Elia

Ok, so I looked up a few different ways to straighten plywood, and one method I found was to wet the "inside" of the curve (in my last post that would be the right side), then apply some weight while it dries. So, that's what I did.

Afterward, I left it to dry overnight, and when I checked it the next morning, the curve had significantly lessened (this was the better of the two). l will straighten the keel out again using a jig when it's time to add the bulkheads.

 
 
The paper also came with several tracing tools, which I tested in different sizes.

Ultimately, I ended up using the second smallest one. I've only done piece 2 of the keel so far (the bulkhead you see was a test run), and it turned out pretty easy since there were lots of straight lines. I just used a ruler for most of it, and it went pretty well.

 
Technically, I also worked on piece 1 of the keel, but I only realized after I finished tracing that I had the graphite paper upside down haha. . The first of many mistakes l will make here. But lesson learned, l will be sure to triple check l have the right side facing down from now on lol.
 
Benjamin

Anyway... l think the first order of business is to transfer the plans to some paper l can use as templates for the keel and bulkheads. l have heard of a few methods used...carbon/graphite paper and photocopying being the most common. l do have access to a photocopier but l have heard they can distort images (tho l do not know if that applies to all printers). So i'm thinking of going with carbon paper tho l would have to buy some as l am out at the moment.  Let me know if there are any other methods you think l should consider using.
 
Thanks,
Benjmain

Hello all, and welcome to what will be a scratch build POB of the Model Shipways Bluenose in 1:64 scale, joining the ranks of builds here on MSW.
 
After taking a break to focus on finishing high school, I’m excited to get back into this and use the shipyard again. As a Canadian, I’ve always been a big fan of the Bluenose, and I’m really looking forward to building her for the first time. This is also the first time I’ve purchased plans from Model Shipways, and I’m excited to skip the printing process—this will definitely speed things up. Thankfully there are build logs here chock full of helpful info for one building Bluenose, especially a beautiful scratch build done by Hamilton which l will certainly be referencing often.
 
My goal with this build is not so much historical accuracy as it is to introduce myself to posting on MSW as well as using proper materials (where my budget allows), which should improve both the quality and speed of building this vessel. I’ve been planking hulls with coffee stirrers for far too long, haha! I’ll no doubt have a lot of questions along the way, and I’d really appreciate any guidance or constructive criticism as I figure this out.
 
At the moment, I’m waiting for the plans to arrive, but once they do, I’ll kick off the build and get started.
 
Best Regards,
Benjamin

What a nice model Keith and thank you.  She is a beauty.  I had reopened on Tuesday afternoon.  But in these last four days I have completely sold out of rope with only four packages left.  Crazy stuff.
 
Thanks to my customers.  I really appreciate that.  Probably 70% of the blocks have sold as well.  I am so happy folks like them.  
 
The bad news…It will take a while to make more.  I wasnt expecting such a rush.  Hundreds of packages sold in just a few days.  
 
Chuck

Well I am officially moved in to my new place.  Everything is going well but not as quickly as I would like.  Having said this,  the shop is pretty much all set
up.  I have a few things left to do but plan on opening the store for orders on Tuesday morning.  
 
Thanks to all of my customers for your patience.  I can honestly say that I will never move again.  Moving sucks.  But once the dust settles it will have been worth it.

Its going to be a very big adjustment....My current view just six miles out of NYC.   From my upstairs bedroom.   Its a very different vibe.
 

I am gonna feel like Oliver and Eva gabor, LOL
 

 

the paper I use is archival
 

Blocks.
 
My prior experience with blocks was on Blue Jacket Shipcrafter’s Smuggler model, which had their detailed, cast Brittania blocks, and on my Oneida model, where I used Warner Woods wooden blocks.  Both experiences were good.  One required some finish sanding and trim, along with painting.  The others required sanding and staining.
 
For Arethusa I began my blocks journey by making an inventory of the full size block types and quantities, and then finding what was available, as close to scale as possible, at 1/48 scale.
 
I first purchased my entire shipset of blocks from Blue Jacket.  They are really great looking blocks.  And I had intended to use them for Arethusa.
 
I then saw Syren Ship Model Company’s internally stropped blocks. Oh I liked the look of those!  If you look back to my posts of 2017 you’ll see I had begun making some of those internally stropped blocks.  These are great little mini-kits, and can yield some impressive looking scale assembled blocks.
 
