A paddling friend of mine has the bad habit of dragging his paddle along the gunnel and prying, which can wear through a paddle shaft pretty quickly -not to mention scuff the waterproofing off the outwale. He has wrapped the throat of his paddles with cord, leather, leather thong. Of course, this makes the shaft thicker where the hand lower hand grips it. Wire would add extra protection to the paddle by be worse on the wale. And heavier.