Drunk On the Job!

- Adrian Morgan

Here’s a boat-building tale. It was a clear-grained, creamy piece of spruce destined to become an oar for a faering. A flawless, tight-grained piece of Sitka, a joy to hold and behold. But first it had to go through the planer thicknesser, actually a thin-nesser, but let’s not be pedantic.

Now the thicknesser had recently been fitted with a new blade. When a new blade is fitted, the difference vis-a-vis the old blade is, to use a cliché, like chalk vs cheese. You get familiar with the old blade and for weeks tell yourself that it’s doing a fine job. It’ll be good for another boat. Those lines caused by nicks in the blade can be sanded out, or not; adds to the hand-built character.