shipmodel

Hi Ron -
 
OK, I set up an album in the completed scratch-built forum under the title "Oneida (1809) US brig of war".  I hope the photos are useful.  Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Continued success with your work.
 
Dan

Hi Ron -
 
OK, I set up an album in the completed scratch-built forum under the title "Oneida (1809) US brig of war".  I hope the photos are useful.  Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Continued success with your work.
 
Dan

Hi Ron -
 
OK, I set up an album in the completed scratch-built forum under the title "Oneida (1809) US brig of war".  I hope the photos are useful.  Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Continued success with your work.
 
Dan

Hi Ron -
 
Just found and finished reading your log.  You are making great progress and I really like the way you constructed the capstan.   
 
I got interested in Oneida some years ago, and ultimately did a lot of historic research on the First Battle of Sackett's Harbor, which was the first naval battle, and may have been the first of any battles in the War of 1812.  Quite a significant little scrap, which kept the British/Canadians from taking control of the Great Lakes.  Oneida's gallant captain, Commander Melancthon Woolsey, is a true unsung hero. 
 
I also built a 1/96 scale model of her per Chapelle's plans.  It has the raised deck and pivot gun, later removed by Woolsey.  After I found that piece of information construction was halted, and other projects have prevented completion of the masting and rigging.  Here are a few photos for comparison, if they are of any help to you.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Hi Ron -
 
Just found and finished reading your log.  You are making great progress and I really like the way you constructed the capstan.   
 
I got interested in Oneida some years ago, and ultimately did a lot of historic research on the First Battle of Sackett's Harbor, which was the first naval battle, and may have been the first of any battles in the War of 1812.  Quite a significant little scrap, which kept the British/Canadians from taking control of the Great Lakes.  Oneida's gallant captain, Commander Melancthon Woolsey, is a true unsung hero. 
 
I also built a 1/96 scale model of her per Chapelle's plans.  It has the raised deck and pivot gun, later removed by Woolsey.  After I found that piece of information construction was halted, and other projects have prevented completion of the masting and rigging.  Here are a few photos for comparison, if they are of any help to you.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Michael -
 
Teriffic woodworking on the cabin.  The huge 'sanding stick' is an elegant solution to the problem.  The joinery is superb.  You should consider submitting some photos to Fine Woodworking for their Reader's Gallery.when you are done.
 
Thanks for sharing, as always.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Ron -
 
Just found and finished reading your log.  You are making great progress and I really like the way you constructed the capstan.   
 
I got interested in Oneida some years ago, and ultimately did a lot of historic research on the First Battle of Sackett's Harbor, which was the first naval battle, and may have been the first of any battles in the War of 1812.  Quite a significant little scrap, which kept the British/Canadians from taking control of the Great Lakes.  Oneida's gallant captain, Commander Melancthon Woolsey, is a true unsung hero. 
 
I also built a 1/96 scale model of her per Chapelle's plans.  It has the raised deck and pivot gun, later removed by Woolsey.  After I found that piece of information construction was halted, and other projects have prevented completion of the masting and rigging.  Here are a few photos for comparison, if they are of any help to you.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Thanks for the compliments Elmer , and Crackers.
 
I have been thinking about my build entries and like the style that Ed Tosti uses for his entries so I am going to see how it works from here on the numbers are starting at number nine because I have made 8 posts recently regarding the cabin structure. I will follow a similar pattern for different areas in the future.
 
Cabin Structure. part 9
 
After gluing up the sides and beams I noticed that I had not done as good a job making the beams line up on the top profile and this caused a problem with the gluing of the planks. My solution was to sand down the sides and ends to match the middle beams rather than removing the beams. this then ensured that all the curved surfaces were identical.
 
I made a long sander with some 220 grit and carpet tape strip of oak.
 
 

 
I used the narrow side first then the wide side to finish, i did not see the need to go any finer than the 220 grit because all the surfaces will be covered with glue and other wood.
 

 
This allowed me to set some new pine strips that were all the same thickness as the fir planks. These strips were glued to the perimeter and across the separation beam.
 

 

 
The fir planks will be pre drilled for the "screw plugs" (small dowels) before being glued to the top then the dowels and caulking before fitting the companion way slide logs and hatch.
 
Michael
 

Michael -
 
Teriffic woodworking on the cabin.  The huge 'sanding stick' is an elegant solution to the problem.  The joinery is superb.  You should consider submitting some photos to Fine Woodworking for their Reader's Gallery.when you are done.
 
Thanks for sharing, as always.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Daniel -
 
It really is just as simple as it sounds.  If you look at the plan for the bolster there is a zig-zag line dividing the forward and aft pieces that fit together.  Once I had the shape of the bolster cut and tapered, I drew on the line with a straightedge and a sharp pencil.  Then I went over the lines with the straightedge guiding the back (dull) side of a #10 blade, the curved one, not the pointed #11 blade.  I pushed down fairly hard to make a groove in the wood.  This would have made a visible line all by itself, but I find that doing this pushes the graphite from the pencil down into the groove, darkening it and making it stand out.
 
I used this same technique on the teak bench seats for the Swan 42 model.  In the computer I drew the multiple wood pieces for the seats, the side-by-side planks and the perimeter framing.  Once it was done to my liking and sized to the model, I printed it out onto thin veneer.  It looked good, but when I scribed the lines the printer ink was driven into the grooves, making seams that in some indescribable way look much more realistic than the simple printed version.
 


 
Anyway, it seems to work for me.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi all - thanks for looking in.
 
Another week, another report.  The hulls are not going as well as could be hoped, so here is another deour.
 
To go with the tops that were built last time, I am now making the masts.  I took a plank of rock maple and cut it down to the dimensions of the masts and spars that I measured from the Budriot plans.  They are cut as square sticks sized to the largest width of the ultimate mast or spar, then cut to length.  As long as I was cutting, I cut duplicates for the two models.  Here are most of them, from the 5/8” x 19” of the main mast, down to the 3/16” x  6” of the main stunsail boom.
 

 
These were all cut on a Hegner Mk 4 multi-tool.   It is a mid-sized tool that fits between the Preac and a full sized table saw, and is perfect for the size of the QAR models.  It has a table saw, router, disc sander, and a Jacobs chuck that can power a flexible shaft grinding tool or an add-on lathe unit.  I picked it up used and it came without an instruction manual, but I am figuring it out as I go.
 

 
After all of the pieces were cut, I turned first to the main mast.  It is a fairly simple tapered cylinder.  I planned to use the lathe on the Hegner, but it will only take 12” work pieces, not the 19” of the mast.  Without access to a larger one I went back to basics to carve the mast.
 
The first step was to cut the tenon for the mast cap while the blank was still square.  The blade height and rip fence were adjusted on the table saw and the tenon was quickly cut out on all four faces.  Then the blank was made octagonal.  This was done in the usual way by marking out the 2-3-2 divisions down the length of the blank with a dividers.  With a sharp block plane the corners were taken down to the lines, resulting in the eight sided stick on the right.
 

 
After the corners were marked up as sight guides, they were taken down and rounded with a coarse disc in a hand-held random orbit sander.  I didn't find it difficult to do this, since it only had to be accurate enough for a first approximation.  I paused frequently to mark up any high spots that I felt when I spun the blank between my fingers.  Then they were sanded down and the process was repeated till it felt round.
 

 
Once the round blank was achieved I went to the plans and determined that the diameter just under the cap was 7/16”.  This was marked onto the top of the mast using a circle guide.  Using a coarse sanding drum in the Dremel I took the mast down to that size in a sharp taper right at the top.  I would pull the drum towards me, grinding off a thin slice from the mast, then rotate the blank a little and repeat.  One corner of the top tenon was marked so I would not forget to make a complete circle before checking my progress.
 

 
From there I moved down the length of the blank: grinding a strip with the dremel and turning the blank a little bit, grinding and turning, grinding and turning.  In essence, I became a very slow lathe.  After doing this for a while I would smooth out any humps and hollows that developed by sanding the blank on a sheet of sandpaper which has been glued to a piece of plexiglass laid flat of the workbench. 
 

 
This process would have taken much longer if the mast had a straight taper from base to cap.  However, the plans had these two little beehive drawings which had to be the tapering diagrams.  They were only designated ‘a’ and ‘b’, but after comparing them to the plans I determined that the one on the left fits the three lower masts, while the one on the right fits only the bowsprit.
 

 
This tapering process continued for what seemed like a very long time until I could slide the mast up through the top with the masthead extending above the top as indicated on the plans.
 

