jdbondy

Oh good, because I have TONS of flexible sanding sticks!

Time to begin planking in earnest. To this point I have added the sheer strake and the garboard planks. The plan from here is to fully plank the sheer and to add one more strake of planking next to the garboard. This will then leave twenty plank widths between them, which can be easily subdivided into four belts. I am using Castello for the planking, from some nice billets I purchased from Gilmer Woods in the Pacific Northwest. I cut this bigger billet into smaller billets from which I can slice off individual pieces and either directly cut a plank, or spile a plank if needed. These are my first attempts at shaping the planks along the deadwood. They have been temporarily fitted with double sided tape. Problem is, in trying to create a nice curve to the edge of these two planks, I have created a hump at the joint between these two drop planks and the next segment of garboard planking. So did I learn the benefits of having spiled one long sheer strake in the previous post. I did not glue these two planks in place, but went back to work creating two new planks with relatively straight contours. The replacement planks have been installed. I don’t have a good “after” picture to show it, but the hump evident previously is no longer present. In this photo, which I showed in my previous post, the garboard planking has been fully applied. The only trick to this was the question of where the garboard plank should end. I had no good guidance on this matter from the planking diagram, so I had to simply use artistic license. A guiding principle was that I did want the garboard to end adjacent to one of the frames, as I am sure it does on the real ship. The forward end was nibbed at frame number 4, and I am satisfied with how that looks. From here, this post is more pictorial essay than anything else, showing the progression of the wale planking. The strings that remain applied to the hull were laid down according to the widths of the planking at each station as determined by my planking diagram, but I was coming to realize that they wouldn’t be that accurate or useful for subsequent planking. Besides, they didn’t look all that fair or pleasant. It was especially tricky to fit the planks at the bow, making sure that the joint at the rabbet was correct while also making sure that the plank was the correct overall length to lie down next to its neighbor further aft. So the solution going forward is to not leave the bow (or stern) plank in a row to last, but put them in place first and lay down the more centrally located planks after that. It is much easier to adjust those planks for length than the ones that meet the rabbet or the sternpost. This was a big moment! After laying down three rows of wale planking as well as the garboard strake, I for the first time pulled the whole assembly off of the building board! It was very solid. I paraded it around the house, showing it to anyone who might be impressed. I think the dogs were the most impressed of all. (Wife: “That’s nice, dear.”) From here it was a matter of adding one more row of garboard planking, so that the remaining planking would be a band of 20 planks. Here I am crafting the hood plank that covers the forward most tip of the garboard planking. Once again I had to learn the lesson of putting this plank in place first before continuing planking toward the stern. This plank, and the others near the bow, did have to be spiled, or they would not sit fairly next to the adjacent plank. Three rows of sheer planking and two rows of garboard planking are fully applied here. I have pulled one of the 3 strings off of the remainder of the hull. This also meant I had to sand off the remnants of glue that attached the thread to the hull. All of the strings have been removed. So now the build log is pretty much current. One last parting picture to show that I am beginning to line off the hull to accept the subsequent planking. I am finding that the widths of planks indicated on the planking diagram have to go out the window, because they don’t appear to correspond to the widths needed on the model. But I will continue to use the planking diagram to lay down the butt joints to match the ship. And I will use the layout for the starboard side on the real ship as the layout for both the port and starboard sides on the model, as the planking layout on the real ship is different for each side. Hopefully things will accelerate from here!

Time to make and attach the sheer strake. There is a thread attached to the frames that indicates the junction between the undersurface of the covering board and the sheer strake. I decided to spile the entire length of the sheer strake, so first I had to put together cardstock long enough to cover the entire length of the sheer. The cardstock was cut to the approximate shape of the sheer and then tacked to the frames with double sided tape. Marks were transferred to the cardstock, and the shape of the curves was defined with ships curves. The cardstock is now applied to a sheet of Castello that is about 0.053” thick. This is thicker than the rest of the planking, which will be 0.047” thick. The picture also shows the starboard side sheer strake, which was previously created using the same process. Widths of the sheer plank were obtained from the planking diagram and transferred to the Castello sheet. Then the plank was carefully cut out and sanded to the needed widths. Port and starboard sheer strakes. I could have divided the long segment into individual segments as indicated by the planking diagram, but I thought it was a good idea to do the first plank as one continuous plank, to serve as a baseline against which all the other planks would lie. I think that worked out nicely. There were some problems along the way in getting to a smooth lie of the sheer strake, but all is well that ends well. The one long strake was divided into its respective parts as indicated by the planking diagram; the challenge there was to make sure that no kinks occurred at the butt joints between plank segments. Now that is a very satisfying curve.

