Elmer Cornish

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 15a – Making Shape Scrapers
 
 
Since putting up the Victory log I’ve had a few requests for more information about the scrapers used to make moldings and block profiles, specifically about how to make them, so in response I am inserting this post into the series. If this does not answer all questions, let me know.
 
 
Using Shape Scrapers
 
Generally, I have made these as needed, without too much forethought, getting the shapes perfected by trial and error. They are easy to make and produce surprisingly good results.
 
There are a few different ways to use these, depending on what is being shaped. The pictures below illustrate some examples. In all cases multiple light cuts should be used.
 
 

 
In this picture a wide strip is being shaped for a molding. When the shaping is complete, the molding will be ripped off on the circular saw. This method assures that the molding will be of uniform thickness if more material is removed at one end or the other. Also, some moldings will not be thick enough to work with the cutter. Its best to keep the stock at almost right angles to the cutter vertically and at a right angle horizontally. More tilt over the cutting edge can be helpful at the start, but by the end of the cutting the wood should be at right angles to get the true shape from the cutter.
 
 
 

 
For shapes where the strip needs to be cut to size first, for example on blocks where all four sides need shaping, the cutter would be used this way – but hopefully more at a vertical right angle to the work. For this application the pattern should not be cut too deep in the plate, but it’s always a good idea to have enough depth to provide entry of the stock before the pattern is reached. The sides should also confine the wood so it cannot get off the track of the pattern. For blocks, the rounded vertical shape of the block can be cut into the scraper, which can be cut deep enough to reach the center of the block body. Uniformly rounded blocks can be made easily this way.
 

 
Here’s another picture where the right angle rule could use a little more application. If the pieces are short and can be accommodated in a vise, this approach works well. Here the sheave groove for a single block is being cut. Note the rounded sides on the cutter.
 

 
Simple grooves of very small size can be cut with scrapers where saw blades or files are too big. Using the clamping device in this picture as a fence allows one cutter to be used for several different groove locations by varying the distance from the cutter. The clamp is made from two pieces of 1/8” carbon steel, rounded off on their edges which a file, then drilled and tapped to take a tightening screw.
 

 
This is pretty much the collection used on Victory.
 
After scraping, avoid using sandpaper on the shapes. It will obscure the detail. A buffing with very fine steel wool or fine grade non-metallic 3M abrasive pads, will polish up the shape nicely.
 
 
 
 
Making the Cutters
 
My cutters are made from scrap pieces of 16 gauge stainless steel, only because I happened to have some. Most cutters have limited use, so they could be made from plain carbon steel or even hard brass plate.
 
If you are going to use hardened steel plate, say, for example a carbon steel saw blade, then that will need to be stress relieved to make it soft enough to cut with a saw or file. To stress relieve hardened steel, heat the piece with a torch until it is “cherry” red, then allow it to air cool. It can then be worked with files and saws. Hardened steel can be worked as is with abrasive wheels in a motor tool, but this might limit the profiles that can be made. I would recommend avoiding this by finding a piece of roughly, 16 gauge (1/16” or 2mm) plain carbon steel scrap.
 
For moldings, where the final shape can be sliced off after shaping, I would start by cutting a square slot the width of the molding, then lightly rounding the side edges of this, so the wood will slide within the sides without scraping. The pattern can then be cut on the bottom face of the slot.
 
The pattern should have crisp edges where it will be scraping away the wood. When cutting the pattern, cut at a right angle to the plate. An angled knife edge is not needed, just a sharp unrounded corner.
The pictures below show a cutter being shaped using just a jeweler’s saw. Very fine patterns can be cut with this tool tilting the blade to one side or the other. For fine detail this is the tool of choice.
 

 
Use the jeweler’s saw to cut on the pull stroke. Blades in many sizes down to the very finest are inexpensive and easily replaced when they break. Get them from a jeweler’s supplier – or even Amazon.com. A jeweler’s saw frame can be had for $20, or so, and is a good investment – for this and many other modeling tasks.
 
Where the shape requires smooth curves the pattern can be dressed up with very small files. Just be careful not to round off the cutting edges. Small files in various shapes are available from suppliers of modeler’s tools. Sharp edged files for sharpening Japanese style saws are very good for narrow slots. I usually try to avoid using files on both metal and wood because they can leave metallic smudge on the wood. Separating these uses is not always easy. I still prefer the jeweler’s saw for most of the work.
 
