garyshipwright

Hi Rusty. Nice build sir and seems that other's have allready taken the good word's so I am taking my hat off to you sir. Good job. Gary

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 31 – Aft Square Frames 3
 
The installation of the remaing full square frames has now been completed – back through frame 29. 
 
Starting with frame 21, the cutting down line begins to rise.  This is the line of the inboard faces of the frames adjacent to the keelson.  However, unlike the 18thC RN ships,  the keelson remains straight and horizontal all the way back to the stern post knee in these ships.  So the tops of the full frames need to be notched as shown in the first picture – to accept the straight keelson.
 

 
This notching of the last several full frames increases the thickness – the molded breadth – of the lower part of the frames so that when the first half frame is reached there will be enough depth for that frame to be secured with horizontal bolts to the keelson/deadwood.  That increased depth needs to be approached in a fair line so the inboard planking will lie flat on the frames with no steps up.
 
The next picture shows the last of the full frames installed – back to the filler piece atop the keel.  The remaining aft frames will be bolted on the face of this filler and the keelson/deadwood with horizontal bolts – as was done at the bow.
 

 
This picture shows the gradually increasing height of the cutting down line over the last half-dozen or so frames.  The straight lower keelson will fit into the notches.
 
The remaining three pictures show the framed hull at this stage – with the clutter of tools and debris removed..
 

 
Another foot or so of hull framing remains to be done – almost back to the ends of the two temporary ribbands.
 

 
The last picture gives some indication of the fairing of the hull at this stage.  Only the pre-bevelling of the individual frames has been done so far.  The frames appear to be fair with about 1/64”.  Some adjustment in alignment of a few frames may reduce that further, leaving only a small amount of final sanding.
 

 
The next steps will be to refine the fairing of the floors on the inboard side prior to installing the remainder of the keelson.  It is much easier to do this before the keelson is installed.  With the two levels of the keelson installed, .the deadwood can be constructed.  This will allow the half and cant frames to be set.
 
Since this will be the last post before Christmas, I will wish everyone the happiest of holidays and a great new year.  Thanks for following these postings.
 
Ed

Thanks, funny how problems create new idea's.
 
I laid just  one strake of the deck planking and wil only add partials to support the bulkheads for the cabins. I'll try to keep as much view to the hold as possible.
 
The caulking is very thin paper blackened with a sharpy.
 

 

 
Added some of the furniture just for fun and to see how things start to look 'dressed up'  it will be pretty crowded once the bulkheads are in
 

 
Remco
 
 

Thanks Floyd. It's really fun to do.
 
Nothing really exciting to show all of you. I have cut the wales from cherry and installed them.
Once they are sanded I will be coloring them black with Fiebings leather dye. This will be the
first time I have used it so this might be interesting!  
 
I have depleted most of my ebony and will probably discontinue using it anymore. It’s bad for
you, I’m not religious enough about wearing a mask and it’s just messy.
 

 
As far as the rest of the planking goes I will be using Boxwood. The plans show planking
only above the wales but I may put two or three rows below the wales too.

Thanks, Elmer!  You should be getting a nice holiday present!   I hope you enjoy it and I'll help you if I can.   Keith is right, in my dojo you must become one with the sandpaper.
 
Keith, you've got the patience and sanding part right, but you give me too much credit when you say "never seen any builder", etc.   I'm still very much an apprentice--not nearly a master--in the hand work department.  Think more of Russ, John (Jim Lad), others here as well without a doubt,  and Underhill before them.  But thank you very much for the kind words!
 
Keith's comment tempted me to post a photo of a completely tricked out workshop (like Gaetan Bordeleau's), and pretend to "fess up" to having actually built my model using fancy power tools.
 
But this really is my "shop"--
 

 
 
Most cutting and power sanding I do in the foreground room; most hand sanding, soldering, and work on the actual hull, or deck, I do on the round table where I have more room and better light--
 

 
 
I do have a good rotary tool, with the stand and x-y table, with which I've done some very basic milling, and a lot of "drum" sanding, including this setup I made yesterday, so that I can thin down some planking strips--
 

 
 
Seems very wasteful to sand away all that precious wood. But I don't need very many planks for the cutter. These are now 1/32", though they still need to be sanded smooth--
 

 
 
Ron

Hi Amfibius,
 
Here's a picture of the Niagara replica which shows what I was copying--
 

 
 
The ringbolt that secures the carronade breeching rope on the inside, extends through the bulwark, and has this small plate and a wedgepin (which is marginally visible) to prevent it from pulling out when the carronade recoils.   I've read of people going to the trouble of making the tiny locking wedgepin!, but I haven't done that.
 
I hope this explanation helps.
 
 
I used a fine tooth small hand saw, and a file,  to make the scarph joints, and no, I do not own a scroll saw!
 
 
Ron

February 2013
 
 
In the days leading up to the great crash, work and experiments were done on the armament--
 

 
 
One of the long six pounder carriages was assembled, though not yet complete--
 

 

 
 
And a blackening glaze using surplus ebony wood stain was tried (with success) on the "greyish" metal guns--
 

 

 
 
 
Then more than the guns went dark for a few agonizing days.
 
 
Ron

January 2013
 
 
As a result of a New Year's Resolution (which is looking like it will be the most sucessful one I've ever made!) work was begun again.
 
 
The first order of work was the cap rail--
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
The stock I had was too thick, which required sanding the pieces down quite a bit.  Deja Vu with the hull frames.  The pear for the cap rail is much harder than the cherry of the frames, and this work took frustratingly long.  Oh, for a thickness sander!--
 

 

 
 
Sanding to shape, and cutting scarph joints--
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
After cutting all the scarph joints, the pieces were glued together--
 

 
 
Sanded again and checked for thickness--
 

 
 
A razor blade was ground to scrape a profile into the cap rail--
 

 

 
 
The profile used for this particular purpose is the one on the left--
 

 

 

 
 
The rails are test fitted to the bulwarks--
 

 

 

 

 
 
Now experiments are done to test whether the rails should be left natural, or stained black--
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
This was a tough choice.  I really believe both ways look good.  I decided to go with black rails, since that is what was originally in my imagination, and what I've also seen on a lot of other models--
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Ron

July 2011
 
 
Experiments and work was done for the carronade completion and rigging.
 
