Tools

The next logical post would be about tools. Being a minimalist and living in a condo, I wanted ownly the bare necessities (i.e hand tools) to make a paddle. So here's a short list of necessary items in my toolbox (photos to follow shortly)

Measuring & Marking Tools
• HB pencil
• 40 inch metal straight edge ruler
• 12 inch combination square (marked with 1/32 & 1/16ths)
• spring calipers


Clamps
• few (4) one handed trigger (style) clamps
• bench mounted vise

Cutting & Shaping Tools
• Crosscut hand saw (for cutting out the paddle blank from lumber stock)
• Coping saw (for cutting out finer curves)
• Block plane (for initial shaving of blank)
• Spokeshave (for final shaping of the paddle)
• Dual bladed rasp (rough and fine for shaping the grip)
• 80, 150, 220 grit sandpaper

That's pretty much it. All of these items were available at my local HomeDepot or Canadian Tire (and routinely went on sale for more $ savings). As I stated to make more paddles, a few other specialty tools became needed, but I'll blog about those later