Thanks Dave
Yep, I was able to cull som ALMOST quarter-sawn boards from the pile. One of these days…
Jim
When I get a Round Tuit
Dave, I am proud to say my
father in law gave me a spokeshave and an electic planer. Guess which one I use for paddle making.Set that planer at minimum and it does a far better and faster job on the blades than any hand tool ,in my hands.
electric tools on GP
String,
I cherish the experience of using quality hand tools. That being said, almost everyone roughs out the blank on a bandsaw. When faced with making 15 blanks for the hollow shaft GP workshop with my kayak club I not only used a bandsaw, I also planed the face of the blanks on the out-feed table of a powermatic jointer.
Quite a concession for a hand tool lover. I guess its the difference between enjoying making an occasional paddle and doing a production run.
Dave
Can you quantify “relatively light”?
I have a cypress single blade - that’s nice in all other ways, save what it weighs! Heavier than any of my GPs. A cypress GP would have to be a bit more than the single blade.
I do 'em old school
Drawknives for most wood removal and overall shaping, planes to level/true up faces, spokeshave for places it fits/things it does better. Also microplanes for shoulder area work.
For Aleuts and “Woodwing” hybrids more complex shapes also I use a small scorp and gouge, and then need to do a lot more scraping/sanding. Because of this they can be close to twice the work of the GPs.
laminating note
I’m just finishing up a paddle that is laminated from 11 strips of wood. I think I made a mistake when laminating in that I didn’t attempt to align the grain of the various strips. Experienced woodworkers (not me) always plane with the grain. If you don’t you end up splintering out chunks rather than cutting nice curly shavings. The fact that the grains in my laminated strips were not aligned made it impossible to plane in the direction of all the strips’ grain. So while one of the strips was planing nicely, the next strip over was chunking. Something to think about before the glue sets, eh?
~~Chip
My Cypress is 94" x3.25" vs my
laminate at 90"x3.75". The cypress is lighter, but more importantly the grain is so tight it looks like a hardwood such as basswood. The surface is hard and smooth and feels good on my hands and does not require a hard topcoat like my laminate does. It also does not dent the way the laminate does. The laminate was professionally carved and has much better lift and symetry, but I wish it were out of cypress or some other wood that feels like my cypress paddle. It could be that my cypress was dried more, or has a tighter grain structure. I don’t know, I just like it. My laminate is made from mahagony, wrc, and spruce (I Think). Bill
Chip :
Have you tried a Stanley low-angle block plane?
I encountered the same problem when paring down a chunky Bending Branches paddle. A low-angle plane with a well-sharpened iron and a shallow cut will minimize the tear-out.
Jim
In ounces? NM
Drawknives
I’ve been using drawknives more on every subsequent paddle than the preceding ones. Skill level rises with each use. On the Aleutian I made in 2003, the center ridge on the power face was carved out with a hand scorp. It was very nerve racking as one wrong stroke would blow out the center ridge.
This spring I made four more. They are made with a core of sitka spruce and red cedar side blades. A friend who is a cabinet maker milled the cores with a router. I then glued on the sides and carved the shape with hand tools. It’s exponentially faster making the core with a router than with a hand scorp. Were I making only one aleutian paddle I would use the hand scorp.
Dave
check grain when laminating
Chip,
When I made the Aleutian, the instructor had me test plane the core and the side blades for grain orientation. They were marked for the best orientation before glue up. I would not have thought of doing so until after the fact.
Dave
Good point.Next time. Both shafts
are epoxied.I have 2 experiments going at once.
One paddle is clear pine, the other has a clear pine shaft with mahogany and maple blades.
I learn by doing .
To scorp or not to scorp
On latest Aleuts, used a gouge to hollow out on either side. A little slow, but fairly easy to control. The small one handed scorp is OK on the spooned out area on my hybrids, but agree it’s not to friendly for the narrower cut on the Aleuts (Probably just need to sharpen mine! Gouge too. If not like razors things get bad fast - and I’m still a bit lazy about this).
These were solid WRC and my shapes are all compound curves and no parallel lines - and am not a shop guy/cabinet maker/carpenter type - so router doesn’t appeal as much as hand carving (and I’d waste more time trying to set things up), but some other power carving tools I can think of might be handy…
Biggest issue for me would be control. The faster the tool, the bigger the screw ups can be.
PS - Pic
I have done that
"Lacking a good source of WRC 2x4s or 4x4s would it be possible to laminate the WRC 1x2s found at HD or SLowes?"
Neither my HD or Lowes had WRC, so I laminated 5 1x4’s of cedar and douglas fir (3 cedar, 2 DF, alternated). The “block” I ended up with was obviously thicker than the average 2x4, but you’re gonna cut it down anyway.
I used Titebond marine grade wood glue. Glued, clamped, carved: voila! No problems with it and pretty light. Looks cool, too.
Thanks for the tip
I’ve been using a Stanley, but it is one I inherited and I have no idea if it is “low angle” or not. I hope not to run into the problem again as the next time I will try to think of the grain orientation BEFORE I glue up a blank.
~~Chip
A high blade angle is actually better
It’s a myth that a low angle plane reduces tear-out. Higher angle blades are better in that regard, which is why smoothing planes and scraper planes - which are designed for cutting difficult grain - have higher angle blades. That said, there are several other considerations:
- The sharpness of the blade and the size of the throat can make even more difference than the blade angle. A VERY sharp blade (as it in “shaving sharp”) and a tight throat will keep tear-out to a minimum.
- Setting the plane for a thin cut makes a big difference, as if it’s set to hog off a lot of material, it’s going to be more prone to tear-out. I usually keep two block planes two spokeshaves around, one each set for a relatively coarse .010" (10 thousandths) shaving for removing material quickly and another of each set for a .002" shaving for fine work.
- Maintaining pressure on the wood surface is also important. Check the sole of your plane for flatness, especially in the area immediately in front of the blade. That’s the part of the sole that holds the wood fibers down while the blade cuts them, which is critical to getting a clean, smooth cut.
If you’re having problems with tear out with a particular plane, check all of these things and correct them if possible. You’ll be amazed at the difference.
Although I prefer high-quality tools, even an inexpensive tool can perform well when properly tuned.
For a recent class, I picked up a few inexpensive Groz block planes to use as “loaners”, knowing that some people were bound to arrive with tools that were dull or otherwise useless. With a decent sharpening (on a Worksharp 3000) and a little tuning, they outperformed every one of the student’s tools, except for one who brought a new Lie-Nielsen plane that cost 6x as much as the lowly Groz.
I’ll bet you’ll learn…
…that the paddle with the mahogany and maple blades will be a really pretty wall-hanger, as it will be very heavy.
Running a white pine spine down the center of a cedar paddle can produce a somewhat stronger, stiffer paddle without adding significant weight. Adding 1/4" thick hardwood edges (oak, ash, mahogany) makes the blades dramatically more damage resistant, again, without adding significant weight. So, it’s possible to produce a rugged paddle with eye-pleasing, contrasting wood and still stay under the magic 32 ounce mark. Keeping the number of laminations down and keeping them thin greatly reduces issues with tear-out when carving, too.
Can I borrow your scale?
Sure, come on over.