This is the 18th episode in my series on making a Greenland kayak paddle entirely with hand tools, but really, start with #11. In this episode I shape the shoulders and the blade cross section, both the wrong way and the right way. I also discover a problem but it isn’t fatal. And you see a different plane!
This doesn’t mean my copyright claim has been reviewed and I won, I guess they just go public until it is reviewed. Cool! So if you care, watch it soon. LOL
I used the white wheel, which built up less heat. Agree about Tormex, and jigs are even more expensive now. Clones are not all the same. Some Tormex jigs fit the Grizzly and work better than the clones.
You’re fortunate, because you have exceptional skills, and have developed them overtime. I’d like to solicit some options for other crafty members who could offer suggestions to those who are just breaking into the woodworking scene.
Your comment about the Tormex, sums up woodworking in general. Get a table saw, then a jointer to straighten or flatten boards. Now a planer to thickness them. Hmmm. How do I sharpen the blades. Need a miter saw or a sled. Cut curves . . . my bandsaw only has a 16 inch throat - I need to cut 17 inches, do I have a Jig saw . . . wouldn’t it be nice to have a router, trim router, multiple router tables so I don’t have to break down a setup to ease a sharp edge. Need router bits . . . Sets . . . Random orbital or belt sander . . . Dust collector.
All I wanted to do was make a paddle because they cost too much to buy!!! Then the wife says how many tools are you going to buy? Why don’t you get rid of some of the other ones first, or just buy the stupid paddle, it’ll be cheaper than this. There you go!
Some of my best tools are old. I have a six inch Sterrett combo square from my F-I-L who inherited it from his uncle. Has to be close to 100 yrs old. Where has that tool been, what has it helped to create? It’s my favorite tool - dead square.
My father had an aluminum cased belt sander. I figure you probably own one. The brushes and other parts had been changed countless times. Those machines are over 75 years old and still going. Porter Cable recently stopped servicing them and stopped making parts. I took a Porter Cable 3 1/4 router to the service center to replace the bearings. They stopped servicing them and no longer stock parts. There is no replacement with the same barrel diameter, which means our table lifts, which cost as much as the router will be obsolete. Tool today are throw away. My Dewalt mini router with plunge base had less than 100 hrs and stopped working. Repaired for $95. I bought two replacements while waiting for the repair at $99 each.
Again, I’ll post this link here. Fabrication First: The Riddle of the Table Saw — rexkrueger.com
It is a really good read.
Paul, it’s nice to see you back working on the paddle and continuing to learn as you go. As usual, I have some suggestions.
When using a plane or a spokeshave, you can skew it slightly and it improves both the cutting action and your control. You don’t have to - or even want to - keep the blade perpendicular to the direction you’re planing.
Use your thumbs to keep pressure on the leading edge of the spokeshave. That will reduce the tendency for it to skip.
If your arms are long enough, try to take strokes from the shoulder to the tip, rather than stopping partway down the blade. This isn’t critical, but it helps to keep the shape more consistent.
As you approach the layout line, reduce the depth of cut and take finer shavings. This also gives you more control. It’s pretty easy with the Record 'shave, but if need be test it on a scrap piece of wood before using it on your paddle. Sometimes I’ll just chuck a piece of pine in a bench vise for that purpose.
Put the Stanley 110 back in the tool box. Yeah, it’s light, but it’s somewhat flimsy (the blade in particular) and it’s difficult to make precise adjustment to the blade depth and angle. There was no sound during some of the sections where you used it, and I suspect you figured this out for yourself.
The main thing is that you’re getting closer to having a paddle, you’re learning more and you’re having fun! Keep it up!
Jyak, I use fewer tools - or at least fewer expensive tools - when making paddles than on most other projects. My woodworking skills are nothing special and I really don’t do anything complex, like building furniture. I just happen to have good attention to detail, which comes from my QC/QA and writing/editing background. That said, you’d laugh if you saw some of the woodworking screw-ups I made today when working on the interior bike rack I made for our RV. It’s still in the prototype stage, I tend to work from ideas in my head rather than plans, and I definitely had a few “D’oh!” moments today. I’m blaming it on the COVID booster I got on Friday. 