Comparison of 3mm and 4mm blocks, 3m was chosen--
 

 
 
Test rigging--
 

 
 
The hooks seemed too big, making it difficult to draw the tackle tight enough, so I made an attempt at making them smaller-- 
 

 
 
This was successful, thanks in large measure to my new magifying headgear, but it meant that a minimum of 72 new hooks would need to be made--
 

 
 
On the outer bulwarks, the fastening of the eyebolt shows, so a method was devised to make these tiny pieces--
 

 

 

 
 
A few blocks were stropped with the new hooks--
 

 
 
Looking for an alternative to leaving coils of rope on the deck, I thought I'd try trussing the carronades as I'd seen them on the Niagara replica--
 

 
 
I altered it to put my guns in the run out position.  This probably makes it unrealistic in the actual practice sense, but I prefer it visually  (modeler's license!)--
 

 
 
I liked the way it came out, so will do this when the guns are eventually permanently mounted on the ship--
 

 

 
 
More work needed to be done to complete the carronade carriages-
 

 
 
Making the iron "slide pins" (my own name)--
 

 

 

 
 
Various iron attached to all the carriages--
 

 
 
Here are three carronades shown various degrees of completion--
 

 
 
 
Ron

June 5, 2011
 
 
It feels like ages since the last update. [Ha, well, not really in the reposting.  In fact, I am getting kind of sick of looking at my Oneida photos.  But the reposting is almost done!]  I have finished treenailing and sanding the bulwarks and wales. Next I installed 6 scuppers.

After studying what little information I had available, I located three scuppers on each side. One at the lowest point of the deck sheer, and two others equidistant from the one at the low point.

Then I drilled through by hand, a little bit at a time from marks on each side, judging the angle by eye--


 
 
Finally going all the way through--
 

 
 
My first thought was to use a single piece of brass tubing for each scupper--here they are pushed through the holes--
 

 

 
 
I filed the center hole a little to widen the inner diameter--
 

 
 
Realized that a faster way would be to hammer a pin into the end--
 

 
 
This shows the difference between a freshly cut end, and one that has had the pin hammered in the end--
 

 
 
I also quickly realized it would be too difficult to get the right angles filed on the ends, as well as the correct length at the same time, so I cut each tube in half and fabricated the ends separately.

I used the same pin to hold the pieces for test fitting. (The test fitting actually happens before the piece is blackened) --
 

 
 
And gluing them into place with CA glue--
 

 
 
At both ends of the photo you see two of the scuppers--
 

 
 
And also on the outside--
 

 
 
Contemplating what do do next. The cap rails will wait for a while. There are blocks to inset into the bulwarks, eyebolts for the carronades, the catheads and some other things that I think will be better to do before the cap rails.

All for now,
Ron

March 12, 2011
 
 
Bulwarks are all planked. They still need some sanding, fine tune the height, and file the sweep ports to the proper size--
 

 

 

 
 
To finish planking the transom is next--
 

 
 
 
March 13, 2011
 
 
Fortunately I was able to make the bow problem go away!

Now, I have to make a stern problem go away. I have been dreading finishing up this part, but as always, just taking things one step at a time keeps what seems like a complicated task from being overwhelming.

I had reshaped the transom ports from what was framed by the timbers, and as the inside planking approached the ports, I needed to resolve this mess.

First, I realized that to get a good joint between the planking and the port sills, I would need to bring the planking up one more piece, and then make new sills to fill the gap.

Here the last bit of the starboard side sill is cut away--
 

 
 
Then glue the next piece of planking. The rudderpost hole is just a starter, it will be sized to the rudder later--
 

 
 
Then I made the new sills, this time out of pear, which will match the others, and the planking. Also, I blackened the edges of the outer planking--
 

 
 
Then I glued some scraps of cherry for the missing jamb pieces. The more "true" fix would have meant completely dismantling the transom, and reframing the transom timbers; definitely NOT something I was prepared to do!--
 

 
 
Last was gluing in some new lintel pieces--
 

 
 
And now I'm ready to finish planking. One tricky thing here is that to get the shallow edge bent curve of the planking I think I'll have to boil some long pieces, and after setting a curve in them, cut them to the shorter lengths needed.
 
 
 
March 15, 2011
 
 
Here is a small supply of slightly curved planks. I did run out of this size--these were sanded down from wider stock--


 
 
Planking continues up the transom--
 

 
 
 
February 18, 2011
 
 
I now started planking the narrow areas on the two sides of the transom. I cut a small piece, and filed it to the right shape, test fitting numerous times to determine the right angles to make--
 

 
 
As I began thinking that these small pieces are going to be a real pain, it quickly dawned on me that there was an easier way. I would glue the short pieces of plank together first, and file the piece all at once--


 

 
 
This was much easier; here they are glued in--
 

 
 
And a piece across the top to complete the ports--
 

 

 
I need another strake across the top, and there will be some fine-tuning to the shape of the transom top later, but that's just about it now for the planking.  Next I think will be some miscellaneous tasks that I've put off for a while, like bolts in the keel to attach to the future display stand (yes, I know, I should have done this at the very beginning!), and drilling some holes in the stem for stays and gammoning (this should have been done at the beginning also!). Filing the sweep ports. Oh, and treenailing the wales and outer bulwarks. Time to get the drawplate out again.
 
 
Ron

February 3, 2011
 
 
Working very sporadically, but some progress:

Many of the port side bulwarks have been planked outside and in. Some ports sanded smooth. The planking stock is of varying thickness, so sanding continues to make the bulwarks smooth. Only one of the sweep ports is filed to its final size  [i changed the bulbs in my dining room light from incandescent to compact flourescent.  My camera couldn't deal with it.  The color is horrible.  After a few days I changed them back] --
 

 
 
Lots of masking tape to try and protect the gunport sills, deck, and wale during filing and sanding of the bulwarks, gunports, and sweep ports--
 

 

 
 
I don't know whether or not the inner bulwarks were caulked in actual practice. I have elected to not show caulking there on the model.
 
 
 
February 21, 2011
 
 
I am plodding along on the bulwarks. Most of the middle bulwarks are planked inside and out, and the port side is rough sanded and the gunports sanded flush. The starboard side has not been sanded yet. None of the sweep ports are done, except one on the port side as a test. The height of the bulwarks is also not to final dimension.

As usual, the bow and stern are the trickiest areas, and I'm also trying to be economical with my planking strips, it's going to be a close call as to whether or not I will have enough to finish--
 

 
 
That's all for now.
 
 
 
March 7, 2011
 
 
Well, I've been working away at the bulwarks. What I thought would be a relatively quick job has taken surprisingly long; mostly because I've been picking away at it pretty slowly.

Because it's been pretty repetitive, there hasn't been much to show--but now I have a problem that may be worthwhile to document.

I'm now at the bow, and at first it was looking pretty good--
 

 
 
But as the bulwark planking progressed up, the angle where the bulwarks come together seemed to be getting a bit too sharp--
 

 
 
Indeed, I checked the plans, and at the bow, the curve of the sheer (top of the bulwarks) should be following roughly parallel the curve at the deck. You can see the difference here--


 
 
I've let a bunch of inaccuracies go, but this one affects the overall look too much. Nothing to do but try and correct it. First is a cut and some trimming at the point where the planking comes together. As the planks will be meeting sooner, I need to trim some length off--


 
 
Also, I cut the planking away from the frames on the inside--
 

 
 
And started to shim out the planking until I got closer to the right curve--
 

 
 
After gluing the shims in place, I began cutting the outer planking away from the frames--
 

 
 
 
Then using the knife and a chisel, I started carving away at the outer face of the frames--
 

 
 
I'll keep you posted on how this comes out--acceptable I hope!. If it ends up looking not good enough, I'll take the planking off completely, and try again.


