Jaager

Dowels are generally a problem as a source for stock for masts and spars. It is usually an accident for the grain to be straight. When cut free, they will seek an equilibrium point over time and that can be a curved state. A way to avoid this is to start with plank stock of a straight grained / closed pore species of wood and split the spar stock out along the natural grain. The hope is that this will be the equilibrium position as Time and Environment act on the piece of wood. The tool designed to do this is a froe. A full sized froe is used to produce things like Cedar shakes. There is a smaller version that I have been looking at, but do not own yet: http://www.japanwoodworker.com/Product/156564/Bamboo-Froe-%28Take-Wari%29---Ikeuti.aspx In most locations a species of Acer (Maple) should be available locally from hardwood dealers. White Pine (Sugar / Pattern makers) Yellow Poplar Beech or Birch

There is a book Captain Cook's Endeavor (Anatomy of the Ship) Hardcover – April 6, 2010 by Karl Heinz Marquardt (Author) The paste in is from Amazon - Using the book, you should be able to derive just about anything for this vessel.

If you are considering doing serious resawing, you really need a bandsaw with enough power to handle the wood. The Grizzly G0555X - 14" Extreme Series Bandsaw is the sort of saw that you should be looking at - especially if you are using 110 V. This model is 110V and 1 1/2 HP. A less powerful motor takes forever. A 9" or 10" table top bandsaw is not the best tool for resawing. Good for scroll cutting and light duty cuts. Holly is a special case as far as wood goes. It should be cut in Winter, immediately cut into billets and put in a kiln to dry. It is subject to attack by a species of mold (Blue mold) that is very aggressive. You should check the wood before you pay for it. If it is green (fresh cut wet), you may not get much that you can use. Getting into scratch building, you might consider using less expensive domestic species to develop your skills. Since you have not the tools needed to harvest your own wood "on the hoof" you might look at available species that have characteristics that we want. Hard Maple is excellent. Black Cherry if you want darker. American Beech is a lot like Maple Yellow Birch If you do not mind wood that is less dense (softer) - cuts easier and faster Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera ) Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) Basswood (Tilia americana) The open pore distinct grain species do not look good to my eye when they supposed to represent wood at 1:48 - 1:98 scale. Oak Black Walnut

You do not indicate where you are. It is usually less expensive to source local wood. Ayous is better known as Obeche ? It seems to have a grain that is not distinctive - which is good - it looks to be open pore which is not desirable. It is soft - not my preference - too easy to remove too much - but soft woods - Lime/Basswood, Yellow Poplar, Tupelo, Sugar Pine are popular and they have closed pore Sapelly hard, darker brown Pear, Black Cherry Anatolia a search returns strange results - no particular tree - just a flooring style from the region where Turkey is. Mass market kit manufactures seem to base their choice of wood more on price than what is the better choice of species to use. Why not drop back 10 yards and punt on letting Constructo choose your wood and make your own choice?

I stopped updating my database in 1996, but up to then, here are journal articles relating to your build: HMS SULTANA MC CALIP,DANA L MODEL SHIPWRIGHT 1975 11 250-257 SULTANA OF 1768 TAKAKJIAN,PORTIA SHIPS IN SCALE 1985 11 80-83 18TH SCHOONER NA MASTING RIGGING SULTANA - THE SMALLEST SCHOONER BECOMES A FIRST RATE MODEL MALCOMSON,BOB MODEL SHIP BUILDER 1991 72 24-29 18TH SCHOONER SULTANA A FIRST-TIME, PLANK-ON-FRAME SHIP MODEL PT.1 FOX,CHARLES S SEAWAY'S SHIPS IN SCALE 1994 5/1 58-65 POF TECHNIQUE 18TH NA 5/2 20-25 5/3 8-14

If this is not what you already have: Eurotool DRL 300 http://www.ottofrei.com/Mini-Drill-Press-110V.html I have seen it priced at~ $60 on one site, did not save the link I have used a # 75 drill with mine - fit the ML X/Y table (drilled 4 holes in the cast base) (costs more the the drill press) A Harbor Freight momentary foot switch is useful. You can use a mill as a drill press ( I you want robust and expensive ) https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4660&category= - but because of the bearings, I don't think a drill press will tolerate the lateral pressure when used as a mill

The top of the large log - looks like there are two branches . I would cross cut that log about 1/3 down and have mostly a straight cylinder for the bottom 2/3 s. The top 1/3 - the side towards the camera - will be a short 1/2 log that is what 6- 12 inches or so? very usable. The branch side. Creative cutting with the band saw - you may get some curved grain that is useful for 2nd and 3rd futtocks, davits, knees, foothooks. The curve will not be 1:50 - 1:100 scale, but still help in avoiding cross grain. The way the log is now, is not even good for a splitting. You are going to have to break these logs into smaller pieces at some point. Doing it now gets it into sizes that will dry faster and with less tendency to split. If nothing else, get a few more logs from the orchard, take them to a place that sells firewood and see if they will use their power splitter and 1/4 the logs. That should get them band saw ready. Who knows, the firewood dealer might have something interesting you can salvage in his stock. The split planes are likely to be curved and twisted. You will definitely need the carrier board for the band saw. You are new at this, my tendency would be to focus on the loss from the splitting and chain saw kerf, Better to focus on what you are getting instead. In the end, once you get hard dry lumber, resawed, thickness sanded, sawed into various pieces, at best, 50% of this wood will go to saw dust anyway.

