Jaager

You have to try them and see if they work.  The tool texts that I have read have it that diamond is for metal - primarily steel is my guess.  I use 220 grit sandpaper more for a smooth finish than removal.
 
HHS jeweler's files - the 4" have the cutting surface designed to cut wood.  needle files - for just this  I would use the flat rectangular equaling shape  - quality is expensive - using economy POS is more expensive in time wasted,  unneeded frustration, and lack of joy in how they perform.  
It is a more difficult grip , but the finger exerting the downward pressure should stay directly above the wood.  HHS that is hard enough to hold an edge is brittle - is does not bend - it snaps.
They come in different "cuts"  00 most aggressive to 6 smoothest    0  2  4  seems to be range readily available.
 
I have never gotten a rasp to work for me at the scales I am about. They rip and tear.     Usually deeper than I wish.  This is why I was so surprised at how well the Stewmac razor file worked.  As far as I know, it is unique.  No other source.  It is expensive.  If you have an open ended budget and you are in this at a serious level and for the long haul - it is worth having. 
 
Until you get to a point where you do not have to ask - a normal razor saw - maybe even Exacto or Zona will do what you wish.  I prefer pull to push  but I spent a lot of time with push to get there.
 
It is a tool that is a series of brass tubes.  They have a sharp edge at one end -something that brass does not hold for long - and a T handle at the other.  They are used to twist a hole thru the center of a cork glass stopper to allow a glass tube to be pushed thru it.  When the borer is removed, there is a cork rod in the bore to be pushed out.  It looks like a dowel - but just looks like one.  These 19th century tech borers do not work so well on Neoprene ( rubber ).  That stuff wants to tear rather than cut if the cutting edge is not really sharp.  Unless you are in a chemistry or more often a biology lab,  I do not see what you would use them for.
 
I have never seen an actual dowel making sawmill - I imagine that a long thin wall steel tube with really sharp teeth - probably a bundle of them - rotating - plunged into the end grain of a bole of wood.  If the trunk of the tree is not a precisely engineered series of of concentric rings, a dowel bored from it will have variable grain.  Splitting - and using a species of wood that grows straight up - and is dense - and has really really small pores - tends to work better as a small scale simulation of a tall Pine tree's wood.
 
There are demonstrations  here doing the same job using larger bore syringe needles to mass produce hardwood trunnels.  ( Personal bias - if I use a trunnel, it will be to actually hold two pieces of wood together - and actual wooden nail - or Bamboo in my case.  I do not see the point of having shallow - just for show trunnels.  These are mostly used on decks.  On an actual ship, special effort was made to make the actual trunnels and bolts ( which were covered with a wooden plug ) as invisible as possible.  Making a deck that looks like it has the Measles is a not realistic modeler convention. 

Unless the color is not appropriate, using it 'As Is' will work;   no treatment is necessary.    If darker is the goal, a wood dye will do the job.
Blue Mold is not like the fungus that turned a trunk of Apple that I had not prepared correctly into meal. 
 
Oxalic acid does work.  I used it on a door of an old book case, Took it back to looking like fresh cut wood.  It was an antique - extreme refinishing was a bad idea - destroyed any value,  but the stuff worked.
 
As far as I can tell, Blue Mold is benign except for the color thing.  If only we could save all of the infected Holly and off-white Holly from going to the breakers and buy it.

As far as Underhill, Davis, Petrejus, Longridge, Frolich are concerned as regards POB,  the great danger is that you will be seduced over to the dark side = scratch building. 
But once POB reaches a first layer being planked stage,  everything from there on - the actual hull planking, decks, furniture, etc - it is all the same irrespective of what the underlying hull structure is.
The goal of books that focus on scratch building is excellence and historical accuracy.  It is better to learn from the best.  I am pretty sure that the build logs here in the POB kit forum have in total way more useful instruction than can be found in books that focus on POB.   Why I think this is inherent in how and why POB books come to be, is probably best left not expressed.