Elia had given me a heads up on this potential problem, but I thought I had gotten it right, as the angle at the deck was good. I hadn't forseen that the angle would change so much between the deck and top of the bulwarks.
 
 
 
March 8, 2011
 
 
A little more explanation of the problem might help. Here is Chapelle's plan, notice the deck line, and sheer line. The red is where my sheer line was ending up--
 

 
 
Here's the "side view". In my profession we would call this the "elevation", but I think this is officially the "sheer plan". Anyway, the yellow line is a nice smooth curve from the hull up through the bulwarks. Again, the red line is where my bulwarks were going--
 

 
 
Here is the uncorrected starboard side, showing the planks extending beyond the line indicated in the plans--
 

 
 
This is the corrected port side, after my surgery. It more closely follows the plans--


 
 
A few different views: The interior bulwarks are both corrected. On the outside the port side has been done, but not the starboard--
 

 

 

 
 
Oneida does have a relatively sharp bow, but it is somewhat less so than Niagara, for example. I think I was ending up with Niagara bulwarks on an Oneida hull! All of the lines of the ship need to work together, and I think this has been well worth the effort to correct.

 
 
Ron

January 3, 2011
 
 
It's taken me over two weeks to get to it, but I started the new year off by finishing the deck planking--
 

 

 

 

 
 
Next task is sanding and scraping the deck smooth. Those temporary planks across the hatches are to help with that. The scraper tends to dip down over the hatch, making a ridge in the adjacent plank if one is not careful--
 

 
 
I don't think I'm going to treenail the deck. In actual practice they plugged the treenailed or iron bolt holes so the grain ran the same as the deck (not end grain like a hull treenail) so that the plug would wear the same as the deck. Often the plugs are barely noticable.
 
 
The forward plank ends will not be nibbed into the margin plank. Partly for aesthetic reasons, because I will have a dark margin plank and I didn't want to highlight the two or three planks that would need to be nibbed. And partly because they would have also happened to fall right at a hooked scarf joint in the margin plank (poor planning there), so I didn't want to complicate that with the nibbed planks.

On each side there is one plank that is joggled into a hooked plank--
 

 
 
You may notice that the starboard outside plank, and the one it is joggled into, are larger than the port side. Sigh. The spacing worked out perfectly on the port side, which I did first. But on the starboard side, my deck is wider!!   The outside plank had to be made up of two separate planks glued together as seamlessly as I could manage, and then sanded back to the right width. At its maximum width, it is about one and a half times the normal width. I saved two pieces of nearly grainless Maple for this. The hooked plank is also a composite piece. They worked out okay, I don't think the glued joint is very perceptible.
 
I also hope that with the carronades, cannons, and all the rigging, that the difference between the two sides will not be very apparent.  [Well, I had completely forgotten about that terrible asymmetry until reposting this.]
 
 
 
January 8, 2011
 
 
The margin planks are glued in, and the deck has been sanded smooth--
 

 
 
You can get a glimpse outside of the snowy weather we had yesterday and last night. I'm not a fan of winter, but this was a pretty snowfall--
 

 
 
The temporary planks have been removed from the hatches--
 

 

 
 
Next up will be installing the binding strakes. [i learned their correct name.]
 
 
 
January 10, 2011
 
 
The binding strakes are glued in--


 

 

 
 
This was more diffictult than I thought it would be. The planking is actually slightly uneven in height (due to a multitude of causes--uneven deck beams and uneven sanding being the primary culprits), and to make the binding strake a consistent inch or so (in scale) above the deck required some shimming of the binding strake on the deck beams, and careful scraping. There's still some fine tuning to do, but it's mostly as good as it's going to get--
 

 

 

 
 
I think I can put off planking the bulwarks, inside and out, no longer. That along with cutting the sweep ports, will be next.

 
 
Ron

August 11, 2010
 
 
Not much actual model work lately, but lots of thinking.


I've decided to plank about 3 strakes on each side of the keel, for the mast steps to sit on. Then I'll run a strake farther up the hull on each side for the berth deck beams to fasten to. Then I'll plank just over half of the berth deck, to accomodate the stove, ladders, capstan; whatever needs to extend up through the gun deck. So, no bulkheads, compartments, or other detail below.
At least that's the plan.

First is some additional fairing at the bow and stern to make a smoother surface for the planks near the keel. I shaved away
some very uneven framing with the scalpel, and then did some sanding--
 

 

 
 
 
August 14, 2010
 
 
I've finished (almost--last piece clamped and drying) two interior planking strakes. The gap between the planks and the keelson is taken from the INA Jefferson model. I have a feeling it's not exactly right as I've done it [not wide enough], but I don't think it's even going to be visible in the end--
 

 

 
 
Next will be the mast steps. That will be fun, it seems like I've been doing planking forever. Now I'll get to build a little structure.
 
 
 
August 15, 2010
 
 
My mast steps are generally modeled after the INA Jefferson's, shown here-
 

 
 
I think maybe they are made with a rectangular "mortice" which would be shimmed to fix the mast tenon in place, rather than the whole mast step being made to slide forward or back for adjustment. Just a guess.


This was my first experience using the rotary tool as a milling machine. Here are two pieces together being cut out to fit over the keelson-
 

 
 
Another piece was routed along the edge. This one will be cut into short lengths to make up the sides of the mast steps--
 

 
 
Here are the four pieces that make up the forward mast step. The long pieces have been sanded by trial and error to fit the curve of the hull--
 

 
 
Here they are glued up. The one on the left is turned upside down--
 

 
 
I'm mulling over whether to put the little bolts on them--
 

 
 
And here they are sitting in the hull--
 

 
 
 
Ron

August 1, 2010
 
 
Here's the current work on the clamps--
 

 
 
On the planked side of the hull, clamping is more challenging. I'm gluing in two phases, to lessen my chances of making a bad move during the rush to get the clamps set before the glue starts to harden.

Stage 1-


 
 
Then after Stage 1 dries, Stage 2-
 

 
 
One more set to go.
 
 
 
August 3, 2010
 
 
More pictures of the clamp clamping--
 

 
 
I think it's time to clean my tiny "workbench". You can see why I move the model to my dining room table to actually perform any work on it!--
 

 
 
The last deck clamp is now drying--
 

 

 
 
Now I have to make another decision--about whether to include any of the lower deck. I need to do the mast steps at least, and if I'm going to include any ladders going down from the upper deck, they probably need somewhere to land.  And what about the stove? If I want to invite views in through the open frames, maybe I ought to put something in there, although doing so was not part of my original thinking, and it won't be very easy to see.
 