I, again, purchased what I could, scale-wise, from Syren, and began assembling them.  To finish them I purchased the block tumbler from Model Expo.  And that is where I ran into some “issues”.  The block tumbler has a rigid central core and four wooden paddles with sand paper on them.  For those of you who haven’t worked with one of these, you place your blocks into the jar, between the paddles, secure the lid, and you attach your hand drill to the tumbler’s shaft.  Power it up and you are in business.  But - at almost every speed - my blocks came apart, beaten to pieces.  I was very disheartened, to say the least.
 
After some time I came around to ordering more of Chuck Passaro’s blocks, hoping to find a solution to the tumbler problem.  I also want to give a shout out to Chuck for trying to help a modeler out.  On the small end of my blocks, I had 1/8” long model scale singles and doubles.  His block kits stop at 3/16” long - which are pretty small if you have ever worked with them!  He tried coming up with a kit for 1/8” blocks and just couldn’t get it to work properly.  I really thank him for trying.  He even gave me a packet of his 1/8” long machined wooden blocks.  Great guy, great business - if you haven’t yet - give Syren a try.  Really nice modeling stuff there.
 
I reassembled my second set of Syren internally stropped blocks.  Before trying that tumbler again (!!!) I searched MSW for ‘tumbler’, and lo and behold there was discussion of the problems with the rigid wooden paddles of the Model Expo tumbler.  Chuck Passaro mentioned substituting just sand paper for the paddles, and Dr PR showed his mod of the tumbler, where the paddles were removed and replaced with sand paper.  Thank you guys!  I followed their lead, modified my tumbler, and voila!  My blocks stayed together and were very nicely smoothed.   By the way, Dr PR’s Albatros model is outstanding - go check it out!
 
I trimmed and glued the strops and beckets with medium CA, and then stained them with Minwax Colonial Maple.  I’m very happy with them.  I still have the pins to add and then they’ll be complete.

On the small end of the scale I tried using the 1/8” wooden ones Chuck provided, and tried making doubles from singles, but without success.  So I’ve decided to go with the small Blue Jacket Brittania ones for these.  I’ve got them cleaned and primed, and hope to get a brown tone that won’t look horrible next to the attractive, assembled boxwood ones.
 
Some things I’ve learned from making a bunch of Syren’s block kits:
 
Medium CA and a round toothpick, or a micro tip for the CA bottle, work well for gluing the pieces together. Strive, as best as you can, to align the frames perfectly on top of each other as you glue the pieces together.  Any misalignment can be corrected with sanding the exterior surfaces, BUT you’ll have to sand to the lowest (innermost set) surface to get all of the laser burn off.  If you don’t sand all the way to the last surface you’ll end up with steps and ridges - not all that attractive to my eyes.  This can result in some parallelogramming of block shape.  In the last photo you can see some of this on a few of the blocks.  Its more pronounced with the smaller blocks. Using a sanding stick hit all of the exterior surfaces, to remove the burn, and to even it out before using the tumbler. The tumbler is best for rounding the corners of the blocks. Do not glue on the strops and beckets before tumble sanding the blocks. The 3/16” blocks are pretty small and my fingers cramped constantly trying to hold them while sanding the outer surfaces (step 3, above) I found using a small drill bit helped me form the strops into clean hoops which aligned with the slots in the blocks.  I used different sized drill bits for the different sized blocks. Make a few extra in each size.  One or two may fail along the way and its good to have ready made spares. The boxwood blocks take stain well!  
In the photo below you can see, upper photo to the bottom, 9/16” doubles, singles, a triple I made from extra 9/16” kits, 1/4” singles, and a pile of 3/16” singles and doubles.  I love the way these look, and know they’ll complement the model nicely upon rigging.

Anchors
 
For the anchors of Arethusa years ago Erik Ronnberg recommended I use the Model Shipways plans for Elsie he had designed and drafted years before.  They were built in the same timeframe, just a few miles apart, and shared many details of the time.  With that guidance I purchased said Elsie plans and headed over to FedEx/Kinkos to enlarge the plans from their original 1/96 scale to my 1/48 scale.  With the plans at the correct scale there were a number of details I could readily use on Arethusa.  I also try to cross reference things to Chapelle’s American Fishing Schooners, and they almost always do, as did the anchors.  Here is an image of the Elsie plans showing the anchor.