You have to try them and see if they work.  The tool texts that I have read have it that diamond is for metal - primarily steel is my guess.  I use 220 grit sandpaper more for a smooth finish than removal.
 
HHS jeweler's files - the 4" have the cutting surface designed to cut wood.  needle files - for just this  I would use the flat rectangular equaling shape  - quality is expensive - using economy POS is more expensive in time wasted,  unneeded frustration, and lack of joy in how they perform.  
It is a more difficult grip , but the finger exerting the downward pressure should stay directly above the wood.  HHS that is hard enough to hold an edge is brittle - is does not bend - it snaps.
They come in different "cuts"  00 most aggressive to 6 smoothest    0  2  4  seems to be range readily available.
 
I have never gotten a rasp to work for me at the scales I am about. They rip and tear.     Usually deeper than I wish.  This is why I was so surprised at how well the Stewmac razor file worked.  As far as I know, it is unique.  No other source.  It is expensive.  If you have an open ended budget and you are in this at a serious level and for the long haul - it is worth having. 
 
Until you get to a point where you do not have to ask - a normal razor saw - maybe even Exacto or Zona will do what you wish.  I prefer pull to push  but I spent a lot of time with push to get there.
 
It is a tool that is a series of brass tubes.  They have a sharp edge at one end -something that brass does not hold for long - and a T handle at the other.  They are used to twist a hole thru the center of a cork glass stopper to allow a glass tube to be pushed thru it.  When the borer is removed, there is a cork rod in the bore to be pushed out.  It looks like a dowel - but just looks like one.  These 19th century tech borers do not work so well on Neoprene ( rubber ).  That stuff wants to tear rather than cut if the cutting edge is not really sharp.  Unless you are in a chemistry or more often a biology lab,  I do not see what you would use them for.
 
I have never seen an actual dowel making sawmill - I imagine that a long thin wall steel tube with really sharp teeth - probably a bundle of them - rotating - plunged into the end grain of a bole of wood.  If the trunk of the tree is not a precisely engineered series of of concentric rings, a dowel bored from it will have variable grain.  Splitting - and using a species of wood that grows straight up - and is dense - and has really really small pores - tends to work better as a small scale simulation of a tall Pine tree's wood.
 
There are demonstrations  here doing the same job using larger bore syringe needles to mass produce hardwood trunnels.  ( Personal bias - if I use a trunnel, it will be to actually hold two pieces of wood together - and actual wooden nail - or Bamboo in my case.  I do not see the point of having shallow - just for show trunnels.  These are mostly used on decks.  On an actual ship, special effort was made to make the actual trunnels and bolts ( which were covered with a wooden plug ) as invisible as possible.  Making a deck that looks like it has the Measles is a not realistic modeler convention. 

We have had a recent discussion that essentially pointed out that experience with plastic kits is not much help in prep for tackling a wooden kit.   One is pure assembly and the other is fabrication and assembly.  Plastic kit instructions are generally complete as far as assembly.  In comparison mass market wooden kit instructions are more general  and especially for fabrication there is an expectation that outside text and journal articles will be used as supplements.  There is often frustration and unrealized expectations. with wooden kit instructions   This is why the "start simple" admonition is almost a natural law.   For large and complex wooden ship models there is much skill , knowledge and experience that is expected  in a modeler who attempts it.
 
That said, the rigging is the same in plastic and wood.   Although, the hull is still of some size, 1:150 is a miniature scale.  It is difficult to find rigging line that is usable and in harmony with the scale.
The Le Superbe that i am familiar with is a Sane designed 74.  There were many sisters built in this class.   Boudroit started his published inventory with a 4 volume monograph of this class.   The masting and rigging  are about as well documented as is possible.
Scale limitations in available material will make matching the text very difficult.  Avoiding being over scale is a real challenge.
The spars made from plastic at larger scales are fragile.  Having tension taut rigging and not snapping the plastic spars, I suspect is a long shot.  The taut lines probably have to come rigid before placement material.  Wire is better than fiber at this.  

