I am sometimes puzzled by how much some people worry over getting exactly the right tool for the job.

In the past, I have had access to some industrial standard power tools and top of the line hand tools. For a few years now I have had to make do with my own equipment and I find that it hasn't made any difference to the kayaks I produce.

I have used a very good low angle block plane in the past and for the work I was doing, it was about the only tool that would have done the job. However the strips I have used to build my kayaks have been beveled with an old Stanley block plane.

When I started my latest kayak , my Stanley wasn't available because I had lent it to a friend. I was in a hurry to get started, so I tried a block plane I found in a box of junk. It was the cheapest piece of equipment you could imagine. It was made from pressed metal and the blade was less than 1 mm thick. If it weren't for the fact that it was a full size block plane, I would have assumed that it was a child's toy that was not actually intended to be used.

To my great surprise, I found it did just as good a job as the more expensive plane.

Maybe I was lucky that I was using timber that was easy to plane. Almost all of my strips are Paulownia. Maybe it has something to do with the technique I use, but I am confident that I could bot have done a better job with a plane that cost about $220 more.