A quickie post to show that I finally found a proper use for this palm plane I bought awhile back from Lee Valley (love their stuff). This hand plane has made it very easy to plane the edges of planks down to their needed widths. So far I am doing this while holding the plank in my hand, but I think I will build a jig to hold the plank on its edge so that it will be more secure and so I can get to the full length of the plank in one swipe. Check out the palm plane! It has been sitting in a drawer waiting for its shining moment.

Thanks for the likes! I plan on putting on three strakes of sheer planking, plus the garboard planks, before I even consider testing the stability.

Hi Michel, is there another forum where you have continued your build log? Perhaps a site based in France? I am interested in seeing any progress you have made. Merci!

For some time now, I have been stalled out. This is probably because I am at the point of beginning the attachment of the frames to the keel. I could probably keep fairing the frames, a process that I hate, in order to put off the next step. But I feel like I need to accept the hull shape as it is, and get on with next things. First of those things is to go ahead and attach the bow filler blocks and frame 1 to the keel, as well as attach the transom assembly to the sternpost. I also attached the penultimate frame, which is #50. This is shown above. On the building board, the frames at each station are waiting in their slots for the keel to be attached to them. It was terribly important to get this step right and to ensure that the keel is completely inserted into the notch on each frame. So I glued two frames in place at a time, elevating the keel just enough to get the glue into the space between them before lowering the keel down onto the frames. After applying glue and getting everything in place, I weighted the keel with a piece of wood. FYI, that is a piece of “African boxwood” from rarewoodusa.com in Maine. The species is given as “Buxus macowanii”. I have not used any of the wood I bought from them in the model yet; thus far I have been testing it out for its carving qualities. All of the station frames have been attached, yielding this delicate structure when it is removed from the building board. And so begins the process of adding in all the frames between the stations. This was even slower, because of the need to once again make sure that each frame articulated correctly with the keel. Failure to do so would cause focal unfairness at that frame that would be most noticeable along the bottom of the boat and at the rabbet. The last two frames are about to be glued in place. Most of the frames are in the form of the one on the right on the table top. However, about every fifth frame has been trimmed to its proper molded dimension, and that information comes directly from measuring the dimensions of the frames on the real ship. All frames are now glued in place. I ended up finding one frame, about #11, which was not fully lodged into its slot on the keel. It is not evident on this photograph, as the difference is probably only 1/32”. It is visible if one gets up close to it. But I decided not to do anything about it. The whole reason for this exercise? I may have covered this before, but will go over it again. I wish to be able to leave part of the hull unplanked and show the interior structure of the hull. But building this model in the same way as one might build a fully framed fifth rate of the Royal Navy would be very difficult, as the frames would become very fine and fragile. It just wouldn’t be possible to accurately plank a structure consisting of a backbone keel and rib-like frames that are very pliable. So the plan is to plank up nearly all of the hull, leaving part of one side unplanked. I don’t yet know if I will fully plank the hull and then remove some of the planking, or if I will simply leave an area unplanked as I go along. I am favoring the idea of fully planking the hull, but only lightly gluing the planks that will later be removed. This is because I am planning on trimming out the majority of the material that forms the frames once the planking is finished, bringing the frame dimensions down to their proper molded dimensions. Thus the importance of having every fifth frame trimmed down to its proper molded dimension, so as to serve as a guide to that process. I will probably only do this for a certain portion of the hull, leaving the frames untrimmed in the bow and stern. In order to have the hull as stable as possible before doing the interior trimming, I think it would be best to have the hull fully planked. Feel free to offer opinions in support or in critique of this plan! So, all frames are in place. This really was a big psychological step, because from here one has no place to go besides getting on with the planking. And I certainly like planking far better than fairing the hull. Honestly, I could have spent more time fairing, and there are areas where there will be gaps between the frames and the planking. But it was time to move on, and gaps can be dealt with later. This process illustrated in the two pictures above was very satisfying. As has previously been suggested by a commentator on this log, I used black thread to lay out the top of the sheer plank, where it meets the covering board. The plans indicate that this point is to be found on each frame, very consistently 7/16” below the top of each frame (also the bottom surface of the rail). So this point was marked out on each frame on port and starboard sides. The thread was then glued with white glue to these points, which yielded a surprisingly crooked line that was probably due to marking error. After all, the line should parallel the surface of the baseboard, which is cut to follow the curve of the rail at its undersurface. This picture of the aft portion of the hull gives some sense of the crookedness of the line, if just left to my marks. How satisfying indeed, then, to be able to look at the curve of the baseboard, and then simply moisten the glue spots on the thread and adjust the thread up or down as needed in order to obtain a fair curve! It’s one of those moments where I feel like an actual shipbuilder. I don’t have good photos to show the process in action, because to do so requires photos with very great depth of field, and those involve long exposure times. In the end, though, I am left with a very smooth and well defined line to follow when I attach the sheer strake. I am going to stop at this point lest I make the post too long and cumbersome to transfer to the web page. Hopefully the next post showing the application of the sheer strake will follow promptly!

