James,

Using a plane for fairing is difficult. Unless your strips have grain all going the same way (climbing or descending) at the strip joints, you will have tear out problems. I suggest you get a good scraper with a handle at least 12 inches long and do the initial fairing with it. It's really a lot easier. Then follow up with a random orbital sander followed in turn by a fairing board. I customize some of my scraper blades to better fit in hollow areas and to keep the corners from digging in.

Ted

: Hello...I just reached the planing/sanding stage of a night heron kayak, and
: I've found planing with a block plane (as described in N. Shades kayak
: book) to be a bit troublesome. I've noticed that the edges of the plane
: tend to put dents into the softwood on the kayak, and the mix of hard and
: softwoods to make it difficult to judge the pressure. I've opted to sand
: it instead, and the new orbital I bought seems to take forever and go
: through paper very quick. Against my own worries of cutting right through
: I went ahead and used a circular grinder style sander (initially bought as
: a buffer) and it seems to work well except it doesn't collect the dust. Is
: this crazy or does anyone else find the other methods tricky/cumbersome?
: Any suggestions and comments from someone who has faced this problem would
: be helpful. I've tried sharpening the plane and adjusting it every which
: way, but still gives me problems. I imagine the hull will be easier
: because it has virtually no hardwood. I'm just worried about wrecking the
: last 4 months work, but also don't want it to take another 3 months
: either.