Ends vs. middle
I’ve shortened a 2-piece aluminum paddle fro mthe blades ends. It was a piece of cake there, however, since the blades were plastic and attached with rivetts to the shaft. I chose not to do it in the middle to preserve the central position of the ferulle and because this way it would be unnoticeable - no need to drill new holes for the ferule pin or worry about a perfectly straight cut in the middle where it would be visible.
On a composite paddle, I think the same approach would be very hard to put things back together. If it wasn’t, I’d would have done it on a bent shaft paddle I really like but feel the bends are too far in and the blades too far out to be comfprtable for me…