Your splicing tools appear to be hypodermic needles with the edges dulled so that they don't cut the line. Is that right? Genius!

Thanks Druxey, hope you are well!

Ganz herrlich!

When you use the term varangues, does that refer to the lowest part of the frame, i.e. the floor timber?

In getting prepared for assembling the frames to the keel, I realized I had some cleanup of the keel to do. Very slight imperfections in the thickness of the various keel parts meant that squeeze-out of glue from certain joints was apparent. And sanding wasn’t addressing these issues. So I used a razor blade to scrape the surface of each side of the keel, which appeared to bring things more into a flat surface and eliminated much of the squeeze-out you can see here. That’s better. So, once again, here is how things look, with most of the bulkheads on the building board. I have seven forward frames pulled out from the bow area to show that four of them have their bulwark stanchions carved into them, while the other 3 don’t have them yet. The point of building the model with all of these bulkheads (rather than just 11 bulkheads, one at each station) is so that I can leave part of the hull unplanked and show the internal structure of the boat. But I figured out very quickly that to make each frame to its proper, scaled molded dimension would result in a bunch of frames that are extremely fragile, even when glued to the keel and supported by the baseboard. So my plan is to make approximately every fifth frame according to its proper scaled dimensions while leaving the remaining 80% of frames essentially as bulkheads. I will plank up the boat like that, omitting certain planks on one side of the hull during the process. Then, once it is planked, I will invert the boat and remove a lot of bulkhead wood from at least the side that is unplanked, and bring those bulkheads down to the same dimensions as the ones shown in the picture above. Each of the frames shown above is flanked by filler blocks that are just large enough to keep these very thin frames in their proper positions, while not interfering with the process of fairing the overall hull shape. The arrows indicate the location of the frames with properly molded dimensions. In addition, since the frames are so small and pliable, I have added extra wood shims to make sure that the tops of these frames are properly positioned and cannot move, either fore and aft or athwartships. It’s a risky process, the idea of building up this hull with the plan of carving out a lot of its internal support structure. But I figure that the hull planking will be a very solid structure since the planks are not only glued to the frames, but they are also edge glued to one another. Much like how plywood lapstrake construction of real, full-sized boats makes for a very stable structure that requires much less internal framing. I also worked on smoothing out the deadwood to accept the planking in a properly fair manner. Now I have to work on creating bulwark stanchions for each and every bulkhead, as these will show on the final model. The stanchions have a consistent width of 3/32” on each face. A compass was used to mark out the width on both faces of each bulkhead. My wife’s lovely hands modeling the technique for me while I take the pictures! The height of each stanchion should be a consistent 7/16”, representing the distance between the bottom surface of the covering board to the undersurface of the caprail, as represented on the builder’s plans. This is how things should end up looking. So here is a frame in the vise, with the pencil marks evident. This frame is laminated castello, while some of the frames are 3/32” thickness fir plywood. I am impressed by how strong the laminated frames are. Even so, both the plywood and the laminated bulkheads experienced failures that would require re-gluing of the stanchion to the bulkhead. I cut as close as possible to the pencil line with a fresh X-acto blade. And I used a triangular file to get into the corner. Next I am going to actually start gluing bulkheads to the keel, and working out the garboard and sheer strakes! Gonna finally start getting the hull in shape.