Lets' say you have a hull planked except for one last plank in the bow area so that the plane of the frame surface bends toward the stem. The line of the planking strake bends up with the sheer. Take a 3 x 5 card and place it over the hole to be planked. Rub a pencil over the edges of the surrounding planks to get the shape on the card. Cutting the shape of the plank from the larger card is spilling ( spoiling the rest of a good board as waste). You now have the plank shape. To get it to lay flat against the surface of the frames and not want to spring back up, this is what steaming is for.

Just use old paint to coat the ends- ASAP - several coats - if nothing else use TiteBond or whatever PVA glue you use, but left over paint is usually something that goes to waste otherwise. I don't know about you, but I find 16-18 inches is a good length for my stock, longer is difficult to handle - I will use 6 inch if that is what is available. That is 24 feet long at 1:48. If it is what it takes to get it band saw size, I would bisect the logs using a chain saw - down the pith - a bow saw and hand rip saw if that is all you have. The kerf is horrible, but still better than nothing. For the band saw, you will not have one flat surface, either for the table or the fence. Use a board to ride on the table and against the fence - 1/2 inch thick or so 2-4 inches longer than the log. I used right angle framing braces/brackets and drywall screws to fix the log to the carrier board - keeps the log from rolling and lets you define the cut line. Once you get two planes at right angle on the log - you don't need the carrier. Use the band saw to shave off the bark from the billets. You can use a draw knife to shave off the bark, it is just a chore to fix the log to keep it from moving. RE: your friend with the band saw. Find out how long his blades are and buy about 3 economy rip tooth blades for it from a local shop. Green wood is tough on blades and if Peach is like other fruit wood, much harder than what most wood workers are used to. It will dull the blade faster than usual wood stock. I would expect at least one blade to break.

If you want a supply to play with in a couple of months, you can dry some billets in a home made kiln. Make a box using 1 inch foam foil surface house exterior insulation. Foil surface facing in. I mounted mine inside a shelf. No need to seal the seams, let some air leakage occur. Heat using incandescent light bulbs - 200 - 300 W was enough for a 4' x 16" x 16" volume. I used a $10 computer cooling fan to pull out the moist air - they are DC motors but apparently you can use a transformer that supplies more power than the fan wants, but less will burn it out. Sticker the billets for complete air circulation. 300 W 24/7 - your electric bill will go up a few bucks. I kept the temp at 120 degrees or less - dry heat about 20 degrees above ambient seems to be enough. I did it in my garage in Mar- Apr - I guess 20 > ambient in GA in July- Aug is above 120 sometimes. There are low cost digital thermometers that record the highest temp.

Crabapple ! You should find it a joy to work with. Other than a possibility that fungus could get to it before it is seasoned, I don't see any down side to using it.

As for sealing, I would do this: rub surface using 0000 steel wool or 600/1000 grit Silicone carbide paper. coat #1 Pure Tung oil cut 1:1 with mineral spirits. rub surface using 0000 steel wool or 600/1000 grit Silicone carbide paper. coat #2 shellac cut 1:1 with shellac thinner ( anhydrous alcohol / MeOH or EtOH or IsopropylOH ). rub surface using 0000 steel wool or 600/1000 grit Silicone carbide paper. Now use a paint primer.

I don't know if this will work. This is not my area, but this product (Bare Metal Foil) caught my eye in the Micro-Mark catalog. Here is a link to the original manufacturer http://www.bare-metal.com/bare-metal-foil.html Interesting to see that copper is available.

Think of wood as being like a bundle of straws. The end grain is the open ends of the straws. The trick is to have the water in green wood leave the surface of the end grain at the same rate as the sides. The stress of drying more quickly from the ends leads to splitting (checking). You do want the water to leave. Getting logs into billets speeds drying as it increases the ratio of drying surface to total volume. You can use old left over house paint to coat the end grain, though you would want to keep an eye on things and add another coat or two if checking starts. If you coat the sides, and really slow down water loss, I am thinking that it will take forever to dry and set up a situation for fungus to rot the wood. Fruit wood may have a higher sugar content than other types, so fungus would be a problem in any case. My ideal would be to store the drying wood in an environment where the internal temp in the billet is a bit higher than what a fungus could tolerate.

