wefalck

Such capstans certainly existed, at least on 18th and 19th century large warships. Whether they have been used in earlier periods, I don't know.

I gather the key point is to somehow reproduce the somewhat coarse structure (in comparison to woven fabric) of the rice-straw mats. What is a detriment in representing small-scale sails, could be used here advantageously: the woven structure of silk-span, silk-screen, or the likes. In the past, I did put together sails from individual panels (this has been discussed several times on this forum already). I spread out a suitable piece of cloth in a (make-shift) frame and soaked in varnish. I used cellulose varnish the last time, but would now switch to acrylics because of their greater flexibility. The reason I used cellulose varnish was that by adding more varnish, you can kind of 'weld' the panels together. That is ok for set sails, but the cellulose varnish is brittle and that makes it difficult to fold sails. The silk-span soaked in varnish when dry was cut into strips the width of the panels and then stuck together with minimal overlapping. Doublings and so on were added in the same fashion. For this I am working on a piece of cardboard with the sail drawing stuck to it and the whole covered in cling-film. Once the sail is complete, the bolt-rope is stuck with PVA glue or acrylic varnish - that is for Western sails. I believe sails made from matting do not have bolt-ropes (at least in the South Pacific they don't have). Instead of acrylic varnish, you may want to use acrylic paint right away to give the sail the right colour. It would also be possible to spray-paint the sail before adding the bolt-rope, if needed. As noted before, I would then give the sail a wash with a very dilute darker paint, so that the paint accumulates in the 'holes' of the weave, or dry-brush it with a lighter colour to highlight the threads (strips of straw as it was). Another way to apply highlights is to rub a white colour-pecil lightly over the sail.

I didn't need the silk screen yet, but I know that you can get it in calibrated mesh-counts.

BTW in the last few numbers of NEPTUNIA there has been a series of articles (albeit in French) on traditional Japanese boats: https://www.aamm.fr/neptunia/derniers_numeros For understanding boats from other cultural areas it is also important to understand how they were used and handled. Often such boats have features that look anything but functional to our eyes. I find it rather difficult to model such features - I have to understand the function in order to reproduce a part, whether as a drawing or as a model. As to sails: I have tried to reproduce sails woven from strips of pandanus-leaves on South Pacific craft by soaking 'silk-span' in acrylic paint. But this was in a 1:90 scale. At a larger scale a heavier silk may do and perhaps some dry-brushing over a base paint in order to enhance the structure. One could also think of a fine wire-mesh soaked in paint. It also would depend on the kind of weave that was used for these mat-sails.

I do have indeed one book on Japanese house-building and a host of books on Japanese art. As I said, there seems to have been a variety of books published on Japanese carpentry including boatbuilding over the past 20 years or so.

Not sure we can ever do this ... but we can try to understand, how and perhaps why certain constructional detail are done in a certain way. There is also the effect of historical policies that forbade Japanes ship to venture further out into the high seas. I seem to remember that there were edicts that limited the seaworthiness of boats and ships. In consequence there has also been very little, if any, echange with other peoples with regard to shipbuilding techniques. I wonder, whether shipbuilder would have examined (or have been allowed to) the occassional Chinese wreck washed up on the Japanese shores or the European ships and boats.

Apparently Simmons, R. (1812): The Sea-Gunner`s Vademecum, Being a New Introduction to Practical Gunnery.- London (Steel). has tables with the sizes of breech-ropes and tackles for all guns. I don't have a copy of this book and didn't check, whether there is a digital version of it on the Web, but it may be worthwhile researching.

I would consider a breech-rope essential, as otherwise the gun would jump about the ship when being fired.

I have always been fascinated by Japanese carpentry and in my younger years was reading a lot about their art and culture. However, some 30 or so years ago there seems to have been little information in Western languages on their boats and I found them rather complex and different from ours. So I never attempted anything in this direction. Good to see that someone tries to understan them !

Good job on this guy ! The 19th century was full of these 'patent' anchors. Will have to make three Inglefield-anchors soon, but only around 12 mm long Guess, I will have to take some short-cuts compared to yours ... As to the bulb at the end of the stock: I guess theses were forged in situ, after the stock has been fiddled through the hole. Must be the same procedure for the traditional Admiralty-pattern anchors and there should be a description somewhere in the literature.

Didn't see this log before, but particularly like projects with a 'story' ...

I gather it depends (partly) on one's dexterity and manual skills. Some people - as our ancestors, or course, achieve incredible results with just hand-tools. I personally seem to need powertools to arrive at well defined and repeatable shapes ... perhaps I am too slow in building so that I am loosing my skills acquired in process, before I can apply them again

This kind of drill is still sold by jewelry makers supply houses ... the oldest kind of drill dating back perhaps to the Stone Age.