Well, it’s been quite some time since the last post. Like last Valentine’s Day. Which in these parts was known as Snowmaggedon, when snow and ice paralyzed our metroplex but did not keep me from posting my last update. However, in the meantime, life got in the way of subsequent postings. But I did get some stuff done, as this and the next couple of posts should illustrate. I planked up the transom with Castello boxwood strips, trying to be as careful as possible to not have any seams. Planking was carried down to the point of the aperture for the rudder. I then applied a transom pattern that was developed off of the lines plan for the hull, and drew out the outline of the transom so I could get a sense of how far to trim back the edges of the transom planking. It was at this point that I began to realize that I had a problem. The current angulation of the transom has the transom planking relatively flush to the aft most frame (#51), so that hull planking would have no edge to fair into. I had neglected a certain amount of thickness of the transom planking at its bottom edge, so this area would need to be built up in order to provide enough thickness for the hull planking to meet it at the proper level. So I added two vertical strips at the margin of the aperture for the rudder, and installed another layer of planking. This layer was built up with strips of decreasing thickness as planking went upward toward the taffrail, because it appeared by my measurements that the top edge of the transom planking was ok in its position. This was again done with Castello, as I plan to plank the hull with Castello as well. Planking has been carried out to the top. The photo shows just how thin the topmost plank is, as a faint feather edge is evident between the top edge of the planking and the pencil line estimating the position of the taffrail. The vertical strips allow for defining of the edge of the transom as it approaches the rabbet on the sternpost. Now, planking has somewhere to land and to form a mitered joint with. The topmost edge of the transom planking is currently very roughly defined, and probably will remain that way until I am working on the bulwark planking. This part is tricky. Visualizing how the hull planking will make the transition from the sternpost rabbet to the edge of the transom planking is giving me headaches. I am fortunate to have a planking expansion diagram of the hull, so here I am attempting to use that in order to have a plank seam land at exactly the point where the sternpost rabbet meets the edge of the transom planking. It should be possible to make that happen when the time comes. This is how planks 23 through 25 land on the sternpost, with the garboard plank also shown. The width of these strips were determined by the planking expansion. It appears that plank 22 splits into two stealer planks near the sternpost, and it looks like it will make a good opportunity for one of them to end on the sternpost and the other to land on the start of the transom planking. We will just have to wait for now and see how that plays out. In the meantime, there will be the need for some wood to support the bulwark planking as it passes from the aft-most frame #51 to the edge of the transom. In the real ship, there is solid wood in this area beginning at the aft surface of frame 51 extending to the transom. Fortunately, the filler block I was using to support the transom framing as I built it out will probably serve pretty effectively to fill in this area. Of course, most of this piece I will not need. Only the portions at the outermost edges of the piece will be necessary. So, from the undersurface of the block, I carefully cut two narrow slits that did not go all the way through the piece. These slits are buried against the planking when the filler block is in place. I then glued the filler block carefully to the outermost stern frames along their outer surfaces, being careful to not glue any other part of the filler block to the transom framing. Here I am trying to show the relationship between the filler block, the aftmost frames, and the edge of the transom planking. I carefully cut some slits along the top surface of the filler block, and started carving out all the wood that I would not need. The buried slits I had cut earlier would be my target for carving, and once I reach them I should hopefully be able to pull out the central part of the filler block “en bloc”, as docs sometimes say. Getting closer, so I have moved to a Flex-Cut carving tool. One of the slits is coming into view, on the right side of the photo. And now I have hit the slit on the left side of the photo, but not quite on the other side. And so it worked. I was able to pull out the central part of the filler block, leaving only the edges behind. But they were somewhat precariously glued against those outermost stern frames. Further removal of excess wood required supporting some of the waste wood with a supporting strip of wood so that the whole piece would not excessively flex and break off of its stern frame. And thus I worked off excess wood. I think I will stop here, although I have made further progress. Next up will be more fairing, as well as cutting of bulwark stanchions from each frame.