I had tried, unsuccessfully, to make them, years ago, from a stout sheet of K&S brass.  This time I decided to try making them from boxwood.  The sticks of boxwood I have aren’t wide enough to cut the anchors as complete, single entities from a strip of stock, so I chose to separate the end with the flukes from the main shank (shaft) and stock hole feature.  Here is a photo of the plans glued with contact adhesive to the boxwood strip.

Next up is a photo of those details now trimmed to shape.  I used my DeWalt scroll saw, followed by files, and then sanding sticks, to shape them.

I cut notches in the sides of the shafts on both pieces and glued small lap splice details.  I’ll admit -  this felt a bit precarious as the boxwood details felt delicate.  This photo shows them being glued together.

My most recent status is shown in the following photo.  The anchors, particularly at the splices, have been sanded smooth, and rebates have been sanded in where the flukes will be glued.  Following that is photo of the anchor chain and a finer chain after having been blackened with Blacken It (from many years ago).

Throat Halliard Cranes
 
On Gloucester fishing schooners of the late 19th and early 20th centuries the set of blocks which raise the mast end of the gaffs where secured to the lower masts with a unique iron detail called a throat halliard crane.  It is bolted to the aft side of the lower masts, found on both fore and main masts.  Its general shape is very wide U with a feature for the detail which secures the blocks, oriented with the legs of the U horizontal.  Those legs are long bolts which pierce through the mast and secured by nuts on the forward side of the mast.  The upper leg reaches over the mast head details, and the lower leg beneath.  This is one of those details I pondered over for years.  I didn’t think making them from wood would be sufficiently strong for the purpose.  I could have made them from brass wire, though some soldering would be needed and I wasn’t sure I could pull them off while still looking reasonably to scale.  This year I decided - what the heck - lets see what sheet brass I had laying around (from years ago!), and see if I could cut them out that way.  A piece of 0.072” thick was what I had on hand; A little thicker than to-scale, which would have been 0.060”, but I’m fine with that.  I recall trying to make my anchors from the same brass sheet many years ago.  I broke a lot of jeweler’s saw blades then, and dropped it long ago, very frustrated.
 
Once again - I searched through MSW and found some good discussions on using jewelers saws to cut brass.  I thank Weflack and others for those pointers!  I also found a good video on Youtube of a guy demonstrating key points of cutting brass sheet with a jeweler’s saw.  I think age also plays a part here in that I am in much less of a hurry than my earlier days, and am willing to let the saw do the work, not pushing it too hard, etc.  A key take away is to keep the blade oiled on a regular basis.  I had sprayed some contact adhesive onto the brass sheet, then secured my profile prints onto it.  I found that the oil tended to loosen the profile image over time, so I tried to just cut the inside of the U with the image adhered to the brass sheet as closely as possible.  As I went along the outside I tried cutting a little wide, knowing I could use my dremel and files to bring it back to a proper size.  I used a courser file to remove material faster, and then a finer file to smooth things out.

The second photo shows the two cranes adjacent the plan images (from the Model Shipways Elsie plans).  My cranes’ legs are a bit too wide, when compared to the plans, but I’m fine with that.  A little more clean up of the bolt portions, some primer and silver paints, and they’ll be good to go.

Blocks.
 
My prior experience with blocks was on Blue Jacket Shipcrafter’s Smuggler model, which had their detailed, cast Brittania blocks, and on my Oneida model, where I used Warner Woods wooden blocks.  Both experiences were good.  One required some finish sanding and trim, along with painting.  The others required sanding and staining.
 
For Arethusa I began my blocks journey by making an inventory of the full size block types and quantities, and then finding what was available, as close to scale as possible, at 1/48 scale.
 
I first purchased my entire shipset of blocks from Blue Jacket.  They are really great looking blocks.  And I had intended to use them for Arethusa.
 
I then saw Syren Ship Model Company’s internally stropped blocks. Oh I liked the look of those!  If you look back to my posts of 2017 you’ll see I had begun making some of those internally stropped blocks.  These are great little mini-kits, and can yield some impressive looking scale assembled blocks.
 
I, again, purchased what I could, scale-wise, from Syren, and began assembling them.  To finish them I purchased the block tumbler from Model Expo.  And that is where I ran into some “issues”.  The block tumbler has a rigid central core and four wooden paddles with sand paper on them.  For those of you who haven’t worked with one of these, you place your blocks into the jar, between the paddles, secure the lid, and you attach your hand drill to the tumbler’s shaft.  Power it up and you are in business.  But - at almost every speed - my blocks came apart, beaten to pieces.  I was very disheartened, to say the least.
 
