SJSoane

Gaetan, those are remarkable joints in the beams, with dovetails across the face of the mating surfaces. I am not aware of a joint like that in British ships; another French innovation that makes a lot of sense. What brand is that little razor saw with the straight red handle in posting #668, the fourth picture down? It looks very useful. Mark

I had to take off time from the ship for some overdue dermatology treatments. Living for so many years in Denver at 5280 feet altitude (1609 meters) put my skin way too close to the sun. Now I live at a measly 2930 feet (892 meters) I can hardly see the sun.😎 So back in the shop, I have finished up one more strake of 4" planking above the main wales. In this photo you can see just how much the planking forms an S curve at the stern, as the bulging tumblehome flows into the straight edge at the stern structure. You can see from the pencil marks on the planking that this is yet to be sanded on the surface, and yet to have sawdust cleared out of the corners of the ports. It also looks a little raw white. The nice golden patina seen on the rest of the hull will come after 5-6 months of exposure to the air once it is finish sanded. And once the finish is applied, it should eventually look the color of the frames below the wales. The wale will of course be painted black. Just one more strake before the channel Wales between the black lines! Mark

Naval novels like O'Brian conjure up dramatic images of these times, but nothing like actual documents from the time to make this period very real! Mark

Looking very nice! Mark

Alan, I wish I had known about that Helicoil when I dealt with this many years ago.... Nice contribution! Mark

Alan, very impressive the list of articles you read. I hope you are planning on writing a book! Mark

Gaetan, beautiful craftsmanship with all of those precise dovetails and mortises on the beams. An inspiration! Mark

Hi Grant, I had a chance to look at your Da Vinci Flying machine and the Chris Craft Runabout. Very impressive craftsmanship, and use of formers and jigs. A lot to learn from you in those posts! Mark

Michael, I just caught up on your latest progress. Astonishing what you can do with metal. A masterpiece! Mark

Alas, life gets in the way of the shipyard. Not much progress to date, due to other things going on. But I did take the good advice from Grant, and I made cauls for the planks at the bow. These needed tiny 4" spacers at the bottom of the caul, to hold the jaws parallel when clamped onto the 4" plank. I made two set of cauls, one for the foremost part of the bow where the planks hit the stem, and then one a little further aft. These are two different curves. I just choose the one that fits the plank at hand best. The planks are springy enough to accommodate to the caul, even if the curve is not exactly right. I don't know why I did not do this when I first started planking, it works so well to hold the planks firmly for fine shaping. A classic woodworking concept; hold the piece firmly on the bench so your hands are free to manage the tool. No more filed finger ends, or tired hand muscles holding onto the planks. A joy to use. Thanks so much, Grant, for the idea! Mark

Alan, the rudder looks great! Mark

Thanks so much Mike and druxey. I confess, when I started I thought this was going to be fairly straightforward, made complex only by having to bevel the edges for tight joints. Maybe I got that idea from Longridge's book on the Victory, or maybe from reading about modelers cutting long strips to a set dimension. But you both knew better, and now do I! This is much more complex, requiring spiled edges and precise fitting. The planks are not even the same width at the stern as they are at the bow, even though the lines of planking on the sheer drawing are parallel segments of circles. I believe it is the varying degree of tumblehome that stretches and contracts the space between the parallel segments in the third dimension, making the planks between vary their widths. And I thought I was about to start sprinting on this project!😊 Mike, I decided not to highlight the seams between the planks, partly because I could not obtain consistent results in my tests, and mainly because I like the look of the 18th century models like the second Bellona model, where the seams are not highlighted but variations in wood color hint at the planks. I think this is what a viewer would see standing far enough from a real ship to be the same as looking at the entire model in our cone of vision. Of course, this also means that my painstaking craftsmanship doesn't show up except in extremely close observation! Mark

A little slow in the shop this week. Here is the complex plank installed. This required a great deal of finding high spots by holding artist transfer paper between the joints at various places, then filing down with a very fine flat Swiss file, then checking again. When I felt my patience disappearing, I would leave it and go do something else. So it took me a while. Mark

Astonishing detail and craftsmanship. You set the highest standard! Mark

Michael, you are a master of metal--as well as wood, of course! Beautiful engine, exquisitely detailed and crafted. Mark

Gary, it looks very convincing!

