: Hi Brian-

: I totally understand your point. For you and me though, this stuff
: is like falling out of bed, but I just watched a bunch of people
: taking a paddle-making class from a very well respected teacher
: and was a bit surprised how difficult tasks that I would do
: without even noticing I was doing them were for the students.
: All awesome people. All very accomplished. Good instruction from
: what I could tell. I wasn't even aware that those things would
: be hard for other people, so I just wanted to be sure that all
: the alternatives were out there when I made that post. I wasn't
: intending to be critical of you, and I definitely wasn't
: directing the post to you personally. Sorry about that.

No need to apologize, as I know it wasn't personal, just a difference of perspective and opinion.

: I did want to comment on power tools a bit. Tuning a table saw is
: hard for most people. A lot of people probably have no idea what
: that even means, and I'll bet that most people have (no offense)
: underpowered saws. Throw in a dull non-rip blade and that
: probably means a lot of burning when making rip cuts, so you've
: got to be prepared for more than a light pass with a block
: plane.

I agree completely. Properly setting up most power tools is even less well understood - and often harder to do - than tuning hand tools.

: I have a newer thickness planer, and even with pretty
: well used blades it makes impressive cuts. Still flat, no
: scallops, just gets occasional ridges from nicks. When the
: blades are fresh it spits out beautiful polished surfaces that
: are the equal of a hand planing right out of the box.

I'll take your word for it. ;-)

: If I walked into a box store and bought a Stanley low-angle block
: plane it couldn't do that right out of the box,

Absolutely not! If you think the planes are bad, check out their spokeshaves. I recently purchased a bunch for paddle making classes and some of their blades hadn't even been fully ground to a point, leaving them with BLUNT edges. I've seen similar issues with inexpensive planes, too.

: and without some
: practice even once it was tuned up and sharpened. My particular
: thickness planer (and most new models) comes with a magnetic
: setup jig, so there is virtually no adjustment. You slip the
: blade in, put the jig on, and tighten it down. It would be
: possible to screw it up, but it would be really hard. A lot
: harder than screwing up a paddle! I send them out to a
: sharpening service. It runs $6/blade, but replacement blades are
: pretty cheap if you don't want to bother.

Mine is similar and setting it up isn't too bad. Sharpening the blades is a pain, even with the right equipment. The same is true with jointers (though the shorter blades are not quite as bad) and I finally just bit the bullet and installed a helical carbide cutter head in mine. No more knives or sharpening and as a bonus, it's a LOT quieter. If I ever buy another planer, it will have one too.

: I used to work in a professional cabinet shop, so I've used a lot
: of power tools, and I use primarily hand tools now in my own
: shop. Either way works. There are plenty of people with
: differing ideas about what is better. I'm not taking sides, I've
: seen both work.

I agree that either way works and although I like hand tools, I use power tools a lot, too.

: I am detail obsessed, and I don't want to give
: people the impression that you need to be as obsessed as I am to
: make a serviceable paddle or anything else. A lot of people who
: know me are afraid to try making things because they don't think
: they can be as obsessive as I am, and I can't convince them it's
: not necessary. I can attest that there is a lot of exceptional
: furniture out there made completely with power tools and only
: sanded to 120 grit, and knowing that going in will save a lot of
: grief over the way I do things for most people.

I come from a Quality Assurance background, so I feel your pain. I remember how difficult it was for me to build my first SOF boat, as there is no fixed plan or design and the tolerances are "whatever works". It took me a while to just relax and go by look, feel and intuition. Even with paddle making, I'm much more methodical than most people. I envy someone who can just grab a board and a drawknife and make a paddle.

: Sorry to get under your skin-

Don't worry, you didn't. It's just a discussion. I hope you didn't get the impression that I was annoyed or anything like that, as that's definitely not the case.