After some time I came around to ordering more of Chuck Passaro’s blocks, hoping to find a solution to the tumbler problem.  I also want to give a shout out to Chuck for trying to help a modeler out.  On the small end of my blocks, I had 1/8” long model scale singles and doubles.  His block kits stop at 3/16” long - which are pretty small if you have ever worked with them!  He tried coming up with a kit for 1/8” blocks and just couldn’t get it to work properly.  I really thank him for trying.  He even gave me a packet of his 1/8” long machined wooden blocks.  Great guy, great business - if you haven’t yet - give Syren a try.  Really nice modeling stuff there.
 
I reassembled my second set of Syren internally stropped blocks.  Before trying that tumbler again (!!!) I searched MSW for ‘tumbler’, and lo and behold there was discussion of the problems with the rigid wooden paddles of the Model Expo tumbler.  Chuck Passaro mentioned substituting just sand paper for the paddles, and Dr PR showed his mod of the tumbler, where the paddles were removed and replaced with sand paper.  Thank you guys!  I followed their lead, modified my tumbler, and voila!  My blocks stayed together and were very nicely smoothed.   By the way, Dr PR’s Albatros model is outstanding - go check it out!
 
I trimmed and glued the strops and beckets with medium CA, and then stained them with Minwax Colonial Maple.  I’m very happy with them.  I still have the pins to add and then they’ll be complete.

On the small end of the scale I tried using the 1/8” wooden ones Chuck provided, and tried making doubles from singles, but without success.  So I’ve decided to go with the small Blue Jacket Brittania ones for these.  I’ve got them cleaned and primed, and hope to get a brown tone that won’t look horrible next to the attractive, assembled boxwood ones.
 
Some things I’ve learned from making a bunch of Syren’s block kits:
 
Medium CA and a round toothpick, or a micro tip for the CA bottle, work well for gluing the pieces together. Strive, as best as you can, to align the frames perfectly on top of each other as you glue the pieces together.  Any misalignment can be corrected with sanding the exterior surfaces, BUT you’ll have to sand to the lowest (innermost set) surface to get all of the laser burn off.  If you don’t sand all the way to the last surface you’ll end up with steps and ridges - not all that attractive to my eyes.  This can result in some parallelogramming of block shape.  In the last photo you can see some of this on a few of the blocks.  Its more pronounced with the smaller blocks. Using a sanding stick hit all of the exterior surfaces, to remove the burn, and to even it out before using the tumbler. The tumbler is best for rounding the corners of the blocks. Do not glue on the strops and beckets before tumble sanding the blocks. The 3/16” blocks are pretty small and my fingers cramped constantly trying to hold them while sanding the outer surfaces (step 3, above) I found using a small drill bit helped me form the strops into clean hoops which aligned with the slots in the blocks.  I used different sized drill bits for the different sized blocks. Make a few extra in each size.  One or two may fail along the way and its good to have ready made spares. The boxwood blocks take stain well!  
In the photo below you can see, upper photo to the bottom, 9/16” doubles, singles, a triple I made from extra 9/16” kits, 1/4” singles, and a pile of 3/16” singles and doubles.  I love the way these look, and know they’ll complement the model nicely upon rigging.

Sometimes in modeling I set off down a path, only to find I did something that I quickly didn’t like.  My masts and spars are one of those things.  I had made them from basswood, and I had stained them with a minwax oil based stain (maybe Puritan Pine).  I quickly saw two things I didn’t like:  one - the color of the stain can didn’t translate to the basswood like I had thought it would, being too brown, but without a warm cast, and two - the basswood had far too much dark and light patchiness.  I stewed on it a bit, and after having seen many models here on MSW made of Costello boxwood, I thought that that wood’s tight graining and evenness of tone would be what I was looking for.
 
One build log, Mahuna’s beautiful skipjack Kathryn, showed Costello boxwood and minwax Colonial Maple mast and spars - exactly the tone and look I wanted!  If you want to see some outstanding modeling, go search it out.  Thank you Frank for sharing that.  It has the look of varnished spars I want on Arethusa.  I bought some boxwood from Gilmer Woods during the pandemic, and recently set about making new masts and spars.  I find that it’s a good thing to make masts and spars every five to ten years, just to keep one’s hand in it.  ; )  Here’s a photo of the old and new masts and spars.  I have one last small spar to complete.  I had tried doing a little mortise in the sides of my first boxwood one and split it apart, so another is in-progress.
 

