YouTube Video: Song of the Spokeshave

Kathryn Klos over at the Wooden Canoe Heritage Forums posted a link of a YouTube video by none other than Graham Warren, author of the main textbook of modern paddlemaking. The 6 1/2 minute video entitled "Song of the Spokeshave" shows Warren carving out a maple paddle with an Algonquin blade and a scalloped grip. Perhaps the youtube release is a preview of his Paddlemaking DVD I blogged about earlier

Great footage with a super sharp spokeshave tool which makes his carving seem effortless. I was quite surprised to see the initial thickness of the blank being cut out with the bandsaw. Seems to be 2 inches (or more) thick! To save time and effort, the blade was thinned with an electric planer before finishing touches (the background music certainly masks the horrific noise of this power tool).

I especially like the final shots of the scalloped grip, a design I tried out on my first paddle at the Canadian Canoe Museum. At the time, I didn't know exactly how to carve out the shape so just kept working on it until it felt comfortable. All in all, a great little video feature of carving out a paddle.