Satisfaction!  To hold the aromatic wood in your hands, and feel the wood grain of the natural paddle is a joy above description. 

With woodworking skills and shop tools, most builders can create a Greenland Paddle.  The satisfaction of that paddle and the interest it creates is one of the nice pleasures of kayaking.  There are plans for building a Greenland Paddle available on the internet.  We encourage you to build one of your own.  If this is not convenient, we can supply you with a custom paddle built to your anatomic measurements. 

This is the process we at Flyfisher Kayaks use in hand crafting a Greenland Paddle:

- The owner's height, shoulder width and fist width is measured.  Most paddlers hold a paddle with the center of their hands held a shoulder width apart. 

- The owner specifies whether the paddle should have shoulders or be shoulderless.  This is a matter of personal taste.  Some prefer the smooth lines of the shoulderless paddle while others like the look of a shouldered paddle.  Either seems to work very well in pulling the kayak through the water. 

- The wood for the paddle is chosen.  Cedar, redwood, and pine are the normal choices.  The strength of pine can not be exceeded by other coniferous woods, but it does weigh a few more ounces.  Redwood is light and takes on a nice dark color with the application of oil.  Cedar begins as a redish wood, and weathers into a beautiful silver color.  Cedar contains natural wood preservatives and is the choice for aromatic pleasure as the wood is wet in one's hands. 

- A trip to the wood supplier and selection of a blank which has straight, beautiful grain is always a delight to the senses.  The piles of lumber are protected from the elements.  An understanding yard foreman who knows the importance of hand crafted beauty assists with finding the best available wood for the paddle. 

- Back in the woodworking shop, the shape of the paddle is rough cut with a saw in three dimensions.    For the paddle owner who desires a blank to finish on their own, this is the stage the wood remains. 

- Then, the pleasure of taking a draw knife, then a jack plane and finally a block plane to the wood begins.  The smell and feel of wood curls coming off the paddle is a long remembered event.  This is when the lumber becomes a thing of beauty and a tool which will last many years.  It magically transforms from something which should be in a rack to something which should be in your hands on the water.  As the rough edges and saw marks are replaced by the smooth contours left by the planes, the beauty of the paddle comes alive.

- A plane leaves small angles on the surface of the rounded surfaces of the paddle.  Sanding these angles gives a fully finished feel to the paddle.  Fine grit sandpaper leaves the surface silky smooth. 

- Finally, the paddle is hand-rubbed with several coats of tung oil to preserve the color and the feel of the wood.

- The paddle stands in the shop for some hours, to be admired  as a thing of beauty which was imprisoned in the rough blank of wood from which it sprang forth.   Then it is carefully packaged in a PVC pipe for delivery to the owner's home.