Hey all, I am in the process of refinishing a couple paddles. I thought it would be kind of neat to paint some kind of design on the paddle. Sort of to signify, easily that they are mine. Do any of you have any experience in this area? What paint would you use? Under or over the varnish? Between coats?

If I were going to paint a paddle I'd give it a thin coat or two of epoxy and paint it with Rustoleum from the hardware store as the top coat. Gotta figure that it's going to chip and get scratched no matter what you use so might has well use something cheap and readily available when they need to be touched up.

You could use varnish instead of epoxy for first coat. Either way make sure it's fully dry (varnish) or fully cured (epoxy) before painting. Probably more important with the epoxy than varnish.

Alan