: My brother lent me his (made in china) Harbor Freight brand electric hand
: plane a year ago and never got it back. For roughing out the paddle, you
: can't beat it. SNIP.

I was surprised when I walked into the kayak shop in Nuuk where traditional kayaks are built and my first image was of a Greenlander using an electric plane to quickly dimension a solid spruce paddle. He spoke English and I jokingly asked "where's the crooked knife and adze?". He laughed and said he had a stack of paddles to make for children and wanted the quickest method possible.

I can only handle so much noise and sacriledge, so my favorite tool for roughing out paddles is a draw knife, and it works quite fast once you become skilled, as you can split out huge chunks of wood or shave like a plane. I'm sure the power planer would be quicker to learn and work faster though. Like Jay's comments for the power planer, a drawknife can ruin the work very fast if not careful.

Greg Staemr