jdbondy

Nice work. Have fun at the workshop!

Wow, looking really good there.

Keith, I think it's a combination of the magnification of the image and the relative coarseness of the sanding job at that particular time. Here is a more recent photo showing the same area after more sanding (but not finished yet). The planking is Castello boxwood.

Hmm. It seems my pictures attached to that last post somewhat out of order. Which means I didn't explain an image toward the end. The last picture shows support blocks I have temporarily glued in between the bulwarks, which will next be ground down to frames. I didn't want to be violently grinding them down without some fore-and-aft support. Thanks to Greg for the suggestion of how to do this most easily. The support blocks came from the jig I used earlier in the process. I was able to individually select pieces of appropriate thickness to fit each of the gaps between frames. Once internal fairing is done, these blocks will come out and the faces of the frames will be cleaned up. They will end up being painted, as will the rest of the hull.

It's time to clean up the hull in various ways before moving on to the interior of the hull. First I built a stand for the hull to rest upright, conveniently aided by cut-outs of four of the station shapes. "Non-skid" was applied to the bottom, consisting of a piece of carpet pad. This image of the bow shows two things to be addressed: First, pencil marks on the hull indicate low spots in the planking that require filling prior to fairing. Second, the topmost sheer strake is fastened to the hull so that its top edge will not be fair with anything. If I were to lay down a covering board on the top edge of this plank, there would be a big gap due to the angle between the sheer plank and the covering board. Also, at the stem, the top sheer plank dives down in an unacceptable manner. This area needs to be filled. In addition to the fairing of the planking, I have to stabilize the exposed frames before I go grinding out their interior surfaces and give them the actual shape of exposed frames. Then, the tops of the stanchions are not regular at all; they were purposefully made a little long so that they could be faired down. I made a feeler gauge out of cardstock, with the necessary 7/16" height for the bulwarks planking. A strip was applied to the tops of the stanchions as they were faired down to the correct height. Just ensuring that everything is nice and level. Here I am applying a much larger than necessary strip of wood that will fill the gap at the top of the sheer planking at the bow. Tape was then applied in order to indicate the proper sheer line. I then used a blade and a file to bring down the thickness of the plank between the stanchions, then carefully cut down the wood next to the stanchions before sanding it into a smooth sheer line. If left uncorrected, the gap at the stem would have been very large. I don't have many pictures documenting the fairing process. But this picture shows a strip of appropriate width filling a low spot at the level of the sheer planking. The Mary Day does not have a clear step-off between the sheer planking and the planking of the rest of the hull. When originally built, there was a clear transition between the hull planking and the sheerstrakes, but the builder (and his sons I am told) didn't like the way it looked. So they later planed out the step-off, so there is a smooth transition between the hull planking and the sheer planking. Next episode I will report on my progress on the interior work.

I also agree that putting on sails when the yards are already attached would be extremely difficult. On my most recent completed build, the headsails were attached to the already installed bowsprit but only standing rigging had already been installed and nothing else. The rest of the sails were attached to their various spars prior to installation.

I am working on a side project for the Mary Day, dedicated to carving her nameplate in miniature. At 3/16" scale, this nameboard comes out to just under 1 inch in length. So this is going to call for the microscope, as well as some specialized carving tools. My starting tool is the #11 scalpel blade, and from there, I made very fine tools using the smallest Japanese sewing needles I could find. These were ground down using a diamond stone. From left to right, there is a "blunt tip" tool, then a "coarse" (ha ha) chisel, then a fine chisel, then a sharp point tool. These images were taken under the microscope, focusing on the fancy detail at the edge of the nameboard. It's simply not possible to capture an image of me actually working on the piece, as one of the eyepieces has to be replaced by the camera insert. In general, I make tiny stop cuts in the wood using the chisel, then I force the cut open with one of the needle tip tools. Probing around with the tips of those tools frees up tiny bits of wood that are then cleared from the cuts. The cuts gradually become deep enough and wide enough that their detail becomes more visible. End result. A dime for scale purposes. As I said, the overall piece is less than 1 inch long, and perhaps 3/32" in height. Next is to figure out what paint will work well to fill the letters. So far I have tried a popular water-based acrylic, but it seems too "goopy" so far. I have another brand of acrylic I can try. I do also have my ageing stash of Floquil oil based paints, but I don't know if any still remain in liquid form. I am open to suggestions on the choice of paint.

You are truly a nautical polyglot! Very interesting navigating the terminology in French and German.

Halituzun, As they say, Tanıştığımıza memnun oldum! (That's via Google Translate.) Thanks for the nice comments. It's a very satisfying model. I hope to make the blog into the form of an article for publication in our Nautical Research Journal! Good luck with your build!

I have been working on the Francois in the sense of studying her plans, understanding her framing structure, and doing some proof of concept work on how to build up her frames most efficiently. I also got a batch of English boxwood recently, and I took a class on doing resawing with the bandsaw so I could learn about how to best use the wood. I used it to create futtocks for several frames but have not tried assembling them yet.

Thanks Hubac, thanks Keith! HH, Le Francois awaits!!