The best way to know if you’ve got the right shape is by trial and error. Careful marking out with a scriber is a good way to start, but I have found that sooner or later testing the width or the pattern with a piece of the wood stock will need to be done.
 

 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 15 – Deadeyes and Blocks
 
 
Deadeyes
 

 
Deadeyes were used to restrain and to put tension on various standing rigging lines. The larger deadeyes in the above picture, on the fore channel, are anchoring lower shrouds and the smaller ones are securing topmast backstays. With three holes each, a pair of deadeyes takes the strain on the shroud over six lengths of lanyard. Discounting friction, this means that pulling on the lanyard with a force of 100 pounds, puts 600 pounds of tension in the shroud. Lower shrouds were tensioned by a block and tackle attached to the burton pendants, suspended from the masthead. The tension on the shrouds thus got the benefit of the additional leverage from that tackle as well.
 
Deadeyes are simple devices, round blocks of wood grooved around their circumference. This groove was sized to take, for example a shroud on the top deadeye, and an iron ring – a deadeye chain link – on the bottom one. Each deadeye also has three lanyard holes. These three were slightly off vertical center and the holes had their edges relieved to reduce friction and wear on the lanyard by providing a rounded surface. On the model, these last two features were omitted.
 
Model deadeyes were made from boxwood. First, dowels were turned to the deadeye diameter in the lathe. After cutting grooves with a rounded tool, they were parted off using a shaped parting tool that would give them their rounded edges. They were then set up in a three jaw chuck mounted on an indexing head so that holes could be drilled precisely 120 degrees apart in the deadeye face. A picture of this process is shown below.
 

 
In this step the deadeye is setup off center of the drill by the radius of the hole location. The first hole is drilled. Then the indexing head is rotated by a number of clicks equaling 120 degrees and the next hole drilled. This is repeated and the deadeye removed from the chuck. The indexing head makes this process easy because it can be used for all deadeye sizes. Deadeyes down to 7 inch diameter, a bit more than 1/16 inch, were drilled this way – albeit with some failures at this small size. This approach resulted in very uniform deadeye holes, which is an advantage because on the ship they are all lined up next to each other for comparison.
 
Obviously a rotary index head could also be used. In the absence of either of these rather expensive tools, a jig could be made for each size with alignment holes for the drilling. Longridge describes such a device.
 
Once drilled, the deadeyes were touched up with sandpaper then dropped into a jar containing black acrylic ink. After removal from the jar they were allowed to dry thoroughly, then immersed in diluted tung oil for 24 hours. When removed they were rubbed dry, their holes cleared of any oil, and allowed to dry for a couple days. They were then treated with beeswax diluted in turpentine to make the lanyards slide more easily.
 
Dead eye chains were made from elongated loops of brass wire, silver soldered together, shaped to fit their deadeyes and then assembled into chains of the right length. These assemblies were then attached to chain plates nailed through predrilled holes the middle wale with blackened brass nails to represent bolts. Chains vary in length, getting longer toward the aft end of the channel due to the increasing rake of the shrouds. If the middle links in these three link chains are made by wrapping wire around a strip of wood, then cutting off and soldering as described in an earlier part, tapering the wood strip will yield loops of uniformly increasing size. From the resulting collection of loops, correct lengths can be selected.
 
Deadeyes in the tops were done the same way, but their chain loops were fastened to the futtock shrouds by small hooks formed from brass wire.
 
 
Blocks
 
Victory’s collection of blocks varies from 26” triple jeer blocks down to single 5” blocks for ensign halyards, with almost every size in between. The rigging schedule discussed earlier was valuable in making sure the correct blocks were selected for each line and for totaling up the numbers required. The following table was helpful in making these blocks proportionally and dimensionally correct. Its just a spreadsheet with a lot of measurement conversions based on information from Lee’s, The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860, in which he lists proportions of common blocks based on rope circumference.
 