Gary, very clever way to make the hawse liner. I never thought of that. I was struggling with how to carve it in relief. Thanks so much for the idea, I continue to learn from you! I was kind of guessing at how thick the liner should be, looking at photos from different directions. Did you ever find a specification regarding the thickness? Best wishes, Mark

I agree with everything said above about the value of the thickness sander and the disk sander. The first is essential for getting a consistent thickness for things like planking. The second I use all the time for cutting very precise angles on the end of the piece. For example, in my planking seen here, I need to fit short planking between gunports, where the angle at each end must match exactly the angles of the gunport sides. I draw a line parallel to the port on the plank, set my angle finder to that, and then use the angle finder to set the angle of the miter gauge on the disk sander. If it is slightly off, I adjust the miter gauge a bit, then sand again. I can creep up to a perfect angle, much more reliably than with a freehand file or a chisel cut. Mark

Thanks, Michael, Grant, Harvey and druxey for continuing good advice on this challenging fabrication issue. In the end, clamping them in the existing steaming caul worked all right for the pieces I had already started on. They are now glued in place. For the next strakes, particularly the thicker ones above my lower black line, I will make a caul as Grant has suggested. It really helps to have them firmly gripped while working the edges, whether with rifflers and files, or planes. And then, except for the spirketting inboard, I am done with curves at the bow! Moving on to the next 4" strake, I see that I have a particularly wide plank towards the stern, due to the drop down to the two ports. this one should be fun! I found it was very important ahead of time to plot out the planks on the ship itself, because the drawing did not exactly match where the planks hit the ports, and so drop downs and plank runs had to be looked at individually on the actual ship. Mark

Marc, it is almost as much fun to work out an elegant fabricating method as it is to make the piece. This helps me guard against my natural tendency to "bodge" my way through. Grant, you are right, and I also realized that my curves are pretty constant at the bow above the wales. Indeed, I am steaming all these pieces on the same caul. So I tried clamping the piece to the steaming caul itself, as below. If I could figure out a way to get the clamp out of the way, this does afford a pretty stable base for filing, planing etc. Or, just make a two sided caul. I will play around with this. Michael, I think I understand your curved bench pin idea, but I look forward to seeing one you make. That could indeed be very handy. Especially if there were a way to clamp the piece. Holding firmly onto a thin edge when sawing gets pretty tiring, and fingers are always in the way of the saw. Mark

Hi Gary, I see you made a very nice job of the hawse liners at the bow, including the sculpted U-shaped feathered edge that I see in my original drawings as well. I have been pondering how to make that cut myself. Do you recall how thick you made the hawse liner, measured from the face of the planking behind? And how you made that nice sculpted edge? Best wishes, Mark

Michael, Beautiful work! Curious, what was the coil of rope used for, so readily available to the helmsman? Mark

hmm, interesting challenge. Grant, you are right, for a major piece needing accurate shaping, a custom made caul would do the trick. I hate to have to do that for every individual plank, if there is a simpler method. Gaetan, I don't have a sanding belt, but I do an oscillating drum. Although this would require me drawing the edge on the concave side, so I could put the plank on the sanding table convex side down. I will try that. druxey, you did get me thinking, about those small planes I bought many years ago but never really used. I sharpened them up today, and I was able to freehand hold the piece while using the planes. I have them set very fine for final cleanup, and it is fiddly to keep adjusting them; so I will probably still want to saw down to a manageable planing distance.

Astonishing work. It brings the ship alive like nothing I have ever seen. It somehow seems more realistic than photos of an actual ship. Mark

Hi druxey, The challenge I haven't figured out is how to clamp this curved piece with its edge available to a plane. After I saw close to the line, I clamp the piece on the diagonal at the corner of a small vise, and work the edge with a riffler. But the further away from where it is clamped, the more the piece slips within the vise. I need a curved face vise! Mark