grsjax

While Howard I. Chapelle wrote in an era when his position as an academic author and employee of the Smithsonian was accorded the respect it deserved, he was nonetheless quite controversial in some matters. 
 
The controversy for which he is most famous had to do with his correct assessment that the USS Constellation of 1797 and the USS Constellation of 1854 were entirely distinct ships, a dispute which festered for some time between Boston, with USS Constitution and Baltimore with USS Constellation, which promoters argued was one and the same with the 1797 frigate which had actually been broken up in 1853, the USS Constellation of 1854, built a year later, being the original Constellation's replacement.
 
Chapelle's drawings have been criticized for inaccuracies and a penchant for his substituting information when such was lacking. Given the nature of the work he was doing, and particularly the work of others he was directing during the WPA Historic American Merchant Marine Survey, these being out of work architects, engineers, and draftsmen who were not always conversant with naval architecture and marine engineering, those inaccuracies are understandable and not "controversial." Nobody disputes them.
 
Chapelle's writing style may seem pedantic, "harshly judgmental, and/or "arrogant," to today's reader, but at the risk of being accused of the same (as has happened before ) Chapelle's prose style was entirely appropriate in its time. It is only fairly recently that an ethic of "political correctness" has our diluted our academic literary style, resulting in what one might call the "Little League Syndrome" where "everybody wins a prize," and God help anybody who's heard to say that the losing team lost because they played poorly! What today's readers would consider arrogance in dismissing the work of a predecessor with the comment that they "were not educated" was taken as an authoritative assessment by Chapelle at the time of its writing. Chapelle wasn't alone in his forthrightness and candor. Most commentators of the time were similarly unrestrained in their criticism when they found cause to express it. L.F. Herreshoff was famous for his curmudgeonly, and often quire humorous, prose on the subject of yachts and yachting. In Chapelle's day, the uneducated would never have disputed the pronouncements of the educated, affording them the respect due their degrees, but not so today when "everybody has a right to their own opinion" and the internet provides a platform for hucksters and snake oil salesmen to peddle their wares to the gullible and most feel socially constrained to stand mute when confronted with stupidity.
 
You can get a good sense of Chapelle's "straight from the shoulder" style from his articles Ship Models That Should be Built (Nautical Research Guild - Article - Ship Models that Ought to be Built (thenrg.org) and Ship Models That Should Not be Built, (Nautical Research Guild - Article - Ship Models that Should Not be Built (thenrg.org) which are available in the forum's "Articles Database" (under "More" in the top of the page menu.) Just imagine what sort of reception you'd get in this forum if you expressed Chapelle's opinion that:
 
"There are enough Flying Clouds, Constitutions, racing fishermen, and imaginary galleons God knows, and there is surely some type of boat or vessel that will interest a modeler that has not yet been modeled. But, if you are not interested in accurate models and desire to build stuff of a level of truthfulness of a Hollywood movie "Pirate Ship" or "Spanish Galleon" forget I brought the matter up."
 
 They'd scratch your eyes out for sure. 

The only thing I ever read about him that might be controversial is that some of his reconstructions of design details were considered very speculative.

The only thing I ever read about him that might be controversial is that some of his reconstructions of design details were considered very speculative.

Ron, Could it be John Earl's website: http://www.modelboatyard.com/stropping.html

Another good series are the Richard Delancy novels by C. Northcote Parkinson.  His other books are great reads as well.

Hi to all!
If you want a slightly bigger sander that works like charm for models you can make it using Philips sneaker cleaner or an old Philips shoe polisher. These items can be very easily converted to a custom sander. I have one made with the shoe polisher, I made a custom part and a mold, then I made copies of the part with resin. In this way you can have many replaceable heads with different sandpaper grits.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

I really like this one.  The 3 jaw chuck is really useful for a wide range of sizes without changing collets 
like a lot of traditional pin vise'..
36 Pieces Vise Hand Drill for Jewelry Making Set
 

 
If you get something like this, be aware those burrs at the top are brittle and break easily, but it is
easy to get replacements.
 
 

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Lextin,
 
This link might shed light on what you seek:  http://www.ctbasses.com/misc/BruceTrinque/    :)  
 
There's a list here, but no pictures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Aubrey

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Forester is good, O'Brian is better. More realistic, more rounded, more historical, more interesting.
 
 
I enjoy both but each to his own and it is all subjective to the reader in the end.
 
Let us try and keep the thread on O'Brian and not turn it into a mud-slinging attempt to praise whichever author you randomly prefer.
 
Joss

I have used an old electric toothbrush with fine polishing powder (pumice) to buff up carvings.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

They  are all good.  I found it best to read them in sequence.  Although each novel is a complete story reading them in sequence makes them more understandable.  Look at it not as 20 different books but one book 6000 pages long.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.

Picked up a cheap Oral-B 500 toothbrush on ebay and made an oscillating detail sander from it.  Pulled the bristles out of the head and glued a small piece of sandpaper on it.  Tried it out on the hull of a model I am working on and it worked great.  Produces a nice smooth surface.  I am not going to trying using coarse sandpaper with it as I think it would be to aggressive.  The head oscillates at a high rate.