I have been looking at building one myself of the best looking paddles so far they have used strips of hardwood on the edges and center and softer lighter woods as fill. I know from working with both types the cedar board will shape faster and ding easier without some sort of protection, glass cloth, carbon cloth or some graphite powder thickened epoxy are the most common methods that seem to work on the tips. Someone told me the GP should be the length of the persons reach standing with one end on the ground at the feet and with one arm up high just able to cup the other end so your paddle might be a lot longer than the Mrs. and the shaft part the length of the persons forearm and hand.

Theres a guy by me that uses a 2x4"x8' board of stika spruce when he can find it.

Look forward to seeing how yours turn out.

There is a great deal of info on Greenland paddles on the web.  Search, including this forum.  A real good, free video is available that will help a lot, too.

Cedar is perfect for Greenland paddles.  I would only use the ash for side or tip armor.  If you are concerned about the durability of a cedar paddle, you can epoxy it or even put a light layer of glass on it.  I've put 4 oz. fiberglass (and the necessary varnish) on cedar paddles and they are much lighter than an ash paddle would be.  Cedar is also very easy to work with.

Mark 

Thanks everyone for your ideas, I think I'll stay with cedar, and harden  it up with epoxy on the tips and then varnish.   I started carving on it today using the directions for the greenland paddles 101 information.  Seems to be coming along.  ( if nothing else it'll be great fire starter material if all else fails)  thanks again.  Twig