earlier design {which reaches its widest point well before the tip and then the edges run parallel for a portion before the paddle tapers for several inches to the end} and what I call a modified 1850’s and newer design {which has a portion of the blade parallel at its widest dimension but has no diminishing width before the end}
Each of these designs was very well thought out by the Indigenous hunters. There were many other designs that have been documented by Harvey Golden and pictured on his web site. But for my purpose, I only focused on these 3.
This is the reason that I have ended up with so many Greenland Paddles.
I hope that answers better
Best Wishes
Roy