 
Now the pieces to support the crosstrees and top were made.  Unlike English practice, there are no hounds, cheeks or bibs.  Instead, the French at the time used only a front fish that fit to the mast and slid up between the crosstrees.  A two-part bolster was fitted to each side and treenailed to the mast and to the front fish.  Here are the plans.
 

 
The fish was made out of pear and treenailed to the mast with walnut dowels for contrast.  The fish is also held in place by a pair of wooldings that lie in broad grooves carved into the face of the piece.
 

 
The bolsters are also pear and treenailed with walnut.  The only technical point here is that it was made in one piece, not two.  The staggered separation line was drawn on in pencil, then the back of a #11 blade was used to scribe the lines, which tattoos the pencil marks into the wood.
 

 
The mast is reinforced by alternating iron mast bands and wooldings.  The bands are made from 1/16” wide brass strips which are wrapped around the mast and sized to fit, then chemically blackened.  They are attached temporarily with glue before holes are drilled for metal pins.  Each end of the strip where they meet gets one, and a third is placed on the opposite side of the mast.    The pins are annealed iron wire which is inserted, glued, and clipped short before being peened smooth.  You can see one on the band near the bottom end of the front fish and another just below the light reflection on the other band.
 
Working in a large scale like 1/36 will allow me to build some details much as they are made in full sized practice.  The wooldings are a case in point.  A cherry strip was cut, soaked and bent around the mast before being glued in place.  3” rope (1” diameter) is wrapped 13 turns around the mast, packed tightly against the wood strip, and cinched tight.  A second cherry strip is added to the other side of the wrapping.  A painting of dilute PVA glue secures everything.  Once the glue is dry, everything was given a coat of the finish and rubbed down.
 

 
The top was fit back on the masthead to see that everything fit properly.  The inset shows how the front fish comes up to the level of the top of the crosstrees and takes the place of the spacer that, in English practice, separates the masthead from the heel of the topmast.   There is a third mast band that should be around the masthead just above the top, but the platform would not fit around it so it was removed until the top is permanently attached to the mast. [sharp eyes will also notice that the crowsfoot holes are towards the back of the mast.  This will be turned around before the top is attached].
 

 
So here are two of the shipyard workers just skylarking on the main top.  One seems to see a friend on the ground.
 

 
It’s a good thing that Dread Pirate Peter hasn’t spotted them.  He has some pointed questions to ask about the location of crowsfoot holes.  And why the bands and wooldings stop halfway down the mast.
 

 
Auf wiedersehen . . .
 
Dan
    

Hi Daniel -
 
It really is just as simple as it sounds.  If you look at the plan for the bolster there is a zig-zag line dividing the forward and aft pieces that fit together.  Once I had the shape of the bolster cut and tapered, I drew on the line with a straightedge and a sharp pencil.  Then I went over the lines with the straightedge guiding the back (dull) side of a #10 blade, the curved one, not the pointed #11 blade.  I pushed down fairly hard to make a groove in the wood.  This would have made a visible line all by itself, but I find that doing this pushes the graphite from the pencil down into the groove, darkening it and making it stand out.
 
I used this same technique on the teak bench seats for the Swan 42 model.  In the computer I drew the multiple wood pieces for the seats, the side-by-side planks and the perimeter framing.  Once it was done to my liking and sized to the model, I printed it out onto thin veneer.  It looked good, but when I scribed the lines the printer ink was driven into the grooves, making seams that in some indescribable way look much more realistic than the simple printed version.
 


 
Anyway, it seems to work for me.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi all - thanks for looking in.
 
Another week, another report.  The hulls are not going as well as could be hoped, so here is another deour.
 
To go with the tops that were built last time, I am now making the masts.  I took a plank of rock maple and cut it down to the dimensions of the masts and spars that I measured from the Budriot plans.  They are cut as square sticks sized to the largest width of the ultimate mast or spar, then cut to length.  As long as I was cutting, I cut duplicates for the two models.  Here are most of them, from the 5/8” x 19” of the main mast, down to the 3/16” x  6” of the main stunsail boom.
 

 
These were all cut on a Hegner Mk 4 multi-tool.   It is a mid-sized tool that fits between the Preac and a full sized table saw, and is perfect for the size of the QAR models.  It has a table saw, router, disc sander, and a Jacobs chuck that can power a flexible shaft grinding tool or an add-on lathe unit.  I picked it up used and it came without an instruction manual, but I am figuring it out as I go.
 

 
After all of the pieces were cut, I turned first to the main mast.  It is a fairly simple tapered cylinder.  I planned to use the lathe on the Hegner, but it will only take 12” work pieces, not the 19” of the mast.  Without access to a larger one I went back to basics to carve the mast.
 
The first step was to cut the tenon for the mast cap while the blank was still square.  The blade height and rip fence were adjusted on the table saw and the tenon was quickly cut out on all four faces.  Then the blank was made octagonal.  This was done in the usual way by marking out the 2-3-2 divisions down the length of the blank with a dividers.  With a sharp block plane the corners were taken down to the lines, resulting in the eight sided stick on the right.
 

 
After the corners were marked up as sight guides, they were taken down and rounded with a coarse disc in a hand-held random orbit sander.  I didn't find it difficult to do this, since it only had to be accurate enough for a first approximation.  I paused frequently to mark up any high spots that I felt when I spun the blank between my fingers.  Then they were sanded down and the process was repeated till it felt round.
 

 
Once the round blank was achieved I went to the plans and determined that the diameter just under the cap was 7/16”.  This was marked onto the top of the mast using a circle guide.  Using a coarse sanding drum in the Dremel I took the mast down to that size in a sharp taper right at the top.  I would pull the drum towards me, grinding off a thin slice from the mast, then rotate the blank a little and repeat.  One corner of the top tenon was marked so I would not forget to make a complete circle before checking my progress.
 

 
From there I moved down the length of the blank: grinding a strip with the dremel and turning the blank a little bit, grinding and turning, grinding and turning.  In essence, I became a very slow lathe.  After doing this for a while I would smooth out any humps and hollows that developed by sanding the blank on a sheet of sandpaper which has been glued to a piece of plexiglass laid flat of the workbench. 
 

 
This process would have taken much longer if the mast had a straight taper from base to cap.  However, the plans had these two little beehive drawings which had to be the tapering diagrams.  They were only designated ‘a’ and ‘b’, but after comparing them to the plans I determined that the one on the left fits the three lower masts, while the one on the right fits only the bowsprit.
 

 
This tapering process continued for what seemed like a very long time until I could slide the mast up through the top with the masthead extending above the top as indicated on the plans.
 

 
Now the pieces to support the crosstrees and top were made.  Unlike English practice, there are no hounds, cheeks or bibs.  Instead, the French at the time used only a front fish that fit to the mast and slid up between the crosstrees.  A two-part bolster was fitted to each side and treenailed to the mast and to the front fish.  Here are the plans.
 

 
The fish was made out of pear and treenailed to the mast with walnut dowels for contrast.  The fish is also held in place by a pair of wooldings that lie in broad grooves carved into the face of the piece.
 

 
The bolsters are also pear and treenailed with walnut.  The only technical point here is that it was made in one piece, not two.  The staggered separation line was drawn on in pencil, then the back of a #11 blade was used to scribe the lines, which tattoos the pencil marks into the wood.
 

 
The mast is reinforced by alternating iron mast bands and wooldings.  The bands are made from 1/16” wide brass strips which are wrapped around the mast and sized to fit, then chemically blackened.  They are attached temporarily with glue before holes are drilled for metal pins.  Each end of the strip where they meet gets one, and a third is placed on the opposite side of the mast.    The pins are annealed iron wire which is inserted, glued, and clipped short before being peened smooth.  You can see one on the band near the bottom end of the front fish and another just below the light reflection on the other band.
 
Working in a large scale like 1/36 will allow me to build some details much as they are made in full sized practice.  The wooldings are a case in point.  A cherry strip was cut, soaked and bent around the mast before being glued in place.  3” rope (1” diameter) is wrapped 13 turns around the mast, packed tightly against the wood strip, and cinched tight.  A second cherry strip is added to the other side of the wrapping.  A painting of dilute PVA glue secures everything.  Once the glue is dry, everything was given a coat of the finish and rubbed down.
 

 
The top was fit back on the masthead to see that everything fit properly.  The inset shows how the front fish comes up to the level of the top of the crosstrees and takes the place of the spacer that, in English practice, separates the masthead from the heel of the topmast.   There is a third mast band that should be around the masthead just above the top, but the platform would not fit around it so it was removed until the top is permanently attached to the mast. [sharp eyes will also notice that the crowsfoot holes are towards the back of the mast.  This will be turned around before the top is attached].
 