 
I’ve also made new masthead details from the boxwood, replacing the old basswood ones.  On these schooners there is little to the mastheads, so that was enjoyable and fairly quick and easy to do.
 
I haven't yet stained the spars, but have done some trial staining of the boxwood and the Colonial Maple will work out fine.  
 

My goodness, where has the time gone?  As you can see by my last post, of about a year ago, I thought then that I would find time to rekindle my ship modeling hobby.  Life, of course, plays by a different set of rules.  My last true time working on my schooner details was 7 years ago.  Since then, well, life intruded.  Helping with aging parents, raising children, with their attention and activities, work, home projects, health issues..  sometimes it’s difficult to find time to do the things we enjoy.  Without going into details, I’m finally back at it in my shop (which I spent some time tidying up so that I could comfortably work on my model).  I recall someone years ago, here on MSW I think, say to a modeler who hadn’t been able to get to his modeling in quite some time that (I’m paraphrasing) ‘the model waits patiently’.  And it does.
 
I see a few of the modelers from year ago still here and active, which is great.  I also note a few older members have passed on, some who I had hoped share modeling and further progress of Arethusa with, and that leaves me a little melancholy.
 
My schooner model sat wrapped in plastic, on its box stand; my research and plans were safely stored away; my little details, and masts and spars, also waited patiently.  And this past Christmas holiday break I was able to get to it in earnest.  Some observations of mine include: I’m not getting any younger!  My eyesight is worse than before, and my Optivisor is a godsend.  Without it my work might resemble a deconstructionist thing.  My thumbs have the onset of arthritis, and that hinders tool manipulation.  And I can’t sit for as long as I had.  Such as all of those are, man it is great to be working on my model again.
 
You’ll see some posts in the near future on a few things I’ve been working at:  new masts and spars; rigging blocks; the anchors; and my attempt at making throat halliard cranes from thick brass sheet.
 
And one last thing to point out.  I have been surfing through MSW in search of suggestions on different topics.  As you all know this place is amazing.  One can find any number of helpful tips.  I’ll try to note the ones which helped me in my posts, and thank everyone for contributing to community.

Hi Nils, and thank you.  I can’t believe I put this log in MSW almost 11 years ago.  Once our kids became active hobbies like this collected some dust.  I’ve begun on it again, backtracking a little bit, fixing a few things I wasn’t happy with.  Maybe more to come, here in the month(s) ahead.
 
Elia

Thanks Håkan and bigcreekdad!
 
I was sure my main top wouldn't have enough room on the aft side to have the trymast come up through it the way it is supposed to do.  I was pleasantly surprised that there was enough room, just barely.  I filed a hole in the middle of the aft end for the trymast.  (I also spy a deadeye that didn't get completely blackened).  The top looks pretty dusty!--

 
The seat for the trymast is just about done.  I may do some further shaping.  Here it is pinned temporarily to the main mast--

 
And fitting the top in place--


 
There is supposed to be a fid through the trymast into the trestle trees, and possibly a spacer block between the trymast and the mast just under the trestle trees.  I'm not sure I'm going to elect to show those.
 


 
All for now,
Ron  
 
 
 

Continuing on--
 
After all the futtock plates were made and blackened, the deadeyes were crimped back in, and being held firmly, this was a good time to refine them with the easing of the lanyard holes--

 
Next the futtock plates and deadeyes were installed on the tops.  I contemplated the light colored deadeyes, wondering if I had made a mistake to make the ones on the channels black.  But the die (dye) had been cast, and the top deadeyes were blackened (in situ) to match--

 
You can also see some blocks hanging below the tops.  You can't tell, but the outside one is single, and the inner double.  I initially had three blocks on each side and they looked too crowded together, so I eliminated the middle one on each side.  I'm not sure I can really do that though.  I'm sorting through the rigging requirements (which are overwhelming), and I think I will have to put the middle block back.  The outer blocks are needed for the spritsail, and the others for the bunt and leech lines of the yards on the mast, so four sheaves on each side needed, at least for the fore top, I believe.  I'm going to do single, single, double, on each side.  Theoretically maybe it could be double, double, but it doesn't seem right to combine the spritsail block with one for the main yard.
 