I think some of the disappointment in the instructions of most traditional wooden ship model kits lies in their different evolutionary pathway from plastic kits.
I think plastic - being a new material - post WWII - and the subjects for the kits were metallic and heavily engineered with lots of detailed plans for the original ships or aircraft or rail or war machines.  The plans for each kit were complete and self sufficient.  Plastic kits are mostly about assembly of pre- formed  components. Plus- now very sophisticated finishing techniques.  In origin, it was just a few jars of Testors oil based paint and a basic small brush.
 
Wooden ships - pre 1860 - had a different sort of plan.  The construction the shipwrights art and was pretty much common to all vessels - with changes from generation to generation.  So there were no voluminous detailed plans to copy for a kit.   
The original versions were solid carved hull scratch builds, using instructions in magazines like Popular Mechanics.  I see the kits starting as a shortcut for those not wishing to carve a block of Pine or Basswood.  
There were a few  how-to  books that were expected to be the major source for directions.   The kits just provided some materials for what was still essentially a scratch build process.  Kits became more involved and reduced a lot of the scratch build aspect.  It was still assumed  that general instruction books would be used for learning the basic techniques.   For wooden kits, it is about first shaping the components and then assembling them.   The basic skills are mostly the same for all kits, so detailed instruction for any single kit is just repeating the same instructions over and over.  It also involves a multitude of tools, that must be learned and practiced with.  
 
 
 

A 90 degree channel   45 degrees L  45 degrees R   - probably will need several with a range of depths  
Way back when,  it seemed to me that every "how to build ship models" book covered this method.
 
A miniature block plane,
scrapers - small steel luthiers , a freshly broken piece of glass, a single edge razor blade or carpet knife blade in a homemade wooden holder.
StewMac has a small flat razor file that eats wood yet leaves a smooth surface (if you get serious about this - they also have one named  Ultimate mini scraper - a bit dear in cost, sold out right now, and something you don't want to drop if your working surface is a tempered glass plate with beveled edges - it has some heft/mass.
warding files
 
Save the sandpaper until the end. 
 
Try Hard Maple for your masts -  
Birch dowels are made using something like a cork borer - straight grain along the whole length is just luck.

Sweet Cherry Prunus avium is more dense than Black Cherry Prunus serotina.
Only birds eat the fruit of Black Cherry as far as I know.  It is mostly the stone, so eating it would be more work than it is worth.  It is used to make wild cherry syrup - an old vehicle for compounded Rx liquids - mainly pediatric.  The syrup is made from the bark, not the fruit.
I do not consider Black Cherry wood to be significantly hard.  It is easy to work and serious sanding can get you into trouble much more quickly than with Hard Maple.
Black Cherry is not very far up my list of wood species for fine detail carving.

I harvested and cut into billets some Holly from a cousin's land.   When I rip cut it water almost squirted from the end as the blade pushed it.  This told me two two things:  Holly contains a lot of water.  Holly pore channels are highways.   Blue mold will out race you unless the Holly is harvested in Winter and unless the cut ends are sealed and the wood immediately goes into a kiln.  I did not wish to case harden my supply, so I set the temp in my foam box to be just a bit higher than what I thought a fungus could survive.
The strain of Holly on my cousin's wood lot is yellow, not snow white.
 
From my traditionalist perspective, you are not in trouble at all!
No species of wood used for an actual ship was snow white,  so the color of Holly that is sold does not fit a ship model.
The yellow - or blue - or grey (which is what some of my infected stock is) is actually more appropriate.
The Blue Mold fungus does not affect the structural integrity of the wood.  Holly is neigh on to perfect for us.  It works for part quite well and for planking, nothing else bends quite as well. The grey or yellow would closely match the color of an actual deck - Sun bleached and salt water abuse.  For tar foot prints and drips from standing rigging additional color is needed.  The snow white decks planked with marquetry Holly is flash and not realistic.
Holly readily takes a dye.  Perfect for black wales.  The blue will probably want a dye if you paint with wood.  Alcohol based aniline dyes -  I do not see that the additional depth from water based aniline dyes would show at model scales.  It would just add a grain swelling problem and a longer drying time.
 