 
So here are two of the shipyard workers just skylarking on the main top.  One seems to see a friend on the ground.
 

 
It’s a good thing that Dread Pirate Peter hasn’t spotted them.  He has some pointed questions to ask about the location of crowsfoot holes.  And why the bands and wooldings stop halfway down the mast.
 

 
Auf wiedersehen . . .
 
Dan
    

Hi Daniel -
 
It really is just as simple as it sounds.  If you look at the plan for the bolster there is a zig-zag line dividing the forward and aft pieces that fit together.  Once I had the shape of the bolster cut and tapered, I drew on the line with a straightedge and a sharp pencil.  Then I went over the lines with the straightedge guiding the back (dull) side of a #10 blade, the curved one, not the pointed #11 blade.  I pushed down fairly hard to make a groove in the wood.  This would have made a visible line all by itself, but I find that doing this pushes the graphite from the pencil down into the groove, darkening it and making it stand out.
 
I used this same technique on the teak bench seats for the Swan 42 model.  In the computer I drew the multiple wood pieces for the seats, the side-by-side planks and the perimeter framing.  Once it was done to my liking and sized to the model, I printed it out onto thin veneer.  It looked good, but when I scribed the lines the printer ink was driven into the grooves, making seams that in some indescribable way look much more realistic than the simple printed version.
 


 
Anyway, it seems to work for me.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi Daniel -
 
It really is just as simple as it sounds.  If you look at the plan for the bolster there is a zig-zag line dividing the forward and aft pieces that fit together.  Once I had the shape of the bolster cut and tapered, I drew on the line with a straightedge and a sharp pencil.  Then I went over the lines with the straightedge guiding the back (dull) side of a #10 blade, the curved one, not the pointed #11 blade.  I pushed down fairly hard to make a groove in the wood.  This would have made a visible line all by itself, but I find that doing this pushes the graphite from the pencil down into the groove, darkening it and making it stand out.
 
I used this same technique on the teak bench seats for the Swan 42 model.  In the computer I drew the multiple wood pieces for the seats, the side-by-side planks and the perimeter framing.  Once it was done to my liking and sized to the model, I printed it out onto thin veneer.  It looked good, but when I scribed the lines the printer ink was driven into the grooves, making seams that in some indescribable way look much more realistic than the simple printed version.
 


 
Anyway, it seems to work for me.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi Crackers -
 
A good question. 
 
My best answer for this is that transitions in shipbuilding were gradual things, not easily pinned down to a precise cutoff date..  Since the 1600s circular tops first lost their high sides, then they lost their low rims, and by the end of the 17th century were simple flat platforms.  As you said, in English practice they started to lose their circular shape during the 18th century.  But this transition would have come later to French shipbuilding practice, especially in a yard that catered to private firms and families, rather than the more cutting edge yards that worked for the French Navy.  The change also probably came earlier to larger ships where the savings in weight could have been substantial.
 
To put it another way, Lees, Marquhardt, and zu Mondfeld all show a circular top dated around 1700 for Continental practice.  The clincher is that Budriot draws the plans that way, and I am tasked to follow the plans.  Who am I to argue. . .
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi all - thanks for looking in.
 
Another week, another report.  The hulls are not going as well as could be hoped, so here is another deour.
 
To go with the tops that were built last time, I am now making the masts.  I took a plank of rock maple and cut it down to the dimensions of the masts and spars that I measured from the Budriot plans.  They are cut as square sticks sized to the largest width of the ultimate mast or spar, then cut to length.  As long as I was cutting, I cut duplicates for the two models.  Here are most of them, from the 5/8” x 19” of the main mast, down to the 3/16” x  6” of the main stunsail boom.
 

 
These were all cut on a Hegner Mk 4 multi-tool.   It is a mid-sized tool that fits between the Preac and a full sized table saw, and is perfect for the size of the QAR models.  It has a table saw, router, disc sander, and a Jacobs chuck that can power a flexible shaft grinding tool or an add-on lathe unit.  I picked it up used and it came without an instruction manual, but I am figuring it out as I go.
 

 
After all of the pieces were cut, I turned first to the main mast.  It is a fairly simple tapered cylinder.  I planned to use the lathe on the Hegner, but it will only take 12” work pieces, not the 19” of the mast.  Without access to a larger one I went back to basics to carve the mast.
 
The first step was to cut the tenon for the mast cap while the blank was still square.  The blade height and rip fence were adjusted on the table saw and the tenon was quickly cut out on all four faces.  Then the blank was made octagonal.  This was done in the usual way by marking out the 2-3-2 divisions down the length of the blank with a dividers.  With a sharp block plane the corners were taken down to the lines, resulting in the eight sided stick on the right.
 

 
After the corners were marked up as sight guides, they were taken down and rounded with a coarse disc in a hand-held random orbit sander.  I didn't find it difficult to do this, since it only had to be accurate enough for a first approximation.  I paused frequently to mark up any high spots that I felt when I spun the blank between my fingers.  Then they were sanded down and the process was repeated till it felt round.
 

 
Once the round blank was achieved I went to the plans and determined that the diameter just under the cap was 7/16”.  This was marked onto the top of the mast using a circle guide.  Using a coarse sanding drum in the Dremel I took the mast down to that size in a sharp taper right at the top.  I would pull the drum towards me, grinding off a thin slice from the mast, then rotate the blank a little and repeat.  One corner of the top tenon was marked so I would not forget to make a complete circle before checking my progress.
 

 
From there I moved down the length of the blank: grinding a strip with the dremel and turning the blank a little bit, grinding and turning, grinding and turning.  In essence, I became a very slow lathe.  After doing this for a while I would smooth out any humps and hollows that developed by sanding the blank on a sheet of sandpaper which has been glued to a piece of plexiglass laid flat of the workbench. 
 

 
This process would have taken much longer if the mast had a straight taper from base to cap.  However, the plans had these two little beehive drawings which had to be the tapering diagrams.  They were only designated ‘a’ and ‘b’, but after comparing them to the plans I determined that the one on the left fits the three lower masts, while the one on the right fits only the bowsprit.
 

 
This tapering process continued for what seemed like a very long time until I could slide the mast up through the top with the masthead extending above the top as indicated on the plans.
 

 
Now the pieces to support the crosstrees and top were made.  Unlike English practice, there are no hounds, cheeks or bibs.  Instead, the French at the time used only a front fish that fit to the mast and slid up between the crosstrees.  A two-part bolster was fitted to each side and treenailed to the mast and to the front fish.  Here are the plans.
 

 
The fish was made out of pear and treenailed to the mast with walnut dowels for contrast.  The fish is also held in place by a pair of wooldings that lie in broad grooves carved into the face of the piece.
 

 
The bolsters are also pear and treenailed with walnut.  The only technical point here is that it was made in one piece, not two.  The staggered separation line was drawn on in pencil, then the back of a #11 blade was used to scribe the lines, which tattoos the pencil marks into the wood.
 

 
The mast is reinforced by alternating iron mast bands and wooldings.  The bands are made from 1/16” wide brass strips which are wrapped around the mast and sized to fit, then chemically blackened.  They are attached temporarily with glue before holes are drilled for metal pins.  Each end of the strip where they meet gets one, and a third is placed on the opposite side of the mast.    The pins are annealed iron wire which is inserted, glued, and clipped short before being peened smooth.  You can see one on the band near the bottom end of the front fish and another just below the light reflection on the other band.
 
Working in a large scale like 1/36 will allow me to build some details much as they are made in full sized practice.  The wooldings are a case in point.  A cherry strip was cut, soaked and bent around the mast before being glued in place.  3” rope (1” diameter) is wrapped 13 turns around the mast, packed tightly against the wood strip, and cinched tight.  A second cherry strip is added to the other side of the wrapping.  A painting of dilute PVA glue secures everything.  Once the glue is dry, everything was given a coat of the finish and rubbed down.
 

 
The top was fit back on the masthead to see that everything fit properly.  The inset shows how the front fish comes up to the level of the top of the crosstrees and takes the place of the spacer that, in English practice, separates the masthead from the heel of the topmast.   There is a third mast band that should be around the masthead just above the top, but the platform would not fit around it so it was removed until the top is permanently attached to the mast. [sharp eyes will also notice that the crowsfoot holes are towards the back of the mast.  This will be turned around before the top is attached].
 

 
So here are two of the shipyard workers just skylarking on the main top.  One seems to see a friend on the ground.
 

 
It’s a good thing that Dread Pirate Peter hasn’t spotted them.  He has some pointed questions to ask about the location of crowsfoot holes.  And why the bands and wooldings stop halfway down the mast.
 