While I study rigging, and some other bits and pieces that need to be added to the tops, I'm making the trymast.  The trymast is a secondary mast on the aft side of the mainmast where hoops for the boom sail (placeholder while I look up the correct name) will travel.
 
I've got the trymast, and the start of it's support from a piece of scrap--

 
This is further shaped, and test fit to the mast--



 
The support bracket needs some support brackets of it's own.  And I have to figure out how the trymast and the top resolve themselves.
 
All for now,
Ron 
 

Thanks Ed.  Yes, my shop has grown enormously from the first days.  I cut the original masts from a billet with a jewelers saw, and spent hours (days) sanding them flat and square.  Now it's a few minutes work.  But I spend most of my time still with files, chisels, and sand paper.
 
I'm getting the fore and main tops ready.   One of the tasks is making the futtock plates for those deadeyes I showed in the last post.  I used the method described by David Antscherl in Vol. 4 of The Fully Framed Model.
 
Here is the test piece, and a bunch of square wire cut for the rest--

 
The wire I bought was supposed to be "dead soft" meaning it should be not spring back when bent, but I found I still had to heat it red hot to make it truly malleable.  The wire pieces were bent around a drill--

 
They were then silver soldered at the "bottom" end. This would allow them to be bent back apart to insert the deadeyes.  This shows a series of them ready to solder.  You can just see the dab of solder paste about halfway along each piece--
.
 
That arrangement didn't work so well.  Only three of the pieces soldered well, because when liquid, the silver followed gravity rather than the gap in the wire.
Turning the pieces this way worked better--

 
Here are some ready to be soldered, some successfully soldered and filed smooth, and some cut to length with a hole drilled for a hook--
 
 
All for now,
Ron

I thought I would share my method for making deadeyes.
 
I made a bunch a long time ago for the main and fore shrouds, and half what I needed for the topmast and topgallant backstays.  They were about 5mm and 4mm respectively.   I made them using a method described in Underhill's book, and it worked out fine.  The little jig is very fiddly to make.  The method is shown from post #184-198 in this log. 
 
However I now need 32 topmast shroud deadeyes at 3.5mm, and 12 more of the backstay deadeyes at 4mm.   Partly because of the smaller size, and partly because I have better tools now, I wanted to try something that might be more precise.
 
This first batch is the 3.5mm set.   I turned a squared piece of pear down to 3.5mm, and then scored it on the lathe with grooves for the futtock plates, and cut-very slight cut off grooves to help with parting them off with a saw.   While the dowel was still on the lathe, one by one, I smoothed and rounded the outer edge, then cut it off.  I didn't take pictures but here is the result--

 
You can see they have one smooth side, one rough side, and a groove.  (Noticeable on one of the deadeyes standing on edge.) 
 
Next I drilled a hole in a piece of scrap wood just under 2mm thick (the thickness the finished deadeye needs to be), filed the hole to to 3.5mm diameter, and glued it to another piece of scrap wood.  This has a smaller hole drilled through it centered on the larger hole--

 
A deadeye fits very snuggly in the hole, the rough side slightly proud--

 
The rough edge is filed off flush with the surface of the wood--

 
I filed the one shown below just a bit more with a smaller file after taking the photo--

 
I then marked by eye the spots for the holes to be drilled--

 
And drilled them on a mill.   I wasn't great at locating the drill precisely at the marks, so I tried drilling a couple by hand.  I could get the drill in the mark very easily that way, but at that small size, my accuracy (keeping the pin vise vertical) wasn't good enough. 

 
 After some practice with the mill, I could locate the drill above the punched markings more quickly and pretty accurately--

 
The deadeye is then pushed out from behind--

 
And the flattened surface is rounded off with a file--

 
Here are two finished--

 
It took me about 5 before they started looking good.  The first few had problems with my marking of the holes with the right spacing, as well as the stated problem with hand drilling them.   I started with one spare, so I'll ponder whether the first are okay to use, or if I have to turn a few more blanks.
 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

Thanks JJ,
 
Going off course a little bit, I worked on making some closed hearts for the bowsprit stays and shrouds--

 
I need two different sizes--4 for the stays, and 4 slightly smaller for the shrouds.  After doing a few after cutting them off, I realized it would be much easier to shape them before cutting them off--


 
Now I need to make a bunch of deadeyes for the topmast shrouds, as well as the backstays.
 
