grsjax

Mesoglue, http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2016/01/researchers-metallic-glue-may-stick-it-to-soldering-and-welding/

When this hits the market it is going to be a great addition to model building.

Wooden dowels called treenails or trunnels for holding the planks in place.  Paint the edges black before laying them and it looks like caulking between the planks.  Decks were usually made from oak and were scrubbed everyday and they had a very light color so just finishing the basswood in satin or flat clear finish should look good.  If you want to try staining use a very light application of golden oak or other light colored stain followed by a clear finish.  Experiment on some scrape wood before you try it on the model.

Go to Home Depot or Lowes and check out the saws available there.  Most of the scroll saws sold under the major trade names are all made in China and are more or less the same machine.  Another low cost alternative is the older Dremel scroll saws.  They show up on eBay all the time.  I picked one up for $15 and am pretty happy with it.  Ebay is a good place to look for used saws in general.  There are usually several available ranging from really poor quaility ones to high end machines.

A good reference for planking boats is Howard Chapelle's "Boat Building".  It doesn't cover historical ships boats but the techniques for carvel and lap planking didn't change much between the war of 1812 and the time Chapelle wrote his book.  There are other books out there that cover the subject as well.

I was thinking the same thing last night when I saw a commercial for something called "5 sec fix".  Look forward to hearing from anyone that has used one of these products.

Clean with a clean, fairly stiff, stainless steel brush.  A light coat of oil will keep the files from rusting.  Wipe off with alcohol or acetone before using to remove the oil residue.

What ever you are comfortable with.  Easy enough to convert from one system to another.  It doesn't take much time when done by hand but most calculators can do it even faster.

Here are two sharpening/honing guides that can be picked up on eBay for less than $10.

The Lee Valley planes are works of art.  However for less than a third of the price of one plane I got three planes that are adequate for my needs.  I would love to add the Lee Valley planes to my tool chest but can't justify the expense.  Would rather save the money for other tools, materials and plans.

That Popular Science article is great.  I may have to try my hand at making some thumb planes.  Another source of steel for plane irons is old files.  The steel in them is excellent and once shaped will take and hold a very keen edge.

I bought a set of these planes because they were on sale really cheap and because they looked cool being made from rosewood and brass.  Didn't expect much from them for the price but was pleasantly surprised.  The blades seem to be a good grade of steel and after sharpening (they were really dull right out of the package) and figuring out the best setting for blade depth (the thickness of a sheet of paper) they performed very well on both basswood and cherry.  For a cost of about $3 each delivered I can not complain.

Tannic acid is not very acidic but it is a good point.  Generally the natural pH of rain water is between 5.5 and 6, neutral being 7.  This is due to the desolved CO2 in the rain water.  In pH7 water the tannic acid in strong tea would barely move the pH.  In most city water systems the pH is maintained at between 7 and 8 (neutral to slightly basic) to reduce corrosion in pipes.  I would think the deterioration of cloth colored with tea is probably due to factors other than acidity.  Interesting bit of trivia, the first khaki cloth was made by soaking white cotton cloth in tea, at least that is what I have read.

Tea and coffee are acidic.

Coffee is acidic but tea is more or less neutral.  The acidity of tea will be the same as the water used to make it.  A interesting thing about tea is the more acidic the water the lighter the color.  If you want darker color putting a pinch of calcium carbonate in the pot will do it.  However if you put in to much the tannins in the tea will start celating with the calcium ions and make a sort of scum on the surface.

I bought a used 14" bandsaw that is a '70s clone of the Delta made in Taiwan.  With the exception of the belt drive it is an exact copy of the of the old Delta saw.  The belt drive is adjustable to give 4 different speeds for cutting different materials.  The saw is all cast iron.  Heavy but very stable.  Cost was $100.  With a little tuning up it runs like new.  Takes up more room than a bench top saw but is great for resawing lumber up to 6" thick.  Look for a good used saw and don't overlook the older clones.

All of the 9" and 10" bandsaws I have looked at are pretty much the same design manufactured in China.  It is only in the details that they differ.  Look at the construction and check to see if the frame is all metal and fairly heavy to prevent flex.  Some of these saws have wheels make from plastic.  Not a good idea, you want aluminum wheels or even better steel. Check the table, it should be solidly made and easily adjusted with a robust means of attaching to the frame.  Make sure that alinement of the wheels and guides is adjustable (believe me they will need to be adjusted to make the saw work properly).  check to make sure the blade size is a standard one and can easily be replaced without special order.  A few nice to haves is a blade tension release lever, easy to replace blade guides (carbon for preference), A blade tension indicator and a port that a vacumn can be attached to to remove sawdust.

I have read that soaking in strong black tea works but have not tried it myself.

You might want to try a setup like this one.  Available from Amazon for under $10.

Just a word of caution.  Make sure your slitting saw blade is capable of handling the speed of the tile saw.  Tile saws generally run at higher rpm than wood saws and the blade needs to be manufactured for these higher speeds.

A 14' boat could be either carvel or lapstrake planked but I would guess in this situation it would be lapstrake as it would be lighter and easier to manage than a carvel boat of the same size.  As for how it was launched and recovered it was probably just manhandled over the side and recovered the same way.  These old sloops had relatively large crews and could handle a boat of this size.  Alteratively could be a spar from the mast rigged as a crane.

Thanks for the info.  I will try and get a couple of pics posted in the next few days.  Looks like a nice kit.

A long time back I remember reading an article about a model of an arab dhow.  The builder carved sails from a very fine grained wood that looked amazingly real in the photos. 

 Could be a misprint.  Score might supposed to be sheave or maybe it is an obscure way to indicate the size of the opening in the block for the sheave.  Just a WAG.

I use this type.  Not perfect but works well and doesn't cost a lot.  I think I paid about $35 for it.  Harbor Freight has these and they show up on eBay regularly.

Just picked up an old kit for a "Hurricane Island Pulling Boat".  Wondering if anyone has built or is familiar with this kit.

This is what I know so far.  The boat is a modified version of the old US Navy whaler designed for sail and oar.  The boats were built in the '70s for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School.  The kit was made by Laughing Whale.  That is pretty much the sum of my knowledge.  If there are any build logs or other information out there I would really like to find it.

In defence of Fair a Frame.  I agree that it isn't as usefull as it could be but I find it good for keeping the bulkheads straight on small models like Midwest's Sakonnet daysailer.  Biggest problem is that it is really to short and not strong enough to handle larger models.

What mtaylor said.  Another consideration is to use a scraper to do the final fitting.  This works best with hard woods like cherry although with care it can be used on fine grained softer woods like basswood.  An Xacto #11 blade works well as a scraper but it isn't the only option.  I have seen broken glass, small chisels and pieces of sheet metal used.  Scrape the joint a little at a time with the scraper held flat to the surface.  Trial fit after each scraping.  Scraping, if done right is better than files or sandpaper for fine fitting work and is the method actually used in old time shipyards to fit tight joints.  A few cavets, if scraping across the grain you can get an uneven surface, be very carefull to keep the blade in the correct plane or you will end up with a surface that is tilted out of line.