 
Auf wiedersehen . . .
 
Dan
    

Hi all - thanks for looking in.
 
Another week, another report.  The hulls are not going as well as could be hoped, so here is another deour.
 
To go with the tops that were built last time, I am now making the masts.  I took a plank of rock maple and cut it down to the dimensions of the masts and spars that I measured from the Budriot plans.  They are cut as square sticks sized to the largest width of the ultimate mast or spar, then cut to length.  As long as I was cutting, I cut duplicates for the two models.  Here are most of them, from the 5/8” x 19” of the main mast, down to the 3/16” x  6” of the main stunsail boom.
 

 
These were all cut on a Hegner Mk 4 multi-tool.   It is a mid-sized tool that fits between the Preac and a full sized table saw, and is perfect for the size of the QAR models.  It has a table saw, router, disc sander, and a Jacobs chuck that can power a flexible shaft grinding tool or an add-on lathe unit.  I picked it up used and it came without an instruction manual, but I am figuring it out as I go.
 

 
After all of the pieces were cut, I turned first to the main mast.  It is a fairly simple tapered cylinder.  I planned to use the lathe on the Hegner, but it will only take 12” work pieces, not the 19” of the mast.  Without access to a larger one I went back to basics to carve the mast.
 
The first step was to cut the tenon for the mast cap while the blank was still square.  The blade height and rip fence were adjusted on the table saw and the tenon was quickly cut out on all four faces.  Then the blank was made octagonal.  This was done in the usual way by marking out the 2-3-2 divisions down the length of the blank with a dividers.  With a sharp block plane the corners were taken down to the lines, resulting in the eight sided stick on the right.
 

 
After the corners were marked up as sight guides, they were taken down and rounded with a coarse disc in a hand-held random orbit sander.  I didn't find it difficult to do this, since it only had to be accurate enough for a first approximation.  I paused frequently to mark up any high spots that I felt when I spun the blank between my fingers.  Then they were sanded down and the process was repeated till it felt round.
 

 
Once the round blank was achieved I went to the plans and determined that the diameter just under the cap was 7/16”.  This was marked onto the top of the mast using a circle guide.  Using a coarse sanding drum in the Dremel I took the mast down to that size in a sharp taper right at the top.  I would pull the drum towards me, grinding off a thin slice from the mast, then rotate the blank a little and repeat.  One corner of the top tenon was marked so I would not forget to make a complete circle before checking my progress.
 

 
From there I moved down the length of the blank: grinding a strip with the dremel and turning the blank a little bit, grinding and turning, grinding and turning.  In essence, I became a very slow lathe.  After doing this for a while I would smooth out any humps and hollows that developed by sanding the blank on a sheet of sandpaper which has been glued to a piece of plexiglass laid flat of the workbench. 
 

 
This process would have taken much longer if the mast had a straight taper from base to cap.  However, the plans had these two little beehive drawings which had to be the tapering diagrams.  They were only designated ‘a’ and ‘b’, but after comparing them to the plans I determined that the one on the left fits the three lower masts, while the one on the right fits only the bowsprit.
 

 
This tapering process continued for what seemed like a very long time until I could slide the mast up through the top with the masthead extending above the top as indicated on the plans.
 

 
Now the pieces to support the crosstrees and top were made.  Unlike English practice, there are no hounds, cheeks or bibs.  Instead, the French at the time used only a front fish that fit to the mast and slid up between the crosstrees.  A two-part bolster was fitted to each side and treenailed to the mast and to the front fish.  Here are the plans.
 

 
The fish was made out of pear and treenailed to the mast with walnut dowels for contrast.  The fish is also held in place by a pair of wooldings that lie in broad grooves carved into the face of the piece.
 

 
The bolsters are also pear and treenailed with walnut.  The only technical point here is that it was made in one piece, not two.  The staggered separation line was drawn on in pencil, then the back of a #11 blade was used to scribe the lines, which tattoos the pencil marks into the wood.
 

 
The mast is reinforced by alternating iron mast bands and wooldings.  The bands are made from 1/16” wide brass strips which are wrapped around the mast and sized to fit, then chemically blackened.  They are attached temporarily with glue before holes are drilled for metal pins.  Each end of the strip where they meet gets one, and a third is placed on the opposite side of the mast.    The pins are annealed iron wire which is inserted, glued, and clipped short before being peened smooth.  You can see one on the band near the bottom end of the front fish and another just below the light reflection on the other band.
 
Working in a large scale like 1/36 will allow me to build some details much as they are made in full sized practice.  The wooldings are a case in point.  A cherry strip was cut, soaked and bent around the mast before being glued in place.  3” rope (1” diameter) is wrapped 13 turns around the mast, packed tightly against the wood strip, and cinched tight.  A second cherry strip is added to the other side of the wrapping.  A painting of dilute PVA glue secures everything.  Once the glue is dry, everything was given a coat of the finish and rubbed down.
 

 
The top was fit back on the masthead to see that everything fit properly.  The inset shows how the front fish comes up to the level of the top of the crosstrees and takes the place of the spacer that, in English practice, separates the masthead from the heel of the topmast.   There is a third mast band that should be around the masthead just above the top, but the platform would not fit around it so it was removed until the top is permanently attached to the mast. [sharp eyes will also notice that the crowsfoot holes are towards the back of the mast.  This will be turned around before the top is attached].
 

 
So here are two of the shipyard workers just skylarking on the main top.  One seems to see a friend on the ground.
 

 
It’s a good thing that Dread Pirate Peter hasn’t spotted them.  He has some pointed questions to ask about the location of crowsfoot holes.  And why the bands and wooldings stop halfway down the mast.
 

 
Auf wiedersehen . . .
 
Dan
    

Hi all - thanks for looking in.
 
Another week, another report.  The hulls are not going as well as could be hoped, so here is another deour.
 
To go with the tops that were built last time, I am now making the masts.  I took a plank of rock maple and cut it down to the dimensions of the masts and spars that I measured from the Budriot plans.  They are cut as square sticks sized to the largest width of the ultimate mast or spar, then cut to length.  As long as I was cutting, I cut duplicates for the two models.  Here are most of them, from the 5/8” x 19” of the main mast, down to the 3/16” x  6” of the main stunsail boom.
 

 
These were all cut on a Hegner Mk 4 multi-tool.   It is a mid-sized tool that fits between the Preac and a full sized table saw, and is perfect for the size of the QAR models.  It has a table saw, router, disc sander, and a Jacobs chuck that can power a flexible shaft grinding tool or an add-on lathe unit.  I picked it up used and it came without an instruction manual, but I am figuring it out as I go.
 

 
After all of the pieces were cut, I turned first to the main mast.  It is a fairly simple tapered cylinder.  I planned to use the lathe on the Hegner, but it will only take 12” work pieces, not the 19” of the mast.  Without access to a larger one I went back to basics to carve the mast.
 
The first step was to cut the tenon for the mast cap while the blank was still square.  The blade height and rip fence were adjusted on the table saw and the tenon was quickly cut out on all four faces.  Then the blank was made octagonal.  This was done in the usual way by marking out the 2-3-2 divisions down the length of the blank with a dividers.  With a sharp block plane the corners were taken down to the lines, resulting in the eight sided stick on the right.
 

 
After the corners were marked up as sight guides, they were taken down and rounded with a coarse disc in a hand-held random orbit sander.  I didn't find it difficult to do this, since it only had to be accurate enough for a first approximation.  I paused frequently to mark up any high spots that I felt when I spun the blank between my fingers.  Then they were sanded down and the process was repeated till it felt round.
 

 
Once the round blank was achieved I went to the plans and determined that the diameter just under the cap was 7/16”.  This was marked onto the top of the mast using a circle guide.  Using a coarse sanding drum in the Dremel I took the mast down to that size in a sharp taper right at the top.  I would pull the drum towards me, grinding off a thin slice from the mast, then rotate the blank a little and repeat.  One corner of the top tenon was marked so I would not forget to make a complete circle before checking my progress.
 

 
From there I moved down the length of the blank: grinding a strip with the dremel and turning the blank a little bit, grinding and turning, grinding and turning.  In essence, I became a very slow lathe.  After doing this for a while I would smooth out any humps and hollows that developed by sanding the blank on a sheet of sandpaper which has been glued to a piece of plexiglass laid flat of the workbench. 
 

 
This process would have taken much longer if the mast had a straight taper from base to cap.  However, the plans had these two little beehive drawings which had to be the tapering diagrams.  They were only designated ‘a’ and ‘b’, but after comparing them to the plans I determined that the one on the left fits the three lower masts, while the one on the right fits only the bowsprit.
 