 
 
August 5, 2010
 
 
I have decided to add some of the lower deck. I won't try to include everything that would be there (it probably won't be very authentic), but just enough to indicate that there was a lower deck, and for the ladders, stove and capstan to fasten to.


The upper deck clamps have been sanded--
 

 

 

 
 
And now I have to do some research and planning for the lower deck.

 
Ron

May 1, 2010
 
 
I cut a scraper to make some trim pieces for the stern--


 

 

 
 
Here is the stern with the transom trim pieces glued on. the starboard one (closest in the photo) has been sanded down to just about the final shape, the port side is still rough and just tacked on--
 

 
 
Here is a trim piece held up for fitting. It doesn't fit as well as I'd like--


 
 
In this view you can see the size of the gap between the counter planking and the hull planking. The trim piece just doesn't quite cover the ends of the hull planking well enough--
 

 

 
 
 
So I think I need to add a sliver more of counter planking, which will have to be blackened after I get it cut and shaped right--


 
 
Then I think the trim piece will fit better. This picture shows the two pieces, however they are not finished--when I'm done the pear filler piece will barely be visible, but it should help the boxwood trim piece cover the ends of the planks--
 

 
 
 
July 30, 2010
 
 
I cut some filler pieces for the counter planking, and glued them in--
 

 
 
I had saved some of my blackening solution from earlier, but I guess it has a definite shelf life, because it did not work this time. I used some black artist oil paint to color them instead.

I cut a new (more traditional) profile pattern in my razor blade scraper, and made some new trim pieces, and glued them
on--
 

 
 
And the trim piece that goes between the transom and counter planking has been boiled, and taped along a curve similar to the transom to dry--
 

 
 
 
July 31, 2010
 
 
Gluing the trim on--
 

 
 
And the stern is finished for now--
 

 

 
 

 

 
 
I think finishing the deck clamps, and then the deck will be next.
 


Ron

March 9, 2010
 
 
A few more pictures of the hull, along with the most recent activity:

The shine is dulled down a bit, but still there. (Funny, the previous pictures showed it stronger than it really is, these show it weaker than it really is.)--
 

 
 
A couple of closer pictures--
 

 
 
You can see where I've started to mark locations for the treenails in the wale. I'll probably wait until I plank the bulwarks, and treenail the wales and bulwarks at the same time--
 

 

 

 
 
Now I took one of those "hold your breath and hope" steps. I've been a little unhappy with the look of the cherry and pear side by side. As I've said, the cherry looks just great by itself, but next to the pear it takes on a yellow/green cast, which worsens with the finish I'm using. So I stained the frames darker. Gulp!
 
Hard to tell if it's an improvement or not--


 
 
On the inside, half are still "raw"--
 

 
 
I would say that the unstained cherry frames look just fine in the photos. Maybe even better than those I've stained--you would have to really wonder if I did the right thing staining them. Unfortunately, the color problem just doesn't show in the photos. Even stained, it's not exactly what I want. I would like some contrast between the cherry and pear, rather than a "not-quite" match.  Maybe if/when the cherry darkens over time, it might end up to what I see in my mind.
 
[in hindsight, I don't think the cherry/pear combination is a good one. Pear is such a great wood for modeling, and when they're side by side, cherry just doesn't measure up. In staining the cherry darker, I was trying to make it contrast, in color, from the pear, so they wouldn't "compete".]
 
 
Looking out the window, she's waiting patiently to be finished and at sea. How can I tell her she's destined to remain "docked"!?
 

 
 
 
Ron

February 20, 2010
 
 
Not only do the upper stern strakes need more sanding, but there's an even worse problem lurking there.

When I dry fit the sternpost, at the very top the planks tuck in too much. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the three or
four strakes at the top of the sternpost do not meet flush with the edge of the sternpost--
 

 
 
I decided to go for the fix on this one.

I applied alcohol to the problem area. Note, there was minor bleeding of the marker ink with the alcohol, so anyone who thinks to try the inked paper caulk--BEWARE. I don't think it has ended up causing a permanent problem in this case, but don't be surprised like I was!
 

 
 
I also removed the shim I had put on to push the sternpost back about 1/16th of an inch. I needed to take the shim off because the alcohol was loosening it anyway, and it would give me deeper access to the planks--
 

 
 
Next I pried the loosened planks away from the deadwood--
 

 
 
I made a small shim to push the planks out, so they would meet the sternpost more correctly--


 
 
Then, after filing the excess part of the planking shim away, and sanding and filing the ends of the planks, I was able to glue the sternpost (and its shim) on, and then more sanding--
 

 
 
Those top planks still need some work, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get those few caulk joints to look the way they should, but the fit to the sternpost is better than it was. The photo (as they often do) is making things look worse than they really are.
 
 
 
December 7, 2009   [i've grouped a couple of older posts regarding treenails here, to keep all of them together.]
 

After weighing many factors, I think I may go with bamboo for the treenails, so I have started manufacturing them. I tried first with some bamboo chopsticks, and it was hopeless. They were very weak, and I couldn't make it past one or two holes in the drawplate.

Then I remembered some bamboo gardening stakes I have. They were very weathered, and I wasn't sure they would be any better than the chopsticks, but they actually are working guite well.

For the hull I need 1" treenails, which is .020". That's the third from the smallest hole on the drawplate. I was quite skeptical about my chances of working down that small (I can barely even see the hole!). But I've made about fifteen "straws". When I
took the picture I had about 7 done--
 

 
 
They are about 7" long, so if I need a 1/4" long treenail (being conservative here--1/8th inch might be enough) that's 28 per straw. I might need 1000 or so, so I probably need between 30 and 40 straws.
 
 
 
December 9, 2010
 
 
With some technique advice from other members, I was able to join the .016" club--
 

 
 
Couldn't do it without pliers, and it seemed like it took as long to do those last two holes as all the previous ones!

The small one also makes my .020" straws look like logs in comparison! .020" is right for the hull, but maybe I'll need the smaller size for the deck. Good thing that's a ways off.
 
 
 
January 4, 2010
 
 
After making all those bamboo treenails, I tested them out, along with some other techniques, on my hull section mock-up.

I wanted to see how simulated caulking on the hull would look. The upper four caulk joints use black craft paper ("construction" paper is what I've always called it, but I don't know if everyone knows what I mean by that). The lower four joints use regular medium weight computer printer paper made black with a "sharpie" magic marker. I like the way the thinner joints look--they are much closer to scale [And indeed, as you have seen, that's what I used]--
 

 
 
The treenails are kind of a mess. I took the old planks off and put them back on (with the new caulk joints) so some of the old silver wire spots moved around a bit. But here's the key:

The blue circle shows bamboo treenails in a hole that was drilled with a bit just a little too big. I was waiting for the right one (#76 .02") to come in the mail.

