I just finished a paddle and used a mortise and tenon joint with the cedar tenon going into the ash mortise about an inch and a half. I found that it would have been much easier to do the ash mortise before I rounded and shaped the piece (very hard to hold in the drill press, next time I'll just eye ball it with a hand drill and skip the whole try to hold it in the drill press thing). I found it much easier to work the ash pieces on a belt sander to get the shape first then attach them to the unworked cedar blank and then take a plane and work the cedar down to match the much harder ash. It worked very well, and greatly assisted in the shaping of the blades with respect to width and curves, etc.

If I epoxy a 2 or 3
: inch piece of ash to each end (via butt joint), will it hold okay without
: 'glass over it? I don't really want to 'glass the blades, but will if
: necessary.