From the Wood Data Base: " Due to it’s moderate density and generally straight grain, Chinaberry is quite easy to work: it cuts, planes, sands, and glues well. Perhaps the only difficulty is in its large pores, which tend to give a very open and grainy finished appearance, which may need to be filled, particularly if a smooth glossy surface is desired. " Some use Oak and Walnut, which are woods with open pores. If you do not mind that the wood does not give a convincing appearance of timbers scaled down to 1:50 or lesser size - soup bowl sized holes, it should otherwise work.

I have Model Shipwright - up until they went bankrupt . I also have a publication of The Mariners' Museum: The Ship Models of August F. Crabtree John A Tilley, 1981. In the description of English Royal Yacht circa 1670 "His models' encrustations of delicate carvings probably are their most distinctive features. Here again the selection of the proper wood was crucial. After a long search in his native Oregon, Crabtree discovered a species called "white thorn" which, when properly seasoned, was capable of producing the results he wanted, It has a light color and a grain so fine as to be barely visible." I have never gotten hold of any Hawthorn to evaluate, but light color and nearly invisible grain sounds like an ideal wood for our uses. The key is how large the logs are. If large enough, the wood should be useful for most any part of a ship. Crabtree used Pear for frames and Apple for planking.

I thought that Pyracantha was what Crabtree used also. I collected some cuttings. It is hard and dense. It is in the Apple family and Apple comes larger. I wrote to the Mariners about which species Crabtree used, and the reply sourced Washington Hawthorn as what he used. I don't think Pyracantha is often available as large as would be useful.

I have been looking for a commercial source for Washington Hawthorn ever since I found out from the Mariners Museum ( Newport News, VA ) that the "white thorn" that August Crabtree used for the carvings on his collection of ship models was this species of wood. In your position, I would get as much as is available and not let any go to waste.

It looks open pore, similar to Oak. The write up = irregular grain. These are not desirable characteristics for wood that shows. A display base. A case. Hidden parts. Jigs. Tools. Tool handles. I would not waste the wood, but I would NOT use it for planking, frames that show, uncovered deck beams, bits, coaming, etc. Irregular grain could be a disaster for davits and catheads, top parts, masts and yards. If you use paint, it is better to use a wood species that does not require a pore filling step in surface prep.

If you have a full size band saw, I don't think you can do better than a WoodSlicer blade for serious resawing. It is a quality steel and has a thin kerf. It really does not break easily. The teeth have almost no set, so the finish is smooth. It is only for resawing however. For scroll cutting, adding a Carter Products blade Stabilizer with an 1/8 inch blade allows for acute turns and the blade is much less likely to bind and snap. For milling billets from green logs and branches ( fixing a log to carrier board that rides against the fence, keeps the log from rolling and allows the plane of the cut to be determined - is a good thing to do - right angle metal braces for 2x4 have holes for screws and are low cost) I think that buying a 100 ft coil of a 3 tooth basic grade saw blade and having a local shop weld the lot into however many blades you can get is probably the most cost effective way to go. Green wood is hard on a blade - they want to break and dull too quickly. But breaking a $4 blade is less painful and losing a $25 blade that might only last twice as long as the cheap one.

No actual data, but: Raising the level of the after deck by 4 feet would give more head room below. Having full deck framing at 4foot layers would add weight to the aft area to no good purpose. A cabin below whose deck could be 4 feet higher would provide storage space below that deck - either as a crawl space, or the cabin floor could be hatch covers.

An easy solution to insulating the poured concrete half wall under the windows - get a few sheets of 4 x 8 x 2inch foam insulating sheets (pink or blue) and use construction adhesive to attach it to the concrete. The 2 inch was readily available in central KY, but here in Norfolk 1 inch seems to be it.

For the basement - first -make sure that it does not leak. I had a house in Kentucky where the basement was sited in mid summer during a drought. Turns out that for six months of the year it was 2-3 feet below the water table. Nothing but heart ache. Ideal - have a powerful shopvac - in a distant location - sound insulated from the rest of the house and where you work, vented to the outside, wired so that you can easily turn On/Off - a Great Dane sized dog house close to the house - you just need the 4 inch ducting and 12 ga Romex thru the wall. Be nice if the 4 inch ducting could run between the floor joists and not thru them. Works for solvent vapors as well as saw dust.

Cuprinol -originally was a copper salt based product intended to protect wood from fungus, insect borers, and ship worms. I am thinking that copper based compounds have been avoided for reasons of toxicity. The company seems to have kept the name and moved into other products in the area of wood protection to stay in business. We probably should not be keeping a model in a outdoor exposed situation, so Cuprinol does not provide a use that we need. I would advise using well seasoned wood stock to build a model, so a green wood stabilizer also seems to be a function that we do not need.

The false keel was there as a "throw away" bumper? If the ship ran aground on a moderate slope, it was to come off so the ship could back free? Seems to me, it would need to be fastened just enough to stay when subject to the forces of water, but not offer too much resistance to a real shear force. I would think that every ship's captain and especially the NCO responsible for the ship's structure would have their own opinion on how to fasten it.