Looking for feedback on wood paddles - Save the Children

[shapeshifter]

more and more it seems just how many ways you are blessed in this world bob... glad to hear you and swmbo had such a good time.

yes, it tends to be a bit more brittle rand... but for many different reasons, some of which i am sure of and a few which are just suspect. the grain on these old growths are much tighter and the centuries have taken away a lot of the flexibility and the lignin it contained. i know of a great way to make the cellulose plastic but the ingredients are volatile (actually the same used to manufacture crystal meth). yes, let's just say that it sends up red flags when you put it in the shop. you can understand the clearance needed to handle the stuff. bad enough that i've already installed a large "lumber steamer" (hermetically sealed steam shower), a moisture proof board warmer (heated tile floors) and soaking tub with agitators (jacuzzi)... oh yeah, chan, didn't i tell you that i make a lot of stuff in the bathroom? anyway the heat signature on my house is through the roof. when a friend did a fly-by in one of those green harvest hell-birds, the thing stuck out like a sore thumb in winter.

yes there's ways of getting around the brittle issue... but one good thing about stiffness is that it would make this two-piece paddle idea that is forming in the sketchup palette of my mind that much more of a definite possibility.