All for now,
Ron

The masts have all been shaped, and fid holes and sheave holes cut into them in various places also.  I blackened using my usual method (shown a few times earlier in this log), and here they are--

 
They are not completely finished.  Tung oil finish is only partly applied, as part of the procedure to minimize bleed of the staining.  I need to attach some eyebolts to the caps; and the shroud deadeyes and some blocks to the tops, but they can finally be temporarily assembled to see how they look--

 
And on the ship--


 
Next will be finishing those parts I mentioned earlier, and checking the deck to see if there's anything else that should be done before starting the standing rigging.   Also making the rest of the bowsprit, and the trymast that attaches to the aft side of the mainmast.  And I'm sure I'll discover additional things that should be done before the stays and shrouds go on!
 
All for now,
Ron
   

Thanks, CiscoH, Håkan, davec and JJ, and all who are looking in and liking.
 
Yes, I like the "workaday" stowed look better than perfectly coiled lines.  The inspiration came from seeing how the working carronade on the Niagara replica ship had been tied down.   There is a photo of it earlier in this log (post #116), but here it is again--

 
My take on it is a little different (simpler to accomplish), but retains the idea of wrapping the tackle falls back and forth across the top of the carronade.
 
The 6-pounder long guns have been installed--


 
Now it's time to put the ship away again--


 
And continue work on Oneida's spars--

 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

I spent the last week lashing down the carronades--


 
At the bow are the tackles for the two 6-pounder cannon, and also their breeching lines.
 
The two carriages are nearing completion here, black monofilament fishing line was used for the truck "pins"--

 
After they were finished, fitting the breeching lines was next.  One end was lashed to it's eyebolt and temporarily fixed into the bulwark.  The line was checked for length, allowing for a loop around the cascabel, and the fastening to the other eyelet--

 
The cascabel loop was temporarily tied, as well as the first lashing of the eyebolt, and the length was checked again--

 
As the first breeching line was finished, the second could be made up more quickly using the first as a guide, without needing to check it in place on the ship--

 
 
I've reached my stopping point for the day.  
 
Ron
 

Thanks, JJ.
 
Now that I have finished stropping the blocks, the ship comes out on to the table for rigging the carronades, and two 6-pounder cannon--
.
 
Tackle lines have been cut, dyed a little darker, and are in process of tying to an eyelet in one of each pair of blocks--

 
I had assembled one of the 6-pounder cannon carriages a while ago, now I need to assemble the other one, as well as finish the first with cap-squares, breeching rings and other eyelets.  I have two extra axles pieces here!--

 
All for now,
Ron 

Thanks Håkan.
 
Only a few photos today, but I'm happy to report that I worked up the motivation to finish the carronade tackle blocks.  This shows the 13 sets that were done, and last four sets (16 blocks) I still needed to do--

 
The total here is 17 sets, because one is on the already rigged carronade that has been on the ship for years.  And here they are done--

 
That was probably the least pleasant task I have had to do on the build so far (literally taking me years of off and on work), and I'm glad they are finished!  
 
And here is one of the topgallant masts roughed out, next to a topmast, and the other topgallant blank--

 
Next is rigging the carronades, and continuing work on the masts.
 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

Thanks Håkan.   I can only guess that when they were assembling that page of the book, the true scale illustration just looked too small on the page, so they enlarged it and didn't change the caption.  Who knows?!  Hopefully I will remember to always double check the illustrations.
 
I finished the trestletrees, and test fit the pieces, checking to make sure they would also fit on the topmast--

 
Then I made a rudimentary jig to hold the trestle pieces, for gluing the crosstrees.  I rarely make these kind of jigs, because I am too impatient and lazy, but it was a good idea to do this, and it only took a few minutes--


 
I ended up making deeper notches in the trestletrees, and none in the crosstrees, though you can see I had marked some, and even started to cut a couple notches in one of the crosstrees, before deciding it would be wiser to just notch the trestletrees even though not historically accurate.  I test fit the crosstrees many time, adjusting the notches in the trestle trees for depth, and to make sure the crosstrees were parallel to each other, and perpendicular to the trestletrees.  I then glued the crosstrees in--

 
The photo makes that first set of notches look very bad.  It's not so noticeable in person, but I'll fill the gaps and all will be stained black when done--

 
There is more work to do now on the topmast: filing a tenon on the end, for the cap, and angling the top of the octagonal haunch so the trestletrees sit parallel to the water line--
 

 
Now it's on to the topgallant masts.
 
Ron