That's not where I would have expected to find the topgallant shrouds. They seem to be directly behind and in parallel with the topmast shrouds. I was thinking they would originate higher up near the tops for the topmast, not from the topmast shroud deadeyes.

Thanks, John. Yes, that overhang has already been trimmed down flush to the sternpost and it looks much better.

I finished the hull planking on May 3, about 2 months later than I had wanted to finish it. Life just gets in the way sometimes. As of the last post, I estimated I was halfway through the planking. It was time to rip more lumber for the build. I try to take a photo when I rip more planking, so that hopefully I can go back afterward and estimate how much I really ended up needing. The planking stock is Castello boxwood. It has been a pleasure to work with. This will mostly be a pictorial essay, but I will add some commentary at certain points. The junction of the sternpost and the transom was tricky. I had to do a lot of fine carving to remove enough underlying wood to get the planks to lie down right. I used some basswood to create a feeler plank that guided how much wood needed to be removed. At this point I created a short strip that could be temporarily fixed adjacent to the sternpost, so that I could work on the next plank up, which ends adjacent to the lowest portion of the transom. There is a planking seam very close to the sternpost, which was nice. I was able to create this very short planking segment, which was easily tunable to make sure things were right. The next portion of this plank is temporarily fastened in so that the next plank can be worked on before gluing in this one. I haven’t been able to examine the real transom on the real ship to see how this planking looks. This first plank that ends against the transom gets pretty wide at its end, and that may not be the way it looks in reality. But it’s time to move on to the bow. This band of planking consists of four planks, but it was necessary to drop one plank toward the bow. So the space at the stem was divided among three planks. Sizing up the three planks, gradually reducing the size of each so as to end up with three of similar width. Turned out pretty well. Time for more lumber. This bump is a short segment of wood to fill in a dip that occurred when I applied a plank butt to a frame that was a little small. It was sanded down flush. The bow portion of the port side is finished; just a few more stern planks to go. All done on the port side. Next is a series of photos showing the closing up of the starboard side. Down to the whiskey plank. I had a plank ready to go, but it was just a little off. So I made a new one. Whiskey all around for the building crew! No time to rest on laurels, though. There is plenty of cleanup to be done before I can move on, so I will probably do another post showing the things that need to be straightened up with the planking before working out the interior structure.

Wow. Guess I just gotta keep on learnin'. JD

Look at you two, showing off your fancy nautical terminology! Are the hammock battens the sawtooth things that look like they are for making a grating?

Since I am in the midst of doing this right now on my model, I thought I would describe my individual situation. I am using thin (3/32") strips of Castello boxwood for my current planking project. I soak them for 10 minutes, then wipe off the excess. I then hold it in the heat from the hair dryer with my hands, which helps me judge if I am too close or too far. I watch the moisture evaporate off the wood, then test fit the plank. Then I still have time to go back to the hair dryer for some more bending force and heat if it is needed. This has been enough for my situation to get the plank close enough to where it can be glued in place...after I leave it to dry overnight so I am not gluing down a swollen plank.

Wow...

Hi Mike, congratulations on finalizing the transaction! I am so relieved that you have stepped forward. Next for me is to go register at seawatchbooks.com!

Mark that is a really robust-looking setup. I am going to keep that in mind when it comes time for me to cut moldings. Thanks!

Beautiful macro images!

I estimate that I am halfway through planking as of January 5 of 2022. (Happy New Year!) I am hoping to be finished planking the hull by the time of an upcoming trip to Maine, during which I will get to do some more research and measuring. I have piled up my available lumber next to the model as a reference point to see how far this number of strips will take me. As I think I have mentioned, I am leaving a portion of the port side unplanked in order to show the interior structure. The unplanked area will be a relatively oval area centered on the midships. Once planking is finished, I plan on removing most of the wood that constitutes the multiple bulkheads, essentially turning them into dimensionally accurate frames. Not quite sure yet what tool I will use to do that, although I think I have seen a relatively small version of an oscillating cutting tool that probably would work well for scoring the wood so that it comes out easily. Suggestions welcome. In some areas, my tape strips have come off entirely. In other areas, they have shifted position. I am going to finish the lowest and highest belts, and then I will remark things. The string also needs readjustment. Planking band 4 has a low spot that will have to be addressed. Very hard getting the planks to twist adequately in order to accommodate the deadwood planking. And cutting the ends of some of these planks in order to meet the sternpost and the transom planking will be tricky. The higher planks on the deadwood are twisted as they meet the sternpost. That will need to be carved or sanded away to make things flat and smooth.

Yes, understood perfectly. Still quite remarkable.

Do you have any pictures showing the process of securing the swivel hooks within their swivels? It looks like you had to solder together the hook with its retaining stop, while making sure that the swivel itself did not become fused. How in the world did you do that?

Adjustable height desks/tables are hugely helpful in our hobby. It used to be that the only available options were expensive, motorized desks catering to professionals, but manually adjustable tables are now increasingly common. For those that can afford it, visit https://www.afcindustries.com/ if interested in a motorized desk.