tkay11

Romme, whose dictionary of 1804 I mentioned in another post, has the following: RENARD, subst. masc. (Traverse board.) 1°. Instrument de pilotage. Morceau de planche coupé en rond, avec un petit manche, sur lequel on a figuré les trente-deux aires-de vent de la boussole, le Nord étant désigné par une fleur de lys, &c. Sur chaque rumb, sont percés huit petits trous, pour représenter les huit demi-heures que durent chaque quart. A chaque demi-heure, mesurée par l'ampoulette, ou horloge de sable, le timonnier met une cheville dans l'un des trous qui sont percés sur le rumb où il a gouverné : le premier trou, vers le centre de la planche, sert pour la première demi-heure ; celui d'après, pour la seconde demi-heure, & ainsi de suite. Ce renard, ainsi marqué de huit chevilles à la fin de chaque quart , sert à l'officier de quart à écrire sur le journal la route que le vaisseau a faite ; & ensuite tous y prennent les renseignemens nécessaires pour calculer cette route, ou faire leur point, ayant égard à la dérive, à la variation de la boussole, & autres circonstances. Cette pratique est sur-tout fort utile par des vents mous & variables, & contraires à la droite route du vaisseau, pendant lesquels on change souvent de direction, & on cherche continuellement à se rapprocher de son véritable chemin , à mesure que le vent le permet; & aussi lorsqu'on louvoie à petites bordées. Voy. la Fig. 340, Planche XVI. 2°. RENARD. (A dog , or cant-hook.) Croc de fer qu'on enfonce dans le bout d'une pièce de bois, pour aider à la tirer & traîner sur terre , pour la transporter d'un lieu à l'autre, par le moyen d'un cordage frappé sur ce renard. Voyez x , Fig. 3 19 , Planche XV. Tony

I love my FET. I have had it for 9 years and it's still going strong. It is very much used by other European modellers too, including the prize winners and the most accomplished, and you'll regularly see superb builds on this site where the FET has been used. You can get lots of blades for it, especially if you buy the MicroMark saw blade adapter (item #83515) for the size of the bush. And the accuracy is very high once you have learned all the quirks of its main parts which are best done in a sequence. I can easily get mine to a tolerance of 0.1mm. Of course, that alone doesn't make you a great modeller, and I am still learning. But it won't be because the saw doesn't work properly. Proxxon's backup service is also great. Tony

You're right, druxey. Even in re-reading my own handwriting, I often can't see the difference between the way I write 'n' and 'u'. Not so easy to muddle them when typing on a keyboard, which has confusions of its own. Tony

It's also rather nice, but etymologically probably incorrect, that 'hansard' sounds rather like 'handsaw'. It's also possible that memories were triggered by Keith Black's proposal of 'hansard' as the misprint. What a nice forum! Tony

That's great. Mystery solved. Thanks to everyone for chipping in. Special thanks to Gérard for the combined research, answer and photo. Welcome also to Sandra, to whom no doubt many of us will return in the future. Tony

Thanks everyone for the hazardous guesswork. You'll note that the tille (hatchet) , couteau (knife) and hausard are all linked by a bracket saying they belong to the barrelmaker. This makes it look very much like the hausard is a tool, rather than a report. Keep the ideas coming! Tony FUTAILLES ET USTENCILES DE TONNELIER.pdf

Thanks, druxey. I thought of that briefly, but it does appear as a single item, un hausard, in a long list. Tony

I came across the term 'un hausard' in the inventory of a French ship of 1766 under the list of items in the barrelmaker's store. I searched diligently through contemporary French dictionaries and books, as well as looking up old barrelmakers' tools, but could find no such word. Does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks Tony

Alexandru (@guraus) has his build log at You can also find plenty of builds on the web (some in languages other than English) by searching for "Machine à curer les ports". However, as I detect you are more interested in their functioning than in the building of the model, I can send you by PM a page from the English translation explaining how they work. I don't think this breaks copyright as it should only be for personal use and is an excerpt from the book. Tony

There are the photos I took of contemporary cutter models held at Chatham dockyard as well as other photos dotted around MSW. In addition there was extensive discussion around historical details based on the NMM plans of Sherborne (which had a variety of spellings with and without the u) in the build logs on MSW of Dubz, Stockholm Tar and Gregor. You can find these logs as well as plentiful discussion of the ins and outs of details in books such as Lennarth Peterssen's book on Fore and Aft Rigging (which I personally found very useful as an introduction to rigging) on this website. The books I found particularly useful for historical reference were: the Cambridge University reprints of David Steel's Elements & Practice of Rigging, Seamanship, and Naval Tactics (Vols 1, 2, 3) (Cambridge University Press Paperback) which provides details of cutter manufacture and rigging. 18th Century Rigs & Rigging by Karl Heinz Marquardt, Historic Ship Models by Wolfram zu Mondfeld. None of these were at all costly and the latter two are widely available as used copies. As an initial practical guide to the Sherbourne in particular, I was much helped by George Bandurek's book 'Super-Detailing the Cutter Sherbourne: A Guide to Building the Caldercraft Kit'. Most helpful of all were the intense discussions on this MSW forum where it soon became apparent that there can never be one exact replica of the Sherbourne as there was much variety in the ways cutters were built and rigged, and all we have are the basic NMM plans from 1763 which you can purchase if need be (and subject to much interpretation), but you'll see photos of the relevant parts of them on MSW. The particular plans of use are j7810 and j7809. You'll probably find the belaying plan the most useful to modify if you want to rig the model. The answer, as always, is build the model that you like the look of best, according to your skills, experience, temperament and tools available. There's no one who will judge you on your choice (except, perhaps, those nearest and dearest to you who no doubt will be amazed at your skill). Enjoy! Tony

The Amazon site just says 'feels like 1500 thread count", so not necessarily the real count. All the same, sounds like a good idea to try out, especially as you want a look that suits you -- something which most modelers aspire to. Good luck in your hunt. Tony

Thanks, @Chuck. I'll bear that in mind for the future. That stuff is unobtainable in the UK right now, but that may be due to export problems. Tony

I may be a bit out of my depth on this, but do the scarf joints need to be where you place them? A little further round might solve the problem without giving much work to those who had to cut the planks. Tony

The last I heard from him was some time round 2016 when he said he was moving on from modelling. I see he last posted a community map placement from Stockholm in November 2020, but his last posting was in 2017. You could try a PM. Tony

Thanks very much, Allan. I especially enjoy the idea of 'playing off against each other'. This is very helpful. I also appreciate the pdf, which adds significantly to other tutorials such as Wayne Kempson's 'Drafting ship's lines in CAD'. Tony