Sun afternoon: Hi again. Now for the how. I have been, off and on, buying pristine large straight maple logs for the last 50 years. Back in the 60's when admiring the split maple paddles of a local man, just south of Algonquin Park Ontario, he told me that he only knew of one person who could look at a tree and tell weather it would split straight. No specifics were discussed, but he said that they always came from low lying protected areas, usually in among Hemlocks. For me, trying to get a tree this way would be riskier than selecting a log already cut, even though I do not know where it came from, than not knowing how big the heart is, or the size and spacing of the growth rings. I had only made 1 or two paddles since the 1990's when a lady wrote to me who has posted on this forum and wanted one. She has purchased three from me in the last 2 years. So the summer before this one past I began looking for a log and found a very good mill who conducted frequent veneer log sales. I spoke to the manager and he said pick out anyone not tagged from his buyers. I found one I liked, and had a truck pick it up and bring it back to my home. It split as straight as an arrow and I was thinking how smart I was. The only problem was that the tree was sort of a plain jane for lack of a better word. The Medullary rays were not prominent. These rays by the way are a characteristic of hard maple and they do bind the growth rings together tangential to the growth rings. To show you just how straight this tree was I proceeded to make a paddle for the customer out of a piece split from a tree that was growing in the forest 2 weeks before, without making any attempt to dry the wood other that the air it was exposed to over the 2 weeks it took to make it. Bye the way, this log was six hundred dollars, plus 200. transportation and help splitting. I think it was one of nicest paddles I have made, but plain. I got my friend who is younger and stronger to go down and hopefully find a prettier one. This one would be split on site so if it did not work it wouldn't be as costly. We picked a log, it did not even split straight for 2 ft. So we tried another. That one was worse. There was one quarter of the first which we brought back and I had a local man saw off one slab from each side of split face. One of these pieces made a paddle for the lady of whom I speak. That trip cost another six hundred for the two pieces even though the seller took pity on me and only charged less than half for the second. Now we come to this past summer, again in search of the tree. I went down to the veneer sale and picked out my log, the manager said he would help me split it into quarters. We got about two feet in and it split off to the right, probably the worst I have ever picked. Mind you these veneer logs are the best of the best. That tree looked flawless. Again he felt bad for me, he cut off the 3 feet or so we had started to split, and sold the rest of it. Oddly enough his wife picked the next and as it turned out it split straight as an arrow. He delivered to local man to saw pieces off the split faces. Unfortunately this tree as well is a bit on the pain side, but I have four pieces that are straight and true and will make a couple of paddles this summer whether sold or not. There were only a few pieces because I continue to pick trees which are not quite large enough. Going forward I will pick a larger one and have him cut 6 inches off, split it an inspect the grain. So going forward I think we can come up with some very nice wood. Well than effort cost another several hundred dollars. I guess this would be a good time to tell you how much the paddles cost. They are 500.00 each, plus shipping. That nets me about 10.00 per hour to make it and varnish it, plus hopefully one day enough to cover material costs. The next post I will tell you how I make them, tools etc. which don't amount to much,drawknife, different spoke shaves, block plane and sandpaper.