This probably comes too late to help you Alan, but the US Forest Service has a lab in Madison Wisconsin that will do 3 free wood sample identifications per household. This is the Center for Wood Anatomy Research. The big drawback for you is that they would ideally want a sample that is 1"x3"x6". So like half of your board. And you don't get the sample back. I will probably be sending them some wood samples so I can report back in 4 weeks how the process goes. Here is the link: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/woodanatomy/wood_idfactsheet.php

Makes me think of the movie Terminator: Rise of the Machines!

Well if that's what's on the stern, that settles that!

I saw it in Frolich's text on ship modeling by Ancre (English translation).

Question for the group: I see people from Europe referring to this vessel as Le Belle Poule, not La Belle Poule. The word poule in French is in fact feminine (for chicken, or a colloquial for something that is loved), so the La would appear to be correct at first glance. But I think they may use Le because essentially we are abbreviating "Le Vaisseau Belle Poule" (the vessel named Belle Poule) to Le Belle Poule. Any insights? Anyone from overseas want to weigh in? Or perhaps this has already been discussed...

"Ye people, rend your hearts! Rend your hearts, and not your garments!" -from Mendelssohn's Elijah

Very nice, Maury! I hope to come over from Dallas some time to take a look.

Thanks Vaddoc, I am glad I bit the bullet and paid for the full version of Rhino. Huge capabilities that I have barely tapped into. I am picturing that when you describe extending the frames, you are essentially describing a Hahn-style method, with all frames upside-down on a flat surface. I would then come along later and cut the extended portions of the frames down to the level of the sheer. Is that correct? My surface is curved, following the sheer at the level where the frames and bulwark stanchions meet the undersurface of the rail. I can see how the more traditional Hahn method could lead to a more accurate leveling of the frames. Edge setting will indeed be possible, but I do plan on spiling planks. The planking will be boxwood, which will be more resistant to edge set than basswood. Also, since I plan on replicating the actual planking pattern, this leads to shorter segments of boxwood planks that would be even more resistant to edge set.

Spent today being a good boy and cleaning the workbench, putting everything away. As the captain would say, "Clear the decks for action!"

Thanks, Dave. Cutting the rabbet was made so much easier thanks to the microscope. Right now my challenge is finishing the shape of the transom, where the hull planks will intersect with the transom planks, as well as where the hull planks will flow into the sternpost. Fortunately I will be in Maine in March, and I will hopefully be able to look at this area directly. The challenge there is that the schooner is docked bow-to, so I would need to row around the boat to get access to the transom!

Good idea, Druxey. The tape didn't last very long on there anyway.

