Ipe, AKA Brazilian Walnut.
Density is approx 70lbs per cu foot, compared to WRC’s 23lbs per cu foot.
Who wants a 70oz GP that doesn’t float? It would probably make a decent anchor though. :o
I noticed a product on the Home Depot shelf a while back that might be useful. It was a brush on “wood hardener” intended for rotten wood issues. I was evening considering putting it on the tips of one of GSP’s to try it.
I build mine from WRC and the weights can vary because the wood density varies.
I cover the tips with Gflex epoxy and it usually soaks in a bit. Makes them very tough.
Back to the question of what do greenlanders make their paddle from. I got to visit the far northwest coast of Iceland a couple of years ago and stayed in a sheep farm in a secluded fjord with my sons, their wives, girlfrineds, grandson, my wife. One thing I found really interesting is the amount of driftwood that comes into those fjords. I think my GPS said i was only ~ 500 miles from Greenland. I have never been on the ground there but have flown over Greenland many many times. There were huge logs of driftwood in iceland, and my guess was they were mostly spruces, furs or pines. My guess is the wood comes from Nova Scotia, Labrador, Scotland and Norway but just a guess looking at current maps. I brought home some interesting Icelandic drift wood for wood working projects, and it is quite interesting material; it seems almost rotten but retains it strength and floats, my pieces almost look like redwood, unfortunately I couldn’t bring back a paddle sized piece. My first GP was made from douglass fir, the thick board cost about 8 bucks and was enough to make 2. The paddle is still going fine many years later.
Same here with Gflex epoxy.
These are typically some form of thinned epoxy that’s designed to penetrate and stabilize rotted wood. There’s no reason that you couldn’t use it on a paddle, but it’s probably more expensive than regular epoxy. Although thinning isn’t necessary when coating paddle tips (thickening is more common, actually), if you want to try to get more penetration into the end grain, you can thin epoxy with common denatured alcohol. I’ve found that end grain soaks up quite a bit of un-thinned epoxy, so I’ve never bother to thin it. Keep in mind that the only place you’ll get significant penetration is on end grain, regardless of whether you thin it or not.