Unless you are dead set on having it be snow white - you are golden.   Holly over here is now absurdly expensive.  I suspect sawyers trash or burn infected or off color Holly.  Would that I could contact one and take what he thinks is trash off of his hands.

A 90 degree channel   45 degrees L  45 degrees R   - probably will need several with a range of depths  
Way back when,  it seemed to me that every "how to build ship models" book covered this method.
 
A miniature block plane,
scrapers - small steel luthiers , a freshly broken piece of glass, a single edge razor blade or carpet knife blade in a homemade wooden holder.
StewMac has a small flat razor file that eats wood yet leaves a smooth surface (if you get serious about this - they also have one named  Ultimate mini scraper - a bit dear in cost, sold out right now, and something you don't want to drop if your working surface is a tempered glass plate with beveled edges - it has some heft/mass.
warding files
 
Save the sandpaper until the end. 
 
Try Hard Maple for your masts -  
Birch dowels are made using something like a cork borer - straight grain along the whole length is just luck.

There are additional factors to doing this in a way that helps with the result being as optimal as possible.
Use an appropriate species of wood - tight straight grain - no pores.  Dense is probably good.
Split the square starting stock from its plank.  A split will be along the grain so the wood will be at equilibrium with its natural orientation from the start.
Using a saw will probably be a cut across the grain - usually at a sharp angle - when free from other fibers the angled fibers may seek  to be straight.
Look up froe for the traditional tool for splitting along the grain and Bamboo froe for a smaller version without the right angle handle. 
 

When the dimensions are large enough that wood will work, it is probably imperative to replace plastic spars (masts, yards, booms) with wooden ones -  unless you like the top hamper looking like a Willow tree.
 
For plastic spars in kits in 1:96 or small scale, I see some of the yards as being too small for wood to work well - even though plastic is significantly less appropriate.
The real recommendation from the professional end of this  is to use brass when wood is too weak.  Maybe, the half hard brass welding rods? 
I have never seen any brass for sale that is harder than half hard.  
 
Working it down from square stock is probably superior to using a lathe for any spar, but for the really small diameter stock, a lathe's lateral force will probably break a higher portion than it has success with.  The rings across the grain that a lathe cutter makes  are probably near impossible to totally erase.
 
I thought this is the explicit source:  SHIP MODEL CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES  1980  - DEPT. OF SALES AND SERVICE - MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM   
it is mentioned - but maybe it is from the USN museums standards.     The idea of using brass does not exactly fill me with joy, but there is probably no practical alternative.                 
 

A 90 degree channel   45 degrees L  45 degrees R   - probably will need several with a range of depths  
Way back when,  it seemed to me that every "how to build ship models" book covered this method.
 
A miniature block plane,
scrapers - small steel luthiers , a freshly broken piece of glass, a single edge razor blade or carpet knife blade in a homemade wooden holder.
StewMac has a small flat razor file that eats wood yet leaves a smooth surface (if you get serious about this - they also have one named  Ultimate mini scraper - a bit dear in cost, sold out right now, and something you don't want to drop if your working surface is a tempered glass plate with beveled edges - it has some heft/mass.
warding files
 
Save the sandpaper until the end. 
 
Try Hard Maple for your masts -  
Birch dowels are made using something like a cork borer - straight grain along the whole length is just luck.

A 90 degree channel   45 degrees L  45 degrees R   - probably will need several with a range of depths  
Way back when,  it seemed to me that every "how to build ship models" book covered this method.
 
A miniature block plane,
scrapers - small steel luthiers , a freshly broken piece of glass, a single edge razor blade or carpet knife blade in a homemade wooden holder.
StewMac has a small flat razor file that eats wood yet leaves a smooth surface (if you get serious about this - they also have one named  Ultimate mini scraper - a bit dear in cost, sold out right now, and something you don't want to drop if your working surface is a tempered glass plate with beveled edges - it has some heft/mass.
warding files
 
Save the sandpaper until the end. 
 