In a previous post I went over creation of a transom filler block, created by obtaining measurements off my half model of the Mary Day hanging on the wall of the shop. In order to put that filler block on the work surface, I had to extend the baseboard. In its current form, the filler block rests against the aft surface of frame #50, shown here inside of the sternpost. This wood strip was attached and the surface was planed flat with a block plane. Frame 51 is shown in place here, just aft of the stern post. Next step is to cut the transom filler block so that it can rest against frame 51. I used the table saw to cut slots of appropriate depth. These were joined to form a flat surface that would rest against frame 51. In the centerline, a large timber extends aft from the sternpost and supports the transom planking in the centerline. To accommodate that timber (I will call it a horn timber, which would be correct in other designs but I’m not sure if it’s the correct term for a schooner such as this), a slot had to be created in the centerline of the transom filler block. Plus the plans show additional smaller timbers on each side of the horn timber, so the slot was made wide enough to accommodate all 3. A slot also had to be created in frame 51 to accommodate the horn timber. Transom framing has been added on each side of the horn timber, which enabled me to go ahead and attach that horn timber to the sternpost. The plans indicate that transom planking only begins a certain level above the sternpost, so these smaller transom frames are notched at that point where the transom planking begins. Next I carefully marked on the filler block the location of the other transom frames, and used the table saw to cut slots in the filler block to accommodate those frames. There are a total of 5 frames on each side of the horn timber. At a certain point, I remembered that the transom is not flat across its face, but it has a certain degree of camber. The builder’s plan and line drawing were able to give me a sense of the degree of curvature, and at this point the filler block was sanded to a curved surface on each side. So each of the most peripheral slots had to be deepened to make sure that once they were glued in place, they would form a curved surface for the planking. I only remembered to mention this as I was putting this build log post together! The filler block in place with the most central transom frames and no keel/horn timber assembly. The starboard side transom frames have been glued using straight butt joints against the aft surface of the last frame. All the transom frames were glued up, but I came to realize very quickly that the butt joints were not stable enough for practical use. So I pulled them off… …and went to the microscope to carve out mortises that would receive each transom frame. Since the assembly consists of frames 50 and 51 joined by some blocks adjacent to the centerline, the outside edges of 50 and 51 are unstable. I stabilized them with the pieces of wood shown above, slotted in between the two frames. Transom frames are being glued in place again, and glue squeeze-out was carefully removed using the microscope. That results in an assembly that looks like this. The frames are still solid sheets of wood at this point. To carve all the wood out from inside the frames would leave a very unstable and fragile structure. So the plan is to carve out the wood to the level of the deck beams, leaving the bulwark stanchions in place. To further stabilize this modular transom assembly, I decided to go ahead and apply some transom planking. The first plank is in place…see if you can figure out the problem I just created. The horizontally oriented slots in the filler block helped to make sure the plank was perpendicular to the transom frames. It is pretty cool to separate this modular structure from the transom filler block and find yourself with a stable assembly. I started with a solid block of wood, and through process of wood elimination I will hopefully end up with a respectable transom assembly that actually resembles the real hull framing structure. Two more transom planks have been added before I figured out the problem I had created. I think I was out of the room when I thought…wait a minute, I can no longer put the keel/horn timber assembly into the transom framework! I walked back in, and sure enough, when I tried putting the keel back in place, I ended up with this. The solution was to separate the horn timber from the sternpost, with the plan to make it part of the transom assembly. Now to eliminate more wood. I had to figure out how to carefully carve out wood I didn’t want from frames 50 and 51. But to carve carefully, I would have to figure out how to hold this complex structure steady. So in the above picture, frame 50 is clamped between two thicknesses of wood that are separated by a sheet of wood that is the same thickness as the frame it is holding. Plus I have some grippy rubber material in there too. Holding frame 51 still is more complicated, due to the transom frames. So I slotted out some wood from a block that would fit between the frame and the planking that had been applied. Looks something like this. This is positioned high in the clamp for the sake of the picture. In order to actually do any carving, though, the clamped frame would have to be low in the clamp to minimize movement. A Japanese crosscut saw was used to slowly and carefully create the slots in each frame. They could only go to a certain depth before they would be in danger of cutting the transom planking. Then I used a ½” chisel under careful control to slowly cut away material from the frame while leaving stanchions behind. Despite all that care and control, you can see how the chisel would still hit frame 51 and leave behind lots of little cuts. Fortunately the affected wood of frame 51 will be removed later on. Finished removing wood from frames 50 and 51, for now. The deck camber was marked by using patterns for deck beams I had created earlier. Wood was removed up to those pencil marks, but not beyond. I figure there will need to be deck fairing later on. This has been fun creating this modular transom structure! I plan to harvest the outboard edges of the filler block and install them to the transom assembly in order to define the outer surface of the transom and to give the bulwark planking something to key into. Big decisions lie ahead when it comes to hull planking. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do after planking the transom and trimming its edges to accommodate the hull planking. But things just seem to be making themselves apparent to me as the work progresses, which is really cool.