: no incentive to make my paddles any lighter. BTW, Betsie Bay achieved
: their ultra light weight, 26 oz. laminated paddle (at least in the
: original design) by using a balsa core, rather than a hollow core. Food
: for thought.

hi,

Wasn't your 31 oz. cedar paddle oiled according to your method with several layers over a longer time? I wonder how much oil there is in there, as it must be the surface layers that cure first, trapping what ever has been sucked into the wood, so that it stays there? I don't pretend to know anything about this, but as I read someone claiming 26 oz. for a seemingly similar but totally untreated cedar paddle, I started wondering.

You mentioned elsewhere that your next paddle will be untreated cedar. Will it have identical dimensions to the existing 31 oz. paddle? That would make a very interesting weight comparison: the old, the new, and then the new after a good long trip, when it's all soaked.

The recent thread on finishes is interesting, if read with weight as foremost concern in mind. With all the trouble different finishes can give, why bother? I mean, if one wants to sell the thing, the prettier the better, but for own personal use... have you perhaps been turning into this line of thought lately?