The red circle shows bamboo treenails with the right size hole. I was unhappy with all the bamboo treenails.
They look too dark to me. If they were larger, they might not have gone so dark, but this is the right size.

The green circle shows .020" holes filled with a watered down slurry of pearwood dust and glue. When I went over it with
the tung oil varnish, I think it may have disolved some of this filler because many of them look like dark empty holes now.

The yellow circle shows.020" holes filled with a slurry of full strength glue and pear wood dust. This looks the best to me (actually you can barely see the good ones, but that's about right). The only problem here is that the results weren't consistent (some still showed as a dark hole). I need to make sure the "paste" gets down into each hole.
 

 
 
I'll chew on these experiments for a while. But it looks like I am going to abandon all those bamboo treenails I painstakingly made!! And the silver wire I bought!
 
 
 
 February 22, 2010
 
 
Now it's on to treenailing!
 
I've decided to go with the bamboo, partly since I can't bear for all those slivers I painstakingly drew down to tiny size to go to waste!

I'm starting on the very bottom of the hull, which will be the least visible part--so if my beginning workmanship isn't the best, it won't be too obvious!

Near the middle is a portion that I sanded down, to see how they will look. They're so small, that even though they are still darker than I would have liked, they really fade away from a distance--
 
 

 
I thought my caulk joints were very thin (and most of them are), but next to the treenails some of them look positively fat!  On balance though, I still like the caulking--
 

 
 
Only a thousand or so more to go! I'm so glad I'm only doing half the hull--and this is a small ship to boot!
 
 
 
February 23, 2010
Here's a picture--as close as I can get--of the sanded down treenails. The treenail diameter (1 inch) should be four times the caulk width (1/4 inch). Just by eye it looks--close enough. 
 

 
 
 
February 26, 2010
 
 
I still don't know whether treenails or iron spikes are historically accurate for this ship, but I'll settle for them just looking good!

I looked at three sources for the treenail pattern. (Goodwin, Underhill and Davis) The one that was the most helpful and seemed most accurate was the one by Charles G. Davis in "The Built-Up Ship Model". It looks a bit random at first, but there is a very sound logic to the way the treenails are placed. However, Davis didn't show what it looks like where the butt joint of the planks interrupts the pattern, so I improvised there--


 
 
[i have not seen this pattern used in any other models--maybe because it's 'busier".   Every model I see uses the simpler pattern, which according to Davis, would be for single frames, whereas this was correct for doubled frames]
 
 
 
February 27, 2010

 
I've marked about 3/4 of the locations, and I have a growing patch of treenails.

Doing about two planks worth at a time (or about 50 treenails), I start the holes with a push pin, drill them, and glue the treenails in. Then repeat for another small section.

I do wish I had something that would cut these off flush. [How about the No.11 knife or a razor blade?] My supply of treenail straws is being used up faster than I thought it would, and surely there are or will be a couple of straws worth of waste in those bits that stick out.
 

 
 
 
March 1, 2010
 
 
I ran out of treenail straws, so I draw down two or three, use them up, then draw down 2 or three more, etc.

I'm a little more than half done, and the bow is marked and drilled--
 

 

 
 
 
March 6, 2010
 
 
Another small milestone in the long modeling process--the lower hull treenailing is done!
 

 

 
 
After looking at the next photo I realized I wasn't completely done--
 

 
 
When I first looked at that photo one empty hole near the left center jumped out at me. I filled that one, looked at the photo again and noticed another!

Hopefully there are no more empty holes, but I can't guarantee it!--
 

 

 
 
Now, I will sand it down. Then some thinking about what to do next.
 
 
 
March 6, 2010
 
 
Here's the hull sanded down and with a couple coats of finish on. It looks pretty glossy, but I haven't steel wooled it yet--
 

 
 
Next I made a rough working stand to hold the hull upright. First cut a couple of templates for the supports out of cardboard--
 

 
 
Then cut them out of a piece of scrap wood with my jeweler's saw--
 

 
 
Then glued them on to a base. I need to do some fine tuning of the support curves, and then I'll put some foam padding on the supports, and it should be good to go--
 

 
 
 
Ron

February 14, 2010
 
 
These are the last two spiled planks to go on. The one on the right has been shaped, steamed, clamped to the hull to dry, and then removed. The one on the left was sanded to shape, but I'm not going to steam it. The water swells the wood, and if I steam that last plank it won't fit in place to dry anyway--
 



Here are the two planks dry fit. The one more forward is the plank that was steamed--
 

 
 
The plank which I didnt' steam appears by an optical illusion to bend away from the hull more that it really does--
 

 
 
I glued the paper caulking to the first plank and glued it in place. The pieces of wood which stick out are just scraps which I'm using to wedge the glued plank against it's neighbor--
 

 
 
Then glued the next plank. The excess paper doesn't look so good--
 

 
 
But it sands away nicely--
 

 
 
I calculate 11 more planks to go. After so many months of seeing the frames, it takes a little getting used to them being covered up!
 

 
 
 
 
February 14, 2010
 
 
[Responding to a question about "exactly what" I was using for the caulking paper.]
 
I am pretty happy with the way the caulking is turning out. I have a couple small "gaps" where either the paper didn't extend to the outer plank edge, or it got dislodged when glueing. To fix those I might score a line at those few spots and fill it with something black.


But here's how the paper works. This is a sheet of regular weight, white computer printer paper (what some of us once knew as "typing" paper!)--
 

 
 
Using a permanent black marker, I color one side. Somewhere, I'm sure you could just buy black paper, and not have to manually color it, but it was faster for me to do this than try to find some at a store! Also, I don't even need a full sheet to do the whole hull--
 

 
 
The marker bleeds through, but not completely--
 

 
 
So I color the back side, too--
 

 
 
And there's my caulking paper. [i can't stress enought that you TEST your wood, marker, paper, glue, and finish combination.  The last thing you want is for the marker to bleed when you put finish on a hull that you have finished planking!!!!]  I haven't measured the thickness of the paper, but I think it is not too far off, scalewise. I believe the caulk joints should be about 1/4 inch--
 

 
 
When I am ready to glue a plank, I cut a strip of caulk--
 

 

 

 
 
I run a bead of glue along the edge of the plank, and smooth it to a thin coat with my finger--


 
 
Then glue the paper to the plank. (You can see a pencil arrow at the front edge of the plank. This reminds me which side of the plank is "out" and, of course, which is the front end. It's helpful both during the sanding, so I know which edge to bevel and which direction to bevel it, and also when gluing the paper caulk, just to help avoid gluing the paper to the wrong edge of the plank--which I have done!)--
 

 
 
After a couple minutes, I trim the ends--
 

 
 
Before gluing the plank to the hull, I glue a small piece of caulk to the end of the previous plank. Usually I forget to do this until I have the new plank coated with glue, and then I'm rushing to get this small piece in before the glue on my plank starts to dry! But this time I remembered--
 

 
 
Then I put glue on the frames, and run glue along the long caulk edge, and short end, of the plank--
 

 
 
And clamp the plank in place--
 

 
 
There's still just enough space to wedge a couple clothspins in the frames to push against the edge of the plank--
 

 
 
 
February 19, 2010
 
 
Last plank!!--
 

 

 
 
I still have to do some clean-up and overall sanding, but, by golly, she's planked!
 