 
This tapering process continued for what seemed like a very long time until I could slide the mast up through the top with the masthead extending above the top as indicated on the plans.
 

 
Now the pieces to support the crosstrees and top were made.  Unlike English practice, there are no hounds, cheeks or bibs.  Instead, the French at the time used only a front fish that fit to the mast and slid up between the crosstrees.  A two-part bolster was fitted to each side and treenailed to the mast and to the front fish.  Here are the plans.
 

 
The fish was made out of pear and treenailed to the mast with walnut dowels for contrast.  The fish is also held in place by a pair of wooldings that lie in broad grooves carved into the face of the piece.
 

 
The bolsters are also pear and treenailed with walnut.  The only technical point here is that it was made in one piece, not two.  The staggered separation line was drawn on in pencil, then the back of a #11 blade was used to scribe the lines, which tattoos the pencil marks into the wood.
 

 
The mast is reinforced by alternating iron mast bands and wooldings.  The bands are made from 1/16” wide brass strips which are wrapped around the mast and sized to fit, then chemically blackened.  They are attached temporarily with glue before holes are drilled for metal pins.  Each end of the strip where they meet gets one, and a third is placed on the opposite side of the mast.    The pins are annealed iron wire which is inserted, glued, and clipped short before being peened smooth.  You can see one on the band near the bottom end of the front fish and another just below the light reflection on the other band.
 
Working in a large scale like 1/36 will allow me to build some details much as they are made in full sized practice.  The wooldings are a case in point.  A cherry strip was cut, soaked and bent around the mast before being glued in place.  3” rope (1” diameter) is wrapped 13 turns around the mast, packed tightly against the wood strip, and cinched tight.  A second cherry strip is added to the other side of the wrapping.  A painting of dilute PVA glue secures everything.  Once the glue is dry, everything was given a coat of the finish and rubbed down.
 

 
The top was fit back on the masthead to see that everything fit properly.  The inset shows how the front fish comes up to the level of the top of the crosstrees and takes the place of the spacer that, in English practice, separates the masthead from the heel of the topmast.   There is a third mast band that should be around the masthead just above the top, but the platform would not fit around it so it was removed until the top is permanently attached to the mast. [sharp eyes will also notice that the crowsfoot holes are towards the back of the mast.  This will be turned around before the top is attached].
 

 
So here are two of the shipyard workers just skylarking on the main top.  One seems to see a friend on the ground.
 

 
It’s a good thing that Dread Pirate Peter hasn’t spotted them.  He has some pointed questions to ask about the location of crowsfoot holes.  And why the bands and wooldings stop halfway down the mast.
 

 
Auf wiedersehen . . .
 
Dan
    

Thanks for all the nice compliments. 
 
Michael -  I will trade some of my carving skills for your metalworking expertise.  I just finished reading your log of the Bristol cutter and was blown away. 
 
Ken -  yes, the jaw is the major problem, but the width of the eye sockets also seemed too broad.  Here is the face after narrowing.  The lion is coming along nicely, but has a ways to go.  If my artistic skills are up to it, I want to get a ferocious expression, but that may be hoping for too much. 
 


 
After putting the lion to bed for a while, the next independent pieces that I turned to were the mast tops.  By 1710 in France they were circular but without the earlier raised rim.  They are built with the usual overlapping plank construction, a flat rim and radial cleats.  Here are Budriot’s plans, which are almost identical to Lees’ and Marquhardt’s.  This is the main top, but the fore is identical, other than being scaled down just a fraction.  The mizzen top is smaller, but the construction method for all three is identical.
 

 
To build them, the first piece to be made was the square filler piece.  It is just a piece of 1/8” thick scrap, sized to the lubber’s hole on the plans.  The cryptic symbol on this one is left over from its use as a jig for a previous model.  I cut this carefully on the Preac, as it will guide the rest of the construction.
 

 
The planks are 1mm thick birch, cut to width and long enough to span the diameter of the top.  On the real ship they would have been cut thick then carved down to make the lap joints, leaving a raised portion in the center.  Instead, I took a piece of the planking and cut sections the length of one side of the filler guide.  These were then glued to the center of the planks with the edges matched up.  When the glue was dry one edge was colored with a black marker.  A completed one is just above the filler guide piece.
 
The cleats in the lower left are mass produced since the fore and main tops take 16 each and the mizzen top takes 12.  I cut a rectangle of 1mm cherry sheet with the grain going in the short dimension.  Then I glued another strip on top of one edge with an overhang equal to the width of the rim with the grain also running in the short direction.  Now I could part off 1/16” wide cleats with a narrow blade in the table saw until I ran out of material. The cleats are left raw at this point and will be shaped and tapered later.
 
To start the platform construction, four of the lap planks are positioned around the filler guide.  Two of them (top/bottom) have the thick section turned up and the other two (left/right) have the section facing down.  They are glued at their overlaps and clamped tightly around the filler guide.
 

 
When they are solid it is easy to lay in the other down facing planks and glue them to the underneath planks and to each other.  After the clamps are removed the platform was flipped over and the remaining planks were glued across the first sets of planks.
 

 
The center of the filler piece was located and the outer perimeter of the top was drawn with a compass.  This was cut close on the band saw and left rough, to be taken down to the line on a disc sander after the rim is installed.
 
With the compass still set for the perimeter size, an arc was drawn on a rectangle of the cherry sheet, this time with the grain running the long way.  The compass was closed the width of the rim and a second curve was drawn inside the first but with the same center.  Three more pieces of cherry were stacked under the first and glued together at the upper corners and lower center only, not where the rim pieces will come from.
 

 
The inside curve was cut on the band saw then smoothed to the line with a sanding drum in the drill press.  The outer curve was cut large, to be sanded down after installation on the platform.  After completing the second cut the pieces separated automatically.  The rim pieces were cut to one quarter of the circumference of the platform using the plans to make the initial cuts, the fine tuning being done during assembly.
 
With the platform, rims and cleats made, I assembled them with neutral pH PVA glue.  Care has to be taken to see that the cleats are equally spaced and the rim pieces match up to each other, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward.
 
The shafts of the cleats were made overlong so their tails extended into the lubber’s hole.  These tails were clipped off and the shafts tapered from the rim to the hole with a flap-wheel sander.
 
All of the corners and edges were cleaned up and rounded with a sanding stick then the top was given its first coat of finish.
 

 
Here I used Floquil clear flat, but with a few drops of my stain mixture (50% Natural, 25% Cherry, 25% Early American) added.  The finish enhanced the color of the cherry while the light stain brought the tone and hue of the birch into the same color family.  It even slightly enhanced the grain of the birch, as if it were older wood.  This is exactly the effect that I was looking for.  I think that I will be using this color palette a lot as the build continues.
 
The trestletrees and crosstrees were cut to length from 3mm x 6mm pear.  I used the Preac to cut the notches in the trestletrees to accept the crosstrees.  Tapers were sanded on all eight arms as shown on the plans, then they were installed on the underside of the platforms.
 

 
Holes for the crowsfoot lines were drilled through the forward rim.  I spaced them a bit closer together at the center to account for the anticipated narrowing effect as the top curves away from the euphroe.  I’ll see how that works out when it is rigged.
 
The elongated holes for the upper deadeye strops were roughly cut by drilling two holes side by side then using the drill bit to nibble out the wood between them.
 

 
Finally, I indicated the nails that hold the two layers of planking together where they overlap.  As with the boats, these were indicated by drilling shallow holes with a #80 (0.012”) drill.  A wash of stain mix was flooded over the holes and immediately wiped off.  It darkened the holes without changing the color of the planks.  This is a technique that I will use again as well.
 

 
There will be additional holes to mount a number of blocks under the tops, but I have not studied the rigging plan enough yet to locate them.  For now, here are the six tops ready for storage till needed.
 

 
I'm up in the country this weekend, so hopefully I will soon have some progress to share on the hulls.
 
Dan
 
  

Thanks for all the nice compliments. 
 
Michael -  I will trade some of my carving skills for your metalworking expertise.  I just finished reading your log of the Bristol cutter and was blown away. 
 
Ken -  yes, the jaw is the major problem, but the width of the eye sockets also seemed too broad.  Here is the face after narrowing.  The lion is coming along nicely, but has a ways to go.  If my artistic skills are up to it, I want to get a ferocious expression, but that may be hoping for too much. 
 