The info for Paul about the spokeshave will be handy. I also appreciate it and will try it out tomorrow. I’ve toured several cabinet shops and was suprised at the austerity of the tools, but one thing they all had in common - they were all clever and inventive fellows.
Sometimes designing a project takes longer than building it. I hope some day I can return the service. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Paul, don’t be too enthusiastic about your craft or your wife might offer a challenge: “the only reason you go down there is to get away from me!” Enjoy your shared kayak trips and make her a very nice paddle.
Thank you Brian!
It’s funny that you mention skewing it, I’m 99% sure said that in the book. I actually notice, in the video that I wasn’t doing it, and corrected. That must have been in one of the silent sections. (It is interesting to see that YouTube muted the sections with the disputed music!) But yes, I was doing it wrong and had to keep on reminding myself.
Nice tip on the thumb. I have 3 more sides to do, so I’ll get to put that into practice.
I actually have very long arms so I’ll try that!
And I’ll play with the depth gauge on the Record shave, see how it goes.
And yes, the 110 was fiddly. I was reading a blog or video about the huge amount of stanley planes, I guess it was just for market differention and some duds came out.
I’m having a ton of fun, I’ve missed working in this with the move!
I wondered if you did the muting or they did. Ridiculous! Apparently, only some artists object or they would have muted everything.
Stanley was a pretty egalitarian company and they made everything from inexpensive, entry-level planes like the 110 to tools suited to professional use. They were surpassed on the high end by other companies and seem to have inhabited the low-mid end of the market for decades. In recent years they seem to have rediscovered the market for better quality tools and they’re making some that are pretty nice. I’m glad to see it, as choice is good!
I assumed YouTube muted the sections. I was just glad they did not mute the whole video! At least this way we get to watch it.
Maybe for your next video you can just delete the audio completely and replace it with a voice over describing what you are doing or use the typed in comments like you did in some places of this one? I guess that would be a lot more work… so maybe not a good idea.
Anyway, I enjoyed your latest episode.
It gets weirder. Virtually all of my videos have copyright claims and they cannot be viewed in, if I recall, Yemen, Cuba and Iraq. This was the first artist to go a global ban. Each of the songs had an individual claim, I was able to get 7 of them to pass by asking YouTube to mute just the song. But that’s not guaranteed to work.
The problem is, I like music when working, I’ve got 4 speakers and a subwoofer! But I guess I go back to just classical, that seems to work. Hope you people like Bach!
Man, that sounds like a lot of work… :- ) I use the type in comments when I’ve messed up, which seems to be awesome!
Oh thank you, you are the third person to say that to me today, one privately here, and another in a wood workers forum. Happy dance here in NH.
I was wondering about classical, because the early work are public domain, but then I guess you still have to deal with the performing artist’s recording copyright. Except for distinct styles (like Glenn Gould humming while he plays and Jaqueline Dupree’s technique), it’s a bit harder to nail down the performer. Go classical. I always do woodworking to classical.
What video editing software are you using? Most allow you to extract the soundtrack from the video, then add another soundtrack. I’ve done that multiple times in Camtasia.
Bnystrom, did you look on my workbench. The blade shaves hair, cut paper, snags an angled finger nail, but chattered. Place your thumbs just right. Just place your thumbs in the right spot. Go on! Somebody must have exchange my spoke shave. Ot doesn’t chatter anymore. I guess you need to know how to use a tool. Thanks for the tip. I owe yah! Thought it was the tool. Still needs to be tuned though.
A close up of the wood curl shows chatter. No paint on the sole, but the bed isn’t flat. I’ll fix that.
I’m glad it helped!