 

 
 
Ron

January 28, 2010
 
 
I shaped and glued a few more planks on--
 

 
 
But the bow is not right.

I think the termination spot is about right, perhaps it could go forward another 1/8th inch, but what really started to give
me a headache is how it sits in the rabbet. At the very tip, it's not sitting right. I had tons of trouble trying to get the next plank to match up to it, and sit in the rabbet correctly. (This is actually the second try on that piece.)--
 

 
 
In the area of the circle, there is a "hollow" where the plank doesn't meet the keel cleanly, and the paper caulk shows too much. I could scrape the paper out, but the gap will remain--
 

 
 
I though briefly about trying to fill the gap with sawdust/glue paste, but decided to take the two planks off and try again.

It wasn't a major flaw, but everything else was looking so good, I just couldn't let it be--
 

 
 
So a little backstep--take 3 on the two bow planks, hopefully third time's the charm!
 
 
 
 
January 30, 2010
 
 
The problem with the forward plank was the twist and bend. Mostly it was that I had bent the tip just a bit too much.


But I did decide to lengthen the new one about 1/4 inch anyway, thinking that the run will be a little better looking. Here's a comparison between the previous plank and the new try--
 

 
 
And here it's glued on, also a new second plank. These are better than before--


 

 
 
Here's a bent and tapered stern plank, ready to go--
 

 
 
I dry fit the plank--
 

 
 
Then glue the paper caulk joint. Because of the extreme curve at the end, I glued an oversize paper to it. When it dries I'll trim it back to the plank edge--
 

 
 
And then I glue it in place. The angle of the light emphasizes the difference in thickness between the new plank and the previous one. This will require a lot of sanding to get the planks to match up. This the most extreme example of this so far--
 

 
 
With eight strakes to go, I'm just over halfway done with the hull planking.

 
 
February 2, 2010
 
 
Ship work is rather slow, just a small update here.

This plank I made from the wider stock, and roughly sanded it to a curved shape--
 

 

 

 

 
 
Here is a wet bow plank being clamped to dry, and a middle plank being glued--
 

 
 
And a shot of my work area. When I am able, I move some of this into the dining room next door, but sometimes I work right here. The rotary tool is the only power tool I've used (it's the only one I've got!), and up to this point just for sanding--
 
 

 
 
The drawing is the Chappelle plan from the Smithsonian Institution.
 
 
 
February 8, 2010
 
 
Planking continues slowly. I'm working now on closing the bow area, and then continuing aft. In this photo the gap at the stem looks narrower than it really is, but even so I think I need to shave a little off the planks there to make it just a little wider (about 1/32 wider, it's really pretty close to all right)--


 

 
 
 
February 11, 2010
 
 
Here are the last couple bow planks being installed.

First they are roughly sanded to shape, and dry fit--
 

 
 
Some more sanding, and they fit pretty well now--
 

 
 
After sanding just a bit more, and cutting them to the correct length, the paper caulking is glued on to the plank edges, and then the planks are glued in--
 

 
 
Then I did some overall sanding--
 

 

 
 
I'm on the planking home stretch now!
 
 
Ron

January 23, 2010
 
 
I've reached the point where the stern planking starts to turn down along the sternpost. I figured this is a good time to switch gears and work from the garboard strake upward.


I cut a piece of paper the complete length of the garboard. Later I'll divide this into shorter lengths--
 

 
 
I spile a line from the keel. It's very interesting that this line isn't just a straight line, since the keel is straight. I don't quite understand that, but that's the way it is--
 

 
 
Here's my paper with the line drawn on it. Again, just to be clear, this is the line that goes next to the keel--
 

 
 
I cut along the line and checked it on the model--
 

 
 
Then I drew the other edge of the plank, wide at the stern, narrowing, widening again at the dead flat frame (the widest part of the ship) and then narrowing to a point at the bow. I cut this line and taped the complete garboard plank to the keel. (I forgot to take an overall picture of this, I'll get it next time.)


Next I lined up a row of plank pieces on the dead flat frame to check the number of strakes needed. There's a slight gap, so I will make the garboard strake and the one next to it just a little bit wider--
 

 
 
After the gluing of the last stern plank had set, and I removed the clamps, I did some trimming of the aft end, and dry fit the sternpost--
 

 
 
The planking tucks right under the sternpost, and now will follow down the rabbet  [This shows more clearly why I needed that shim piece to move the sternpost aft a bit] --
 

 

 
 
 
January 26, 2010


Here's the picture of the garboard paper template in place on the model--
 

 
 
From the paper template I traced the 4 pieces of the garboard strake, making the pieces a little fuller than the template to account for the spacing and to allow adjustment--
 

 
 
Here are the four pieces--
 

 
 
And here they are dry fit on the hull--
 

 
 
I decided to glue the stern piece first and work forward--
 

 
 
The bow piece needed another boiling and bending session--
 

 
 
Here's the next piece being glued on--
 

 
 
The other two pieces are just laid in place, to see how they all fit--
 

 

 
 
 
January 27, 2010
 
 
After having a very difficult time trying to glue the paper caulk joint into the rabbet, I thought I would try gluing the paper to the plank instead. This is much easier and I will adopt this method for all remaining planks!

I also decided to taper the garboard to a point. There is a photo from a David Antscherl planking tutorial, that I hadn't remembered correctly before, that convinced me.

So now I glue the remaining pieces--
 

 

 
 
And there's the garboard--
 

 

 

 
 
Ron

January 7, 2010
 
 
It's important not to "steer" the battens too much, but to try and let them run true. The stern battens seem to run pretty true, and the width doesn't change too much so hopefully it won't give me too many problems. I think where the planking bends up to the counter will be one challenge.

The bow is another story, and there I have to bend the battens where they don't really want to go. I guess that means most if not all the bow planks will need to be spiled [Yup].  I'm going to work down from the wale, and up from the garboard, trying to avoid drop planks and excessive tapering.

I marked the location of the battens with pencil, and then took them off. This way I can still do some fairing if necessary, and there is less to get in my way as I do the planking--
 

 
 
I steamed an extra wide wood strip, and spiled the bow plank. I also steamed and twisted the stern plank. Each planking strake will generally be made of four individual planks--24' scale length, typically. I glued the stern, then the bow, then filled in the inner two--
 

 
 
Voila! One strake done! There will be 18 strakes, plus or minus.