 
After putting the lion to bed for a while, the next independent pieces that I turned to were the mast tops.  By 1710 in France they were circular but without the earlier raised rim.  They are built with the usual overlapping plank construction, a flat rim and radial cleats.  Here are Budriot’s plans, which are almost identical to Lees’ and Marquhardt’s.  This is the main top, but the fore is identical, other than being scaled down just a fraction.  The mizzen top is smaller, but the construction method for all three is identical.
 

 
To build them, the first piece to be made was the square filler piece.  It is just a piece of 1/8” thick scrap, sized to the lubber’s hole on the plans.  The cryptic symbol on this one is left over from its use as a jig for a previous model.  I cut this carefully on the Preac, as it will guide the rest of the construction.
 

 
The planks are 1mm thick birch, cut to width and long enough to span the diameter of the top.  On the real ship they would have been cut thick then carved down to make the lap joints, leaving a raised portion in the center.  Instead, I took a piece of the planking and cut sections the length of one side of the filler guide.  These were then glued to the center of the planks with the edges matched up.  When the glue was dry one edge was colored with a black marker.  A completed one is just above the filler guide piece.
 
The cleats in the lower left are mass produced since the fore and main tops take 16 each and the mizzen top takes 12.  I cut a rectangle of 1mm cherry sheet with the grain going in the short dimension.  Then I glued another strip on top of one edge with an overhang equal to the width of the rim with the grain also running in the short direction.  Now I could part off 1/16” wide cleats with a narrow blade in the table saw until I ran out of material. The cleats are left raw at this point and will be shaped and tapered later.
 
To start the platform construction, four of the lap planks are positioned around the filler guide.  Two of them (top/bottom) have the thick section turned up and the other two (left/right) have the section facing down.  They are glued at their overlaps and clamped tightly around the filler guide.
 

 
When they are solid it is easy to lay in the other down facing planks and glue them to the underneath planks and to each other.  After the clamps are removed the platform was flipped over and the remaining planks were glued across the first sets of planks.
 

 
The center of the filler piece was located and the outer perimeter of the top was drawn with a compass.  This was cut close on the band saw and left rough, to be taken down to the line on a disc sander after the rim is installed.
 
With the compass still set for the perimeter size, an arc was drawn on a rectangle of the cherry sheet, this time with the grain running the long way.  The compass was closed the width of the rim and a second curve was drawn inside the first but with the same center.  Three more pieces of cherry were stacked under the first and glued together at the upper corners and lower center only, not where the rim pieces will come from.
 

 
The inside curve was cut on the band saw then smoothed to the line with a sanding drum in the drill press.  The outer curve was cut large, to be sanded down after installation on the platform.  After completing the second cut the pieces separated automatically.  The rim pieces were cut to one quarter of the circumference of the platform using the plans to make the initial cuts, the fine tuning being done during assembly.
 
With the platform, rims and cleats made, I assembled them with neutral pH PVA glue.  Care has to be taken to see that the cleats are equally spaced and the rim pieces match up to each other, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward.
 
The shafts of the cleats were made overlong so their tails extended into the lubber’s hole.  These tails were clipped off and the shafts tapered from the rim to the hole with a flap-wheel sander.
 
All of the corners and edges were cleaned up and rounded with a sanding stick then the top was given its first coat of finish.
 

 
Here I used Floquil clear flat, but with a few drops of my stain mixture (50% Natural, 25% Cherry, 25% Early American) added.  The finish enhanced the color of the cherry while the light stain brought the tone and hue of the birch into the same color family.  It even slightly enhanced the grain of the birch, as if it were older wood.  This is exactly the effect that I was looking for.  I think that I will be using this color palette a lot as the build continues.
 
The trestletrees and crosstrees were cut to length from 3mm x 6mm pear.  I used the Preac to cut the notches in the trestletrees to accept the crosstrees.  Tapers were sanded on all eight arms as shown on the plans, then they were installed on the underside of the platforms.
 

 
Holes for the crowsfoot lines were drilled through the forward rim.  I spaced them a bit closer together at the center to account for the anticipated narrowing effect as the top curves away from the euphroe.  I’ll see how that works out when it is rigged.
 
The elongated holes for the upper deadeye strops were roughly cut by drilling two holes side by side then using the drill bit to nibble out the wood between them.
 

 
Finally, I indicated the nails that hold the two layers of planking together where they overlap.  As with the boats, these were indicated by drilling shallow holes with a #80 (0.012”) drill.  A wash of stain mix was flooded over the holes and immediately wiped off.  It darkened the holes without changing the color of the planks.  This is a technique that I will use again as well.
 

 
There will be additional holes to mount a number of blocks under the tops, but I have not studied the rigging plan enough yet to locate them.  For now, here are the six tops ready for storage till needed.
 

 
I'm up in the country this weekend, so hopefully I will soon have some progress to share on the hulls.
 
Dan
 
  

Thanks for all the nice compliments. 
 
Michael -  I will trade some of my carving skills for your metalworking expertise.  I just finished reading your log of the Bristol cutter and was blown away. 
 
Ken -  yes, the jaw is the major problem, but the width of the eye sockets also seemed too broad.  Here is the face after narrowing.  The lion is coming along nicely, but has a ways to go.  If my artistic skills are up to it, I want to get a ferocious expression, but that may be hoping for too much. 
 


 
After putting the lion to bed for a while, the next independent pieces that I turned to were the mast tops.  By 1710 in France they were circular but without the earlier raised rim.  They are built with the usual overlapping plank construction, a flat rim and radial cleats.  Here are Budriot’s plans, which are almost identical to Lees’ and Marquhardt’s.  This is the main top, but the fore is identical, other than being scaled down just a fraction.  The mizzen top is smaller, but the construction method for all three is identical.
 

 
To build them, the first piece to be made was the square filler piece.  It is just a piece of 1/8” thick scrap, sized to the lubber’s hole on the plans.  The cryptic symbol on this one is left over from its use as a jig for a previous model.  I cut this carefully on the Preac, as it will guide the rest of the construction.
 

 
The planks are 1mm thick birch, cut to width and long enough to span the diameter of the top.  On the real ship they would have been cut thick then carved down to make the lap joints, leaving a raised portion in the center.  Instead, I took a piece of the planking and cut sections the length of one side of the filler guide.  These were then glued to the center of the planks with the edges matched up.  When the glue was dry one edge was colored with a black marker.  A completed one is just above the filler guide piece.
 
The cleats in the lower left are mass produced since the fore and main tops take 16 each and the mizzen top takes 12.  I cut a rectangle of 1mm cherry sheet with the grain going in the short dimension.  Then I glued another strip on top of one edge with an overhang equal to the width of the rim with the grain also running in the short direction.  Now I could part off 1/16” wide cleats with a narrow blade in the table saw until I ran out of material. The cleats are left raw at this point and will be shaped and tapered later.
 
To start the platform construction, four of the lap planks are positioned around the filler guide.  Two of them (top/bottom) have the thick section turned up and the other two (left/right) have the section facing down.  They are glued at their overlaps and clamped tightly around the filler guide.
 

 
When they are solid it is easy to lay in the other down facing planks and glue them to the underneath planks and to each other.  After the clamps are removed the platform was flipped over and the remaining planks were glued across the first sets of planks.
 

 
The center of the filler piece was located and the outer perimeter of the top was drawn with a compass.  This was cut close on the band saw and left rough, to be taken down to the line on a disc sander after the rim is installed.
 
With the compass still set for the perimeter size, an arc was drawn on a rectangle of the cherry sheet, this time with the grain running the long way.  The compass was closed the width of the rim and a second curve was drawn inside the first but with the same center.  Three more pieces of cherry were stacked under the first and glued together at the upper corners and lower center only, not where the rim pieces will come from.
 

 
The inside curve was cut on the band saw then smoothed to the line with a sanding drum in the drill press.  The outer curve was cut large, to be sanded down after installation on the platform.  After completing the second cut the pieces separated automatically.  The rim pieces were cut to one quarter of the circumference of the platform using the plans to make the initial cuts, the fine tuning being done during assembly.
 
With the platform, rims and cleats made, I assembled them with neutral pH PVA glue.  Care has to be taken to see that the cleats are equally spaced and the rim pieces match up to each other, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward.
 
The shafts of the cleats were made overlong so their tails extended into the lubber’s hole.  These tails were clipped off and the shafts tapered from the rim to the hole with a flap-wheel sander.
 
All of the corners and edges were cleaned up and rounded with a sanding stick then the top was given its first coat of finish.
 

 
Here I used Floquil clear flat, but with a few drops of my stain mixture (50% Natural, 25% Cherry, 25% Early American) added.  The finish enhanced the color of the cherry while the light stain brought the tone and hue of the birch into the same color family.  It even slightly enhanced the grain of the birch, as if it were older wood.  This is exactly the effect that I was looking for.  I think that I will be using this color palette a lot as the build continues.
 