Two other sources of chatter are taking too deep of a cut and cutting against the grain (which I assume you wouldn’t do). Flattening the sole is a standard part of tuning Record/Irwin 'shaves. It may be necessary to file the bed so bottom side of the blade is supported evenly across its width. Another key is to file the front edge of the chip breaker to get it to mate evenly and tightly with the top side of the blade. If there’s a gap, the shavings will jam in it.
It’s a solidly made tool, so it’s worth the effort to tune it. I find it to be a fun challenge to get the most out of a tool.
Understand completely. All that has to be done. I could feel the irregularity as I adjusted the screws. I basically set it aside a d blew it off, until you to me about thumb placement. I mentioned it to the guy who owns the shop, and he said, “I ways always place my thumbs there.”
I finally found my spoke shave on a bench at home where I was working on cabriole legs. To your point, the first thing I noticed was a pile of chips under one corner of the chip breaker (uneven). I checked the blade and it shaved hair (sharp). The sole is bare metal (I’ll flatten it because it’s scarred). The bed is painted (so much for flat). Just needed to put it all together and take a second look. You save me between $75-$138 for a new one.
exactly, but that’s also much harder to detect, so I’m probably good.
Just iMovie on a Macintosh. Yes, I can easily do that, I can even do this:
The point is, I guess, is that I’m lazy, I’m not sure I want to. No, I take that back, it is just too much. I hope that doesn’t come across as rude, it isn’t meant to. But by the time I’m done work, then the hours of editing, I’m just beat. I just want to get back to the wood shop.
It’s a real shame about the music in the video, especially since you’re just trying to help others. Keep going. Woodwork is therapeutic.
In mid 1990s, I began helping a friend at his custom furniture shop. The first six months there was without pay, until he asked me if I’d work longer hours so he could take on a particular job. I said if I made a commitment, he’d have to pay me, so I started working about 1,000 hours a year for about double minimum wage. When I retired 1 April 2007, I began working full time until jobs slowed down, so I quit in July 2015 to build an addition on my house. My shoulder was injury in May 2018 lifting stones while re-landscaping the yard.
After physical therapy, I went back to the shop to work on my own projects. I also pitch in to help shop projects. That sapele door project was one such project, because he thought the tolerances were to critical to trust the other workers in the shop with the project. I don’t take pay, because that makes it too much like work. This way, it’s therapeutic. I listen to classical music and challenge my mind. I’m getting too old to learn things for my own benefit, unless I can pass on a legacy. My legacy is to take advantage of any opportunity that I have to learn, then pass it on to anyone else who has a desire and a willingness to learn. So that’s what I do. Keep up the good work.
Do it the way you want to do it. If you did everything those of us in the audience ask, not only would you not have time the finish your paddle you would not have time to use it. Plus, you would hate every minute.
Paul, I want you to realize that the Greenland Paddle site was the last thing on my mind, but it was the one thing that kept me on the forum. I got tired of the negativity even stopped responding due to it.
As the season ended I went back to the OP and finally connected posts from NotThePainter and Bnystrom with my interest in Greenlands. As I said before in the Greenland with hand tool thread, The member wrote a book and then shared it freely on a forum. I had no clue that Brian authored the book and produced the video. You two guys literally kept my interest and stimulated me to learn as much as I could about Euro paddle design. Now that the kayak season is over for me, I plan to create a hybrid Greenland that works for me. I’ll compare it against the Euro for speed, efficiency and comfort. I’ll record my trips by app and by GPS. You will be the first one I share my findings with.
I interacted with Brian concerning comment directed to you about the spoke shave. This morning, I talked to Don, my friend who owns the shop. He said he uses his thumbs but can’t recall where he puts them. We pulled his old Stanley shave out, and he looked at it saying if it doesn’t work, I sharpen it and figure that is as good as it gets. We rarely use spoke shaves. I stopped working on my cabriole table legs because the infernal device wouldn’t perform. Like I said, don’t matter what you know, or think you know, you can always learn. I learned from you and because of you. I stand ready to help you with your skills in any way I can.
