: After calling a bunch of the wood supplies in the "Where the
: heck do I find clear cedar 2x4's" thread and finding out
: they don't carry clear within 2 hours of me, I went back to the
: local yards and found a couple oversized peices with clear
: enough 2 x 4 sections to make whole paddles and have clear wood
: leftover for blades in a laminated one. So I'm in business...

: ...sort of.

: I looked at Matt Johnson's video on carving, and I notice he
: mentions that block planing the initial long cuts would take
: forever, so he just uses a band saw. My question is, would a
: jigsaw work on these? I know the blade can angle in a bit, so I
: was thinking I if I stayed 1/4" outside the line and planed
: the rest I might get away with it.

: Will that work? Other options?

Friend that took my first paddle carving class has now carved 8 GPs using only a jig saw for the most basic cuts and a hand plane. It most certainly can be done this way.

You can only use the jig saw for the 2" cuts of a 2x4 (actually 1 1/2") as the blade wanders too much and would bottom out on the cuts on the width of the wood, but those cuts while time consuming can easily be done with the hand plane. I've had excellent luck with a diamond sharpening "stone" that are pretty reasonably priced.

Just take your time and enjoy the process :)

Bill H.