Well, I got my new Veritas spokeshave yesterday and had a devil of a time getting acclimated to it. Can't say as I'm wild about the mechanism that holds the blade in place. Couldn't seem to get it adjusted quite right or tight enough or something and the blade kept popping out and hitting the concrete floor. So much for that nice edge on it.

Also couldn't get it to shave worth a poop. Finally, after giving up using it on my S&G concave panels and just finishing up with my plane and sanding block, I gave up on the concave arrangement and just went with the flat one and low and behold, it worked great. Have no idea why though as I had tried it before. Guess I'll just have to keep playing with it. I'm sure some of it is the angle I was holding it at, some is how I had the throat adjusted, the position of the blade, my stroke, etc. I know it's a good tool by reputation, so I'll keep it for future paddle making and possible adjustments on the canoe, but it was a frustrating evening.

But the good news is that the six panels for the Kipawa II are finally done! Still have to decide about whether to bevel the edges, but they are shaped and sanded. Now we can move on to building the strongback and stations out of the plywood we've been using as a work table. Something tells me this canoe is NOT going to be ready for the wedding on June 15.

I'm beginning to see the advantages of buying a kit, but it will be pretty fantastic to have built my first boat completely from scratch. Oh yeah, other bad news - Target lost our pictures documenting the process so far. We got someone else's and returned them but ours haven't been located yet. Bummer.

Patsy