Pat, I am aware of the trade-offs to be made between the possibility to easily model these cast-on features and the stepping issue. It is indeed quite impressive, what commercial printers can achieve already. One could probably reduce the stepping problem by printing the gun vertically, as it would have been cast in foundry. The stepping is most visible when the printed surface is only slightly inclined with respect to the axes of the printer. I myself still have to master the 3D CAD modelling, before I can think of having anything printed

Without wanting to interfere with your manufacturing decisions: wouldn't you want to rather turn the gun in the lathe and have the parts of the carriage 3D-printed ? I found that round objects are still not as clean and crisp as one would wish at this scale due to unavoidable 'stepping'. Perhaps one could print the breech-loop and insert it into the turned barrel. I think the wooden elements of the carriage would make ideal objects for printing and would save you the trouble of fiddling around with very small components. Some of the iron-work could be even 'printed-on'.

Looking forward to see the gun developing. There are lot of interesting details on these guns, such as the excentric lifting mechanism and the recoil brake - I gather these are already lamellae ?

Vallejo is a good choice, as the company originally catered for artists, I believe, and then branched out into the modelling sector. There are other brands, e.g. the German Schmincke, that went down a similar route.

Ratlines have to make a curve, a so-called catena, like any other line under its own weight. Ratlines are never straight.

Depends on the scale you are working in. Ratlines have a diameter of around 1 cm on the real thing.

Looking good, Pat. It definitely helps to have detail photographs.

The mounting of the chuck is not the problem, its the jaws and the mechanism that tightens them - they are not designed for sideway loads, but only for axial loads. Below (left) is a cross-section through a key-operated drill-chuck. The serrated part exerts forces partially axially and partially radially that grip the drill, while the spiral in a 3-jaw-chuck only exerts radial forces. When you apply a radial force onto the serrated part, it has the tendency to splip axially, being a sort of wedge, thus potentially loosening the grip on the part, particularly, if it is not perfectly round. Also, common drill-chucks are not manufactured to the same tolerances (unless you have an Albrecht-Chuck), as 3-jaw-chuck or collets. Source: https://www.mscdirect.com/basicsof/drill-chucks It is better not to perpetrate bad practices, even though you may never experience any problems, say when working on wood or plastics. One day, by way of habit, you will chuck up a piece of metal, the cutting bit hooks and then the whole thing flies around. If you ever experienced how a work piece can be even ripped out of a strong 3-jaw-chuck (as I did once in 30 years working with lathes), when a cutting bit catches, you treat work-holding with great respect.

When you say 'machine' what kind of operation are you referring to ? Depending what your starting material is, there are several options. Assuming that you will be working with sheet material, how thick is the sheet ? One option is to use a circular cutter in the mill. This is a bit like a fly-cutter, but the cutting bit is mounted vertical and the cutting edge aligned so that you can cut pieces with a defined outside diameter. Not sure you find a commercial one for such small diameter, you may have to make one yourself. The second option is to use a 'hole-saw' or disc-cutter, essentially a tube with saw-teeth at the end. The inside diameter is the diameter of your finished disc. If you have a lathe, you can also cut the disc roughly using a fret-saw and turn them down to the right size. To this end you have to chuck two corks, one in the headstock and one in the tailstock and wedge the Plexiglas disc between them. This is the classical method by which watchmakers turned watch-glasses to size. If you have a lathe, you can also start from round stock, face it, polish the face and then cut of the disc.

To be honest, I never use any cutting fluids for turning model parts on the lathe. As pointed out by others, sharp tools are essential to avoid work-hardening. If any material starts to build up on the cutting edge, stop and remove the material or you may ruin your surfaces. Otherwise, I would not be too concerned about working with copper. You may have to try to optimise work-parameters for your special case, so be prepared that the first part may not turn out as desired.

Well, I am sorry to say, but this is bad advice - never use a Jacobs chuck or other drill chuck to hold workpieces in a lathe ! Drill chucks are designed to take axial forces only and the workpiece can work loose, when lateral forces are applied. For safety and precision reasons my personal preference are collets. For larger pieces, of course, one would use the three- or four-jaw-chuck, but try to avoid using hand-held tools (chisels, files, etc.) near such chucks, as they can get easily caught by the jaws.

Thanks, I do have indeed these books. Photographs are rather rare and I wondered, what you might have been able to identify. At some stage I should check out potential French sources for drawings.