I apologize for not taking more photos of this process. Probably some of you would like to see the spiling part. Until you actually do it, it really is kind of a mystery (at least it was to me). I hope I have managed the first one okay.


 
January 8, 2010
 
 
[i received a bunch of very complimentary posts at this point, of which I was very appreciative!]
 
Thanks, everyone! Oh my gosh, the pressure. It's just the first strake! Well, you've been there for the ups and downs so far, we'll see how it goes. (I am pretty excited to be at this stage.)

Here's a little bit about spiling, those of you who have done it before feel free to laugh, and tell me how it should be done if I am presenting something misleading.

This is how a guy who has never done it before does it.

But before that, here's my chart of the planking. The vertical lines are the frames (44 I think) and the horizontal lines are the
planking bands. The "x"s are butt joints. I tried to lay it out so there were no obvious patterns that would draw the eye too  much, but still follow the Lloyds rules and use 24' planks  [Here I have to say--all the models I see follow an idealized pattern, with joints all lining up.  This just looks artificial to  me, as well as too conspicuous.  Your hardwood floor has irregular lenghts of wood, and my gut tells me shipbuilding was the same.  Furthermore, this irregularity would validate the Lloyds rules, which don't negate the variation, but keep it under control.  I could be completely wrong, of course.  Visually, as well as what I logically think was actual practice; I like some randomness in the planking!]--
 

 
 
So first is to mark the end of the next bow plank (after looking at these photos, I realized I have marked the wrong frame! It should be the next frame forward from the one I marked--
 

 
 
Then I cut a heavy paper blank, and bent it across the frames (NO edge bending, just the natural lay). The distance from the last plank depends on how wide your spiling compass or "staff" is set, you'll see in a minute--
 

 
 
This is my high-tech, micro-tolerance, expensive spiling staff--
 

 
 
And here it is in use. Just follow the edge of the plank, and it miraculously draws the same line on the paper. (Landlubber carpenters call this "scribing".)--
 

 
 
So now we have a paper with the exact curve of the previous plank drawn upon it--
 

 

 
 
I cut along the pencil line--
 

 
 
Hold it next to the previous plank, and yes, it matches pretty well--
 

 
 
That's half of it. Next you mark the width of the plank. In this case, it needs to taper down from the standard width. I did this by eye, but you could get very precise and plot the width at each frame and get a very accurate line. I'm not so precise at this point because I know I'm going to cut the plank a little full, and sand it to the right width--
 

 
 
I cut the paper plank out--
 

 
 
And check it again--
 

 
 
Then I trace it onto a piece of planking stock--
 

 
 
I've run out of time. Part two will be the cutting, sanding, fitting and gluing.


But I have to let you in on a little secret. On that first strake I skipped the whole paper step and just scribed (oops-spiled) that first line onto a piece of steamed wet wood I held against the bow! The softened wood cut pretty easily, too.

Skipping the paper step cuts out a lot of work, but I'm not sure it's the best thing to do, so it's good for me to try it this way, too.  [i used the paper for all the rest]


January 9 2010
 

Now to finish up the demonstration of the bow plank:

I have sanded the upper edge that I traced from the paper template. Note: I actually traced the template upside down (mirrored). I can't seem to avoid these careless errors, but this one is of no consequence, it just might be confusing because we're looking at the back of the plank in this photo--
 

 
 
I roughly sand the lower edge with the drum sander on my rotary tool, and check the upper edge against the last plank--it needed some minor sanding adjustment to achieve a good fit--
 

 
 
Now I go to work on the lower edge, trying to sand a nice even taper--
 

 
 
I check it again (many times, actually) to judge the fit and taper--
 

 
 
Here's the plank with bow, top, and bottom edges done, I'll leave the aft end until just before gluing--
 

 
 
But first I need to steam (boil, actually) the plank and clamp it to dry--
 

 
 
Here is the plank, dry, aft end trimmed, sitting comfortably in place [This is really a nice achievement.  It makes you feel good]--
 

 
 
I glue the black paper caulk joint in place--
 

 
 
And finally the plank itself--
 

 
 
Spiling is a fair amount of extra work, but I've found that it's absolutely no more difficult than many of the other tasks involved in making a model, and you really can't avoid it to get an authentic planking run at the bow.

On to the rest of the planking!


Ron
 

[The dates are going to be out of order for this and the next post.  I decided to group some common areas of the build together, even though they didn't happen in chronological order]
 
 
November 14, 2009
 
 
Remember those erroneous beech frames I had in my kit? It dawned on me that I could use them to build a small hull section model to test some finish ideas, try out the adjustments I'm thinking of to the sills and waterway to get the carronades to sit lower, and develop some of the other skills I'll need to finish the model--
 

 
 
I glued them up with some spacers. this doesn't have to be perfect, it won't be to show (except to you all!)--
 

 
 
Then I sanded one side--
 

 
 
I glued up the wale and some planking. I tried out an ebony stain on the wale. I thought this might be nicer than painting it opaque black, but I'm not sure. I think it at least needs another coat of stain--
 

 
 
I also tried my hand at treenails for the first time. I like the silver wire that some modelers use. But the jury is still out on this idea. The real ship used iron fasteners, so I don't want to use wood. Some type of black metal might be better. Is there a kind of wire that is black all the way through? [i never found any]--
 


 
I also tried out some finishes. First I used a wipe on polyurethane, and I wasn't sure I like it, so I sanded it off and put on some of the Formby'sTung oil finish (it's not real Tung oil) that I used on my last model. I think it looks better than the poly. (Sorry, I don't have a picture to compare the two.)--
 

 
 
Here's the hull section next to the unfinished wood of the full model--
 

 

 
 
[A multi-post discussion ensued about modeling treenails, real ship buidling materials circa 1810, and various considerations regarding making historically accurate models.  I ended up using bamboo treenails.]   
 
 
 
November 17, 2009
 
I've done some more work on the hull section mock-up. This time, I wanted to take a look at the carronade height adjustment.

To review my problem, the pieces in the kit are made to attach the carronades as shown below--
 

 
 
I've determined that this isn't really right, and that the front edge of the carronade slide should rest on the sill more like this--
 

 
 
That means some adjustment to the heights of many parts (sill, waterway, carronade parts) will be necessary to make this work.

For a first pass at it I: cut the sill height from 1/8th inch to 1/16th inch (6" to 3" in scale), cut the waterway from .2 inches to .18 inches (Too lazy to do the math for the scale sizes there), and as shown earlier in this log, adjusted the carronade lug
placement.

The result is not too bad. Keep in mind this is very rough, and the purpose is just to see the vertical height relationships. I will add a semicircular front to the carronade slides. For this mock-up I tried the deck planking with black construction paper for the caulking--


 

 

 
 
Looking at the photos really helps. I think I can shave a little more off the sill, and possibly off of those small wood supports for the carronade lugs. I think I can also shave some off the upper part of the carronade slide truck assembly to make it more level. The first photo shows it best--the rear is just a little high.
 
