Jackie, just one additional thought. About a decade ago at the Dayton convention, I spent hours in the Begali booth test driving all their paddles and keys. I liked them all, but also some high end German and Swedish paddles. For some unexplained reason, I bought an N3ZN paddle made right here in the USA. It was a bit less expensive than Begali, but that was not a factor for me. Very fine workmanship in both brands.
My main point is do you want a heavy paddle which will not slide around the desk and that you do not need to be gentle with, or do you want a paddle which you need to use a more delicate tough with (very close space contacts, etc.). Some paddles probably weigh twice what others do.
I really like my N3ZN paddle, but it took this old guy some time to retrain my keying style. I was used to banging a bug, and even was not gentle with my Kent paddle which I used for decades. A very good friend and co worker here in Alaska and I used to bring our paddles to work and practice code. He always had the best of everything, like 20,000 dollar stereo set up, expensive cars and houses, etc. At that time I just brought my "lowly" Kent paddle for practice. He was always interested in my "clunky" Kent at work, but never could admit he liked it.
Fast forward a decade and he had retired to Washington state. When he died, I flew down and helped his widow dispose of his ham equipment. I was shocked, that there was not an expensive paddle or key in his shack, just 3 or 4 Kent keys. It was not a monetary issue !!!
No idea why. Rick KL7CW