: I'm getting ready to start stripping. It seems like a good plane would be a
: wise investment. Suppose I was going to buy one. What kind would be the
: most useful? If I bought a block plane, would a low angle one be good? I'm
: toying with the idea of doing a rolling bevel instead of bead and cove (or
: maybe a mixture of both.) How about for cheater strips? Fitting strips
: into football area, etc.?

: Thanks in advance!

Hi Gordon,

Sounds like your a first time builder (excellent!!). I built my first and only kayak just last August. It was a Guillemot standard kayak. I actually used a staple-less rolling bevel method to attach strips. Its probably a bit more work but the results are good - no staple holes.

Gordon, as far as planes go, when I built mine, I had 2. Both were cheap Stanley's from Menards. One is a 6.5 inch relatively low angle end grain plane ($12) and the other is a hobby plane that is like 3.5 inches long. If you're making a rolling bevel, my cheap short plane (3.5 inch) will definitely work better than any 6.5 plane (even the best of them). This smaller plane will afford you much better control and handling on a 1/4 inch strip. This plane will also work better to create the angle cuts you will need for cheaters and for other angles you will need.

Now, when you finish gluing all the strips, then a bigger plane will be advantageous for initially smoothing the transition between strips. But even in this case, I would use the small hobby plane to both fine tune and also to plane around some of the more tight curves.

As far a quality is concerned, I went cheap on my planes. I was kind of on a budget, and not having hardly any tools, I had to keep my costs down - so I went cheap. But, you get what you pay for. If I had to do it over again, I would buy either the Record or the Veritas low angle plane. I'm sure either of these are excellent. I recently purchased a small hobby plane from Woodcraft (3.5 inches). Its made by Kunz. Its way better than my cheap 3.5 Stanley - which I thought at one time was okay.

I'm sure you may already know this but you'll need a couple wet stones for fine tuning your plane blade (this is I learned too late). I would personally have a 200 - 500 grit stone for roughing the blade in shape, if necessary (for an out of the box plane this is probably not necessary). Then follow-up with a medium grit stone (1000 - 1200). After this use a 6000 grit stone to give a mirror polish. You can probably get a combo stone that is 1000/6000 grit. Note, it takes a little elbow grease to get the plane sharpened right. You will also need a honing guide to hold the blade at the proper angle while you shapen.

PS: When gluing strip together, try to clean up the glue before it dries. This will help immensely when you go to sand.

Good Luck...

Rich