The trestletrees and crosstrees were cut to length from 3mm x 6mm pear.  I used the Preac to cut the notches in the trestletrees to accept the crosstrees.  Tapers were sanded on all eight arms as shown on the plans, then they were installed on the underside of the platforms.
 

 
Holes for the crowsfoot lines were drilled through the forward rim.  I spaced them a bit closer together at the center to account for the anticipated narrowing effect as the top curves away from the euphroe.  I’ll see how that works out when it is rigged.
 
The elongated holes for the upper deadeye strops were roughly cut by drilling two holes side by side then using the drill bit to nibble out the wood between them.
 

 
Finally, I indicated the nails that hold the two layers of planking together where they overlap.  As with the boats, these were indicated by drilling shallow holes with a #80 (0.012”) drill.  A wash of stain mix was flooded over the holes and immediately wiped off.  It darkened the holes without changing the color of the planks.  This is a technique that I will use again as well.
 

 
There will be additional holes to mount a number of blocks under the tops, but I have not studied the rigging plan enough yet to locate them.  For now, here are the six tops ready for storage till needed.
 

 
I'm up in the country this weekend, so hopefully I will soon have some progress to share on the hulls.
 
Dan
 
  

Thanks for all the nice compliments. 
 
Michael -  I will trade some of my carving skills for your metalworking expertise.  I just finished reading your log of the Bristol cutter and was blown away. 
 
Ken -  yes, the jaw is the major problem, but the width of the eye sockets also seemed too broad.  Here is the face after narrowing.  The lion is coming along nicely, but has a ways to go.  If my artistic skills are up to it, I want to get a ferocious expression, but that may be hoping for too much. 
 


 
After putting the lion to bed for a while, the next independent pieces that I turned to were the mast tops.  By 1710 in France they were circular but without the earlier raised rim.  They are built with the usual overlapping plank construction, a flat rim and radial cleats.  Here are Budriot’s plans, which are almost identical to Lees’ and Marquhardt’s.  This is the main top, but the fore is identical, other than being scaled down just a fraction.  The mizzen top is smaller, but the construction method for all three is identical.
 

 
To build them, the first piece to be made was the square filler piece.  It is just a piece of 1/8” thick scrap, sized to the lubber’s hole on the plans.  The cryptic symbol on this one is left over from its use as a jig for a previous model.  I cut this carefully on the Preac, as it will guide the rest of the construction.
 

 
The planks are 1mm thick birch, cut to width and long enough to span the diameter of the top.  On the real ship they would have been cut thick then carved down to make the lap joints, leaving a raised portion in the center.  Instead, I took a piece of the planking and cut sections the length of one side of the filler guide.  These were then glued to the center of the planks with the edges matched up.  When the glue was dry one edge was colored with a black marker.  A completed one is just above the filler guide piece.
 
The cleats in the lower left are mass produced since the fore and main tops take 16 each and the mizzen top takes 12.  I cut a rectangle of 1mm cherry sheet with the grain going in the short dimension.  Then I glued another strip on top of one edge with an overhang equal to the width of the rim with the grain also running in the short direction.  Now I could part off 1/16” wide cleats with a narrow blade in the table saw until I ran out of material. The cleats are left raw at this point and will be shaped and tapered later.
 
To start the platform construction, four of the lap planks are positioned around the filler guide.  Two of them (top/bottom) have the thick section turned up and the other two (left/right) have the section facing down.  They are glued at their overlaps and clamped tightly around the filler guide.
 

 
When they are solid it is easy to lay in the other down facing planks and glue them to the underneath planks and to each other.  After the clamps are removed the platform was flipped over and the remaining planks were glued across the first sets of planks.
 

 
The center of the filler piece was located and the outer perimeter of the top was drawn with a compass.  This was cut close on the band saw and left rough, to be taken down to the line on a disc sander after the rim is installed.
 
With the compass still set for the perimeter size, an arc was drawn on a rectangle of the cherry sheet, this time with the grain running the long way.  The compass was closed the width of the rim and a second curve was drawn inside the first but with the same center.  Three more pieces of cherry were stacked under the first and glued together at the upper corners and lower center only, not where the rim pieces will come from.
 

 
The inside curve was cut on the band saw then smoothed to the line with a sanding drum in the drill press.  The outer curve was cut large, to be sanded down after installation on the platform.  After completing the second cut the pieces separated automatically.  The rim pieces were cut to one quarter of the circumference of the platform using the plans to make the initial cuts, the fine tuning being done during assembly.
 
With the platform, rims and cleats made, I assembled them with neutral pH PVA glue.  Care has to be taken to see that the cleats are equally spaced and the rim pieces match up to each other, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward.
 
The shafts of the cleats were made overlong so their tails extended into the lubber’s hole.  These tails were clipped off and the shafts tapered from the rim to the hole with a flap-wheel sander.
 
All of the corners and edges were cleaned up and rounded with a sanding stick then the top was given its first coat of finish.
 

 
Here I used Floquil clear flat, but with a few drops of my stain mixture (50% Natural, 25% Cherry, 25% Early American) added.  The finish enhanced the color of the cherry while the light stain brought the tone and hue of the birch into the same color family.  It even slightly enhanced the grain of the birch, as if it were older wood.  This is exactly the effect that I was looking for.  I think that I will be using this color palette a lot as the build continues.
 
The trestletrees and crosstrees were cut to length from 3mm x 6mm pear.  I used the Preac to cut the notches in the trestletrees to accept the crosstrees.  Tapers were sanded on all eight arms as shown on the plans, then they were installed on the underside of the platforms.
 

 
Holes for the crowsfoot lines were drilled through the forward rim.  I spaced them a bit closer together at the center to account for the anticipated narrowing effect as the top curves away from the euphroe.  I’ll see how that works out when it is rigged.
 
The elongated holes for the upper deadeye strops were roughly cut by drilling two holes side by side then using the drill bit to nibble out the wood between them.
 

 
Finally, I indicated the nails that hold the two layers of planking together where they overlap.  As with the boats, these were indicated by drilling shallow holes with a #80 (0.012”) drill.  A wash of stain mix was flooded over the holes and immediately wiped off.  It darkened the holes without changing the color of the planks.  This is a technique that I will use again as well.
 

 
There will be additional holes to mount a number of blocks under the tops, but I have not studied the rigging plan enough yet to locate them.  For now, here are the six tops ready for storage till needed.
 

 
I'm up in the country this weekend, so hopefully I will soon have some progress to share on the hulls.
 
Dan
 
  

Thanks for all the nice compliments. 
 
Michael -  I will trade some of my carving skills for your metalworking expertise.  I just finished reading your log of the Bristol cutter and was blown away. 
 
Ken -  yes, the jaw is the major problem, but the width of the eye sockets also seemed too broad.  Here is the face after narrowing.  The lion is coming along nicely, but has a ways to go.  If my artistic skills are up to it, I want to get a ferocious expression, but that may be hoping for too much. 
 


 
After putting the lion to bed for a while, the next independent pieces that I turned to were the mast tops.  By 1710 in France they were circular but without the earlier raised rim.  They are built with the usual overlapping plank construction, a flat rim and radial cleats.  Here are Budriot’s plans, which are almost identical to Lees’ and Marquhardt’s.  This is the main top, but the fore is identical, other than being scaled down just a fraction.  The mizzen top is smaller, but the construction method for all three is identical.
 

 
To build them, the first piece to be made was the square filler piece.  It is just a piece of 1/8” thick scrap, sized to the lubber’s hole on the plans.  The cryptic symbol on this one is left over from its use as a jig for a previous model.  I cut this carefully on the Preac, as it will guide the rest of the construction.
 

 
The planks are 1mm thick birch, cut to width and long enough to span the diameter of the top.  On the real ship they would have been cut thick then carved down to make the lap joints, leaving a raised portion in the center.  Instead, I took a piece of the planking and cut sections the length of one side of the filler guide.  These were then glued to the center of the planks with the edges matched up.  When the glue was dry one edge was colored with a black marker.  A completed one is just above the filler guide piece.
 
The cleats in the lower left are mass produced since the fore and main tops take 16 each and the mizzen top takes 12.  I cut a rectangle of 1mm cherry sheet with the grain going in the short dimension.  Then I glued another strip on top of one edge with an overhang equal to the width of the rim with the grain also running in the short direction.  Now I could part off 1/16” wide cleats with a narrow blade in the table saw until I ran out of material. The cleats are left raw at this point and will be shaped and tapered later.
 