Try Hard Maple for your masts -  
Birch dowels are made using something like a cork borer - straight grain along the whole length is just luck.

There are additional factors to doing this in a way that helps with the result being as optimal as possible.
Use an appropriate species of wood - tight straight grain - no pores.  Dense is probably good.
Split the square starting stock from its plank.  A split will be along the grain so the wood will be at equilibrium with its natural orientation from the start.
Using a saw will probably be a cut across the grain - usually at a sharp angle - when free from other fibers the angled fibers may seek  to be straight.
Look up froe for the traditional tool for splitting along the grain and Bamboo froe for a smaller version without the right angle handle. 
 

When the dimensions are large enough that wood will work, it is probably imperative to replace plastic spars (masts, yards, booms) with wooden ones -  unless you like the top hamper looking like a Willow tree.
 
For plastic spars in kits in 1:96 or small scale, I see some of the yards as being too small for wood to work well - even though plastic is significantly less appropriate.
The real recommendation from the professional end of this  is to use brass when wood is too weak.  Maybe, the half hard brass welding rods? 
I have never seen any brass for sale that is harder than half hard.  
 
Working it down from square stock is probably superior to using a lathe for any spar, but for the really small diameter stock, a lathe's lateral force will probably break a higher portion than it has success with.  The rings across the grain that a lathe cutter makes  are probably near impossible to totally erase.
 
I thought this is the explicit source:  SHIP MODEL CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES  1980  - DEPT. OF SALES AND SERVICE - MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM   
it is mentioned - but maybe it is from the USN museums standards.     The idea of using brass does not exactly fill me with joy, but there is probably no practical alternative.                 
 

There are additional factors to doing this in a way that helps with the result being as optimal as possible.
Use an appropriate species of wood - tight straight grain - no pores.  Dense is probably good.
Split the square starting stock from its plank.  A split will be along the grain so the wood will be at equilibrium with its natural orientation from the start.
Using a saw will probably be a cut across the grain - usually at a sharp angle - when free from other fibers the angled fibers may seek  to be straight.
Look up froe for the traditional tool for splitting along the grain and Bamboo froe for a smaller version without the right angle handle. 
 

When the dimensions are large enough that wood will work, it is probably imperative to replace plastic spars (masts, yards, booms) with wooden ones -  unless you like the top hamper looking like a Willow tree.
 
For plastic spars in kits in 1:96 or small scale, I see some of the yards as being too small for wood to work well - even though plastic is significantly less appropriate.
The real recommendation from the professional end of this  is to use brass when wood is too weak.  Maybe, the half hard brass welding rods? 
I have never seen any brass for sale that is harder than half hard.  
 
Working it down from square stock is probably superior to using a lathe for any spar, but for the really small diameter stock, a lathe's lateral force will probably break a higher portion than it has success with.  The rings across the grain that a lathe cutter makes  are probably near impossible to totally erase.
 
I thought this is the explicit source:  SHIP MODEL CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES  1980  - DEPT. OF SALES AND SERVICE - MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM   
it is mentioned - but maybe it is from the USN museums standards.     The idea of using brass does not exactly fill me with joy, but there is probably no practical alternative.                 
 

There are additional factors to doing this in a way that helps with the result being as optimal as possible.
Use an appropriate species of wood - tight straight grain - no pores.  Dense is probably good.
Split the square starting stock from its plank.  A split will be along the grain so the wood will be at equilibrium with its natural orientation from the start.
Using a saw will probably be a cut across the grain - usually at a sharp angle - when free from other fibers the angled fibers may seek  to be straight.
Look up froe for the traditional tool for splitting along the grain and Bamboo froe for a smaller version without the right angle handle. 
 

When the dimensions are large enough that wood will work, it is probably imperative to replace plastic spars (masts, yards, booms) with wooden ones -  unless you like the top hamper looking like a Willow tree.
 
