Should GP have rounded or straight blade tips?
Personal preference. All of mine are rounded, but I know people who prefer straight tips. Maybe I’ll make a straight one just to compare.
I’m making another now. I have always rounded the tips.
Maybe it’s time to go straight… 
GH, I always enjoy your thought provoking comments.
Just cooped up too long, not that I get around that much…
Opening our county tomorrow… Been kind of nice having it closed.
Friends will be able to come get their kayaks that they left in my yard…
We can relate
My first GP (laminated cedar) was rounded. Still have and love it. Then I got a Northern Lights carbon with straight ends. Did not really like it. Sold it and bought a different carbon with round ends (Gearlab Akiak, which is pretty similar to my custom cedar). Love it.
My feelings about the straight ended one was that it was noisy and it felt like it dragged and even fluttered at times. But I can’t say for sure that the quirks I didn’t like were due to the straight ends or to other factors like relative stiffness and cross section. Weight of all 3 was within 2 ounces of each other. Cedar is 213 cm, both carbons at 220 cm
Only diff I can see is if one shape cracks easier when you find a rock. I don’t have enough time in with a GP to have assessed that one.
Square tips are more likely to chip, so I round mine and coat them with epoxy.
Photos or it didn’t happen!
Rounded tips are probably better from a fluid mechanics perspective. I believe a square tip will tend to develop a more energetic tip vortex than a rounded tip, which would cause more noise (higher velocity in the vortex) and additional induced drag . I think both effects will occur if the GP is being used in lift mode (canted paddle), only the first in drag mode. I don’t have proof of any of this, however, just a feeling.
I rounded the tips like I always have. I’ve also always used epoxy on them . And a big factor is I think they look better.
How rounded? Rounded at the edges? Rounded from the center? Enquiring minds…
I put white pigment in the epoxy on the tips, so they look like traditional bone tips.
My template for rounding is a small plate, so yes , rounded from the center. It’s a gentle rounding that is a bit more than breaking the edges.
When I color the tips I use bright yellow.
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All mine are rounded to some degree. My commercially made Novorca is the least rounded and then slightly more rounded one I made for wife. She wanted a particular shape which she covered in pink epoxy with deliberate drips and runs away from tip. My first self made GP was tips well rounded as scribed by compass. My last GP has radius perhaps 1.5 times that of blade width at tip. My choices were based on appearance and presumed performance and durability issues of more pronounced corners. All paddle very well, each with own personality. The carbon fiber Novorca bounces off the local oyster shells. Wife’s does same. My two WRC need seasonal sanding and oiling to keep up appearances.
I prefer rounded. Te Werner Arctic Wind which was available years ago still works just fine. It’s a 2 piece fiberglass model. Not bad at all!