To start the platform construction, four of the lap planks are positioned around the filler guide.  Two of them (top/bottom) have the thick section turned up and the other two (left/right) have the section facing down.  They are glued at their overlaps and clamped tightly around the filler guide.
 

 
When they are solid it is easy to lay in the other down facing planks and glue them to the underneath planks and to each other.  After the clamps are removed the platform was flipped over and the remaining planks were glued across the first sets of planks.
 

 
The center of the filler piece was located and the outer perimeter of the top was drawn with a compass.  This was cut close on the band saw and left rough, to be taken down to the line on a disc sander after the rim is installed.
 
With the compass still set for the perimeter size, an arc was drawn on a rectangle of the cherry sheet, this time with the grain running the long way.  The compass was closed the width of the rim and a second curve was drawn inside the first but with the same center.  Three more pieces of cherry were stacked under the first and glued together at the upper corners and lower center only, not where the rim pieces will come from.
 

 
The inside curve was cut on the band saw then smoothed to the line with a sanding drum in the drill press.  The outer curve was cut large, to be sanded down after installation on the platform.  After completing the second cut the pieces separated automatically.  The rim pieces were cut to one quarter of the circumference of the platform using the plans to make the initial cuts, the fine tuning being done during assembly.
 
With the platform, rims and cleats made, I assembled them with neutral pH PVA glue.  Care has to be taken to see that the cleats are equally spaced and the rim pieces match up to each other, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward.
 
The shafts of the cleats were made overlong so their tails extended into the lubber’s hole.  These tails were clipped off and the shafts tapered from the rim to the hole with a flap-wheel sander.
 
All of the corners and edges were cleaned up and rounded with a sanding stick then the top was given its first coat of finish.
 

 
Here I used Floquil clear flat, but with a few drops of my stain mixture (50% Natural, 25% Cherry, 25% Early American) added.  The finish enhanced the color of the cherry while the light stain brought the tone and hue of the birch into the same color family.  It even slightly enhanced the grain of the birch, as if it were older wood.  This is exactly the effect that I was looking for.  I think that I will be using this color palette a lot as the build continues.
 
The trestletrees and crosstrees were cut to length from 3mm x 6mm pear.  I used the Preac to cut the notches in the trestletrees to accept the crosstrees.  Tapers were sanded on all eight arms as shown on the plans, then they were installed on the underside of the platforms.
 

 
Holes for the crowsfoot lines were drilled through the forward rim.  I spaced them a bit closer together at the center to account for the anticipated narrowing effect as the top curves away from the euphroe.  I’ll see how that works out when it is rigged.
 
The elongated holes for the upper deadeye strops were roughly cut by drilling two holes side by side then using the drill bit to nibble out the wood between them.
 

 
Finally, I indicated the nails that hold the two layers of planking together where they overlap.  As with the boats, these were indicated by drilling shallow holes with a #80 (0.012”) drill.  A wash of stain mix was flooded over the holes and immediately wiped off.  It darkened the holes without changing the color of the planks.  This is a technique that I will use again as well.
 

 
There will be additional holes to mount a number of blocks under the tops, but I have not studied the rigging plan enough yet to locate them.  For now, here are the six tops ready for storage till needed.
 

 
I'm up in the country this weekend, so hopefully I will soon have some progress to share on the hulls.
 
Dan
 
  

Thanks for all the nice compliments. 
 
Michael -  I will trade some of my carving skills for your metalworking expertise.  I just finished reading your log of the Bristol cutter and was blown away. 
 
Ken -  yes, the jaw is the major problem, but the width of the eye sockets also seemed too broad.  Here is the face after narrowing.  The lion is coming along nicely, but has a ways to go.  If my artistic skills are up to it, I want to get a ferocious expression, but that may be hoping for too much. 
 


 
After putting the lion to bed for a while, the next independent pieces that I turned to were the mast tops.  By 1710 in France they were circular but without the earlier raised rim.  They are built with the usual overlapping plank construction, a flat rim and radial cleats.  Here are Budriot’s plans, which are almost identical to Lees’ and Marquhardt’s.  This is the main top, but the fore is identical, other than being scaled down just a fraction.  The mizzen top is smaller, but the construction method for all three is identical.
 

 
To build them, the first piece to be made was the square filler piece.  It is just a piece of 1/8” thick scrap, sized to the lubber’s hole on the plans.  The cryptic symbol on this one is left over from its use as a jig for a previous model.  I cut this carefully on the Preac, as it will guide the rest of the construction.
 

 
The planks are 1mm thick birch, cut to width and long enough to span the diameter of the top.  On the real ship they would have been cut thick then carved down to make the lap joints, leaving a raised portion in the center.  Instead, I took a piece of the planking and cut sections the length of one side of the filler guide.  These were then glued to the center of the planks with the edges matched up.  When the glue was dry one edge was colored with a black marker.  A completed one is just above the filler guide piece.
 
The cleats in the lower left are mass produced since the fore and main tops take 16 each and the mizzen top takes 12.  I cut a rectangle of 1mm cherry sheet with the grain going in the short dimension.  Then I glued another strip on top of one edge with an overhang equal to the width of the rim with the grain also running in the short direction.  Now I could part off 1/16” wide cleats with a narrow blade in the table saw until I ran out of material. The cleats are left raw at this point and will be shaped and tapered later.
 
To start the platform construction, four of the lap planks are positioned around the filler guide.  Two of them (top/bottom) have the thick section turned up and the other two (left/right) have the section facing down.  They are glued at their overlaps and clamped tightly around the filler guide.
 

 
When they are solid it is easy to lay in the other down facing planks and glue them to the underneath planks and to each other.  After the clamps are removed the platform was flipped over and the remaining planks were glued across the first sets of planks.
 

 
The center of the filler piece was located and the outer perimeter of the top was drawn with a compass.  This was cut close on the band saw and left rough, to be taken down to the line on a disc sander after the rim is installed.
 
With the compass still set for the perimeter size, an arc was drawn on a rectangle of the cherry sheet, this time with the grain running the long way.  The compass was closed the width of the rim and a second curve was drawn inside the first but with the same center.  Three more pieces of cherry were stacked under the first and glued together at the upper corners and lower center only, not where the rim pieces will come from.
 

 
The inside curve was cut on the band saw then smoothed to the line with a sanding drum in the drill press.  The outer curve was cut large, to be sanded down after installation on the platform.  After completing the second cut the pieces separated automatically.  The rim pieces were cut to one quarter of the circumference of the platform using the plans to make the initial cuts, the fine tuning being done during assembly.
 
With the platform, rims and cleats made, I assembled them with neutral pH PVA glue.  Care has to be taken to see that the cleats are equally spaced and the rim pieces match up to each other, but otherwise construction is pretty straightforward.
 
The shafts of the cleats were made overlong so their tails extended into the lubber’s hole.  These tails were clipped off and the shafts tapered from the rim to the hole with a flap-wheel sander.
 
All of the corners and edges were cleaned up and rounded with a sanding stick then the top was given its first coat of finish.
 

 
Here I used Floquil clear flat, but with a few drops of my stain mixture (50% Natural, 25% Cherry, 25% Early American) added.  The finish enhanced the color of the cherry while the light stain brought the tone and hue of the birch into the same color family.  It even slightly enhanced the grain of the birch, as if it were older wood.  This is exactly the effect that I was looking for.  I think that I will be using this color palette a lot as the build continues.
 
The trestletrees and crosstrees were cut to length from 3mm x 6mm pear.  I used the Preac to cut the notches in the trestletrees to accept the crosstrees.  Tapers were sanded on all eight arms as shown on the plans, then they were installed on the underside of the platforms.
 

 
Holes for the crowsfoot lines were drilled through the forward rim.  I spaced them a bit closer together at the center to account for the anticipated narrowing effect as the top curves away from the euphroe.  I’ll see how that works out when it is rigged.
 
The elongated holes for the upper deadeye strops were roughly cut by drilling two holes side by side then using the drill bit to nibble out the wood between them.
 

 
Finally, I indicated the nails that hold the two layers of planking together where they overlap.  As with the boats, these were indicated by drilling shallow holes with a #80 (0.012”) drill.  A wash of stain mix was flooded over the holes and immediately wiped off.  It darkened the holes without changing the color of the planks.  This is a technique that I will use again as well.
 

 
There will be additional holes to mount a number of blocks under the tops, but I have not studied the rigging plan enough yet to locate them.  For now, here are the six tops ready for storage till needed.
 

 
I'm up in the country this weekend, so hopefully I will soon have some progress to share on the hulls.
 
Dan