For plastic spars in kits in 1:96 or small scale, I see some of the yards as being too small for wood to work well - even though plastic is significantly less appropriate.
The real recommendation from the professional end of this  is to use brass when wood is too weak.  Maybe, the half hard brass welding rods? 
I have never seen any brass for sale that is harder than half hard.  
 
Working it down from square stock is probably superior to using a lathe for any spar, but for the really small diameter stock, a lathe's lateral force will probably break a higher portion than it has success with.  The rings across the grain that a lathe cutter makes  are probably near impossible to totally erase.
 
I thought this is the explicit source:  SHIP MODEL CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES  1980  - DEPT. OF SALES AND SERVICE - MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM   
it is mentioned - but maybe it is from the USN museums standards.     The idea of using brass does not exactly fill me with joy, but there is probably no practical alternative.                 
 

When the dimensions are large enough that wood will work, it is probably imperative to replace plastic spars (masts, yards, booms) with wooden ones -  unless you like the top hamper looking like a Willow tree.
 
For plastic spars in kits in 1:96 or small scale, I see some of the yards as being too small for wood to work well - even though plastic is significantly less appropriate.
The real recommendation from the professional end of this  is to use brass when wood is too weak.  Maybe, the half hard brass welding rods? 
I have never seen any brass for sale that is harder than half hard.  
 
Working it down from square stock is probably superior to using a lathe for any spar, but for the really small diameter stock, a lathe's lateral force will probably break a higher portion than it has success with.  The rings across the grain that a lathe cutter makes  are probably near impossible to totally erase.
 
I thought this is the explicit source:  SHIP MODEL CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES  1980  - DEPT. OF SALES AND SERVICE - MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM   
it is mentioned - but maybe it is from the USN museums standards.     The idea of using brass does not exactly fill me with joy, but there is probably no practical alternative.                 
 

An add-on kit with a barge tow with riprap or coal and another with rails.  There was a while here when tows with rail cars were transported over to the Delmarva peninsula more or less continuously. 

Dave,
 
Perhaps those of you on your island could:  take a hostage, form a mob with pitchforks and torches (Universal's b/w Frankenstein), or find a self aware Suit  at Pen & Sword/Seaforth/Conway and get them to reissue the Model Shipwright journals on CD and/or USB stick.

An add-on kit with a barge tow with riprap or coal and another with rails.  There was a while here when tows with rail cars were transported over to the Delmarva peninsula more or less continuously. 

I harvested and cut into billets some Holly from a cousin's land.   When I rip cut it water almost squirted from the end as the blade pushed it.  This told me two two things:  Holly contains a lot of water.  Holly pore channels are highways.   Blue mold will out race you unless the Holly is harvested in Winter and unless the cut ends are sealed and the wood immediately goes into a kiln.  I did not wish to case harden my supply, so I set the temp in my foam box to be just a bit higher than what I thought a fungus could survive.
The strain of Holly on my cousin's wood lot is yellow, not snow white.
 
From my traditionalist perspective, you are not in trouble at all!
No species of wood used for an actual ship was snow white,  so the color of Holly that is sold does not fit a ship model.
The yellow - or blue - or grey (which is what some of my infected stock is) is actually more appropriate.
The Blue Mold fungus does not affect the structural integrity of the wood.  Holly is neigh on to perfect for us.  It works for part quite well and for planking, nothing else bends quite as well. The grey or yellow would closely match the color of an actual deck - Sun bleached and salt water abuse.  For tar foot prints and drips from standing rigging additional color is needed.  The snow white decks planked with marquetry Holly is flash and not realistic.
Holly readily takes a dye.  Perfect for black wales.  The blue will probably want a dye if you paint with wood.  Alcohol based aniline dyes -  I do not see that the additional depth from water based aniline dyes would show at model scales.  It would just add a grain swelling problem and a longer drying time.
 
Unless you are dead set on having it be snow white - you are golden.   Holly over here is now absurdly expensive.  I suspect sawyers trash or burn infected or off color Holly.  Would that I could contact one and take what he thinks is trash off of his hands.