 
 
November 28, 2009
 
 
Hello all! Happy thanksgiving. I'm visiting my parents in Rochester, NY for the weekend, and I have brought Oneida and most of my modeling tools and supplies with me. While my mom works on making lace, I have been bending wire for hooks.

Here are 72 hooks that I will need for the carronade tackles--
 

 
 
After I bent these, I blackened them along with some other parts I had cut out of brass previously--


 
 
Here is the carronade carriage with an extension added, the "iron" piece glued on, then the extension filed round--
 

 
 
And I then assembled a prototype carronade. I think it's going to work out well--
 

 

 
 
I'm waiting for some supplies to do some more experimenting with staining the wale to look like ebony. I found a recipe on the internet and I'll try that in the next week or so.


Ron

November 8. 2009
 
 
I am gluing the wale planks on. I'm working both sides.

Here are some photos of some of the wale planks being glued on--
 

 
 
The bow planks I am boiling, clamping on the hull to dry, and then gluing--
 

 

 
 
The stern-most planks are very tricky--they need to twist a lot. Hard to tell what's happening in this photo, but there's a plank somewhere in that mess of tape and clamps that's being shaped--
 

 

 
 
 
November 8, 2009
 
 
This is a very funky stern wale piece. It's the one I had to tape down to get it to dry twisted--
 

 

 
 
Here's a piece glued on, but not a good enough fit--
 

 
 
I took it back off to work on some more. I adjusted the amount of bevel on the top--
 
 

 
 
It fits better here--
 

 
 
This shows how extreme the twisting is at the stern. This piece I didn't pretwist. The clamping did the job. Just above the clamped piece at the aft end is the small piece I showed at the top of this post. You can see two clamp marks (from when it was wet) on it. They'll get sanded off--
 

 
 
Here's a bow wale being clamped on wet to form the shape--
 

 
 
After it dried, here's the same piece being glued on--
 

 

 
 
Here's the current state of the starboard side. I've lightly sanded the wale, sawdust has filled in any minor gaps, and you can barely see the plank lines--
 

 
 
Those that know what they're looking for can spot a major goof up here. But to fix it would have meant recutting a bunch of the wale planks. I decided not to do that, which means I'll need to "cheat" a little on my treenail lines. 
 
 
 
 
November 12, 2009
 
 
I have one more piece to add to the starboard wale, and it will be done--
 

 
 
I had heated and curved the piece, now it just needs to be given a final trim and shape--
 

 
 
I trimmed the end, a little at a time--
 

 
 
Sanded a taper to the thickness--
 

 
 
And adjusted the angle--
 

 
 
Length good. Angles need more adjustment--
 

 
 
I also checked the overall width of the wale. The caliper is set to the dimension from the original drawings--not the  Lumberyard plans. Still need to take some off the width--


 
 
This is looking pretty good, but I think I can get it better--
 

 
 
Aghh! Too much! I still don't have the middle gap closed, and now the aft side is too narrow. This piece is trash--
 

 
 
I took another piece (which means now I have to cut a new one for the port side)--
 

 
 
Roughly trimmed it--
 

 
 
Boiled and clamped it to the hull. The curve is probably not exactly right where I have clamped it, but it'll get me close--
 

 
 
So I have to wait to finish the starboard side while that piece dries. Might as well glue another plank on the port side. This one's easy--
 

 
 
 
November 14, 2009
 
 
Here are the wales--


 
 
The hull is propped up under the bow to approximate the right amount of keel "drag"--
 

 

 

 
 
I could have done better on some of those joints at the stem, but I'm hoping they will be mostly covered by the head rails, rigging, etc. If it still bothers me at that point I"ll fill them in [Ha ha ha, right]--
 

 

 
That last picture really makes the wale look like it bends every which way!
 
 
Ron

October 25, 2009
 
 
I've spent a lot of time trying to get the top wale strake  on right. Following are some pictures of various clamping arrangements, of different parts of the first strake--
 

 

 
 
 
After this dried I was unhappy with some of the "lay" of the strake. I took the 1/8th" square "guide" piece off so I could see the run better, and I unglued and reglued the aft end--
 

 

 
 
 
I ended up ungluing and regluing the bow piece three times on the starboard side, and twice on the port side. I think the curve looks good now. In the middle-left of this photo you can also see a piece of a broken bow plank. I had actually over-bent it, and when it was dry I tried to bend it back a little too forcefully and it snapped--
 

 
 
Now, because I'm trying the top and butt arrangement for the bottom two strakes, I need wider wood than comes with the kit. So I'll have to order some and wait.  I'll have to work on some other areas before continuing with the lower wale strakes. Maybe the deck clamps since now I will have the reference point of the top of the wale to help locate them.
 
 
 
October 28, 2009
 
 
 
Instead of waiting, I have some sheets of 1/8th x 2 inch Pear to cut the wider wale planks from.

I could order some 1/8th x 3/8th inch strips to make them from, it would go much quicker. The Pear takes a long time to cut with a knife.

I think it took about an hour to cut these two pieces!

But even if it takes me another week or so to get through these, it's faster and cheaper than ordering more wood.

Supplies needed--my paper template, steel ruler, pencil, knife, sandpaper, sheet of wood.
 
 

 
 
I also found some info in rereading Goodwin that puts me a little more at ease about my interpretation of the wale--straight strake at the top and top and butt strake below. That's the way the lesser wales (channel wale and the one below that) on the big ships were often built.
 
 
 
November 1, 2009
 
 
I am continuing to cut out the wale planks with the knife. Here are twelve. I have only four more to cut. The second angle (as on the four planks to the left) is done with sandpaper--
 
 

 
 
 
November 7, 2009
 
 
I got a jeweller's saw, just in time to cut out the last wale plank!

Here are the 16 wale pieces--
 

 
 
 
I spent a little time piecing them together and realized that the angles I have made vary too much to allow the top and butt wale strake to come together well.  I cut and sanded the planks by eye, and most were cut from a "master" plank, but
the variation between pieces is too much. I decided that I needed to do something to "standardize" the pieces.

So I divided the pieces into two groups of eight, and glued them together--
 

 
 
This gives you an idea of the variation between planks--
 

 
 
After the wale pieces were glued together I sawed the extra length off--


 
 
Four planks in each of the two groups will only be partial length, so the short ones in these blocks are okay--
 

 
 
Then I sanded the angles to make them all more consistent--
 

 
 
Each end of the pieces should be equal and half of the total width. Gluing them together into blocks made this easy to correct--
 

 
 
Here are the "waleblocks" sanded. Some pieces are still a little "off" but I think the majority are much more uniform than before--
 

 
 
After the sanding I put the "waleblocks" in hot water and they easily fell apart--


 
 
Now I have my uniform wale planks--
 

 
 
Ron