 
This table just multiplies out all those proportions and reduces them to scale dimensions, which can be used to size the model block. So, if for example the rigging schedule calls for a fifteen inch, double block, the entry with the nearest shell length (in red) is 14.87 inches. At the bottom this gives block dimensions of .155 inch length, .109inch breadth, .097 inch width, a sheave hole diameter of .019 inch and a hole spacing of .035 inch. Blocks of this size would then be made to roughly these dimensions. Although it may seem so, this table is not about precise sizes, only about reasonably correct proportions.
 
There are of course, some “uncommon” blocks. Clue line blocks have broad upper shoulders to protect against chafing by the sails; topsail sheet blocks have a shoulder at the bottom to prevent fouling of the lift against the yard; lower single blocks on topsail yard tyes are long but of narrow width; to name a few.
 
Although it is possible to put sheaves in the larger blocks at this scale, I decided not to do this, since the sheaves would be mostly hidden by rope. So, all blocks are merely drilled to simulate sheaves.
 
To make the blocks, strips of boxwood were ripped to the width and breadth dimensions. Grooves for the sheave holes and for the groove on the sides to hold the strap were scored down the strip with formed scraper cutters. A picture of one of these cutters with some blocks and a finished strip is shone below.
 

 
The picture below shows some leftover unused strips at different stages.
 

 
In this picture the top strip has been scored on all four sides. The next one down has had spacing holes drilled along the side face. These are spaced using the calibrated wheel on the milling machine cross feed. The purpose of these holes is to accurately define the length of the block and to provide a small groove at the top and bottom to help seat the strap. The strip is then rotated in the machine and the top and bottom rope holes are drilled in the grooves at the correct spacing, again using the cross feed wheel calibrations. The fourth strip shows some of these holes on a strip that has also had some additional work. The last strip shows some of the first shaping. This is done with files as shown below.
 
 

 
First, small v-grooves are cut around the circumference of the strip with a triangular file at the location of the side holes to define the top and bottom of the block. The rounded shape is then filed on each block, which is then parted off with a fine saw and given some final sanding to remove burrs and polish the block. No further finish was applied to these. After this, the blocks were strung up on wire and placed in labeled cardstock holders as shown below.
 

 
Here are a few pictures showing some of the different blocks on the model.
 

 
This picture shows blocks at the end of a lower yard. The large topsail sheet block has the shoulder described earlier. It is in a strap with a loop at the bottom to go over the yard end and has a smaller block for the yard lift seized in the same strap. The brace block has not yet been rigged. It is connected through two loops so it rotate freely. Most of the blocks were attached before the yards were installed.

 
Several pairs of blocks are strapped over the bolster at the top of the lower masts. The yard lifts are connected to an eye in the strap of a block, run out the yardarm then come back up through the block and run down to the deck. Another similar pair guides rigging from above through “lubbers hole” in the maintop down to the deck. A lot of smaller rigging for the upper yards is rigged through blocks in the top. The larger unrigged block strapped to the masthead will soon take the main topmast stay.
 

 
The largest blocks on the ship are the jeer blocks for raising and lowering the fore and main lower yards. They are 26” long, a double and a triple. The upper jeer blocks are suspended by double straps, which are secured to the masthead by several turns of lashing. The lower ones have double straps looped around the yard inside the sling cleats. All these large straps are served. At the bottom of the yard, just outside the sling cleats is a clue line block with shouldered sides described earlier. A dozen small blocks are suspended under the top to guide buntlines, leechlines and spritsail braces from forward to the aft side of the mast and down to the bitts forward of the waist.
 
The next part will continue the discussion of rigging.
 
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 14 – Serving Rope
Posted to MSW 8/29/10
 
 
Some of the very first lines to be rigged required serving. Creating served lines on the model is simplified from what was done in real practice. Standing rigging that was subject to wear from rubbing or required additional protection was wormed, parceled and served. Worming refers to wrapping a rope of smaller size into the grooves in the main strands of the rope. The only lines on the Victory model that were wormed were the anchor hawsers and the mainstay. Others were too small for this. The next step, parceling, involved wrapping the wormed rope with tarred flannel – like tape. None of this was done on the model. Finally, the wormed and parceled rope was served. This involved wrapping it tightly around its circumference with small sized yarn. Many lines on the victory model were served – stays, lower and topmast shrouds, stay collars and all but the smallest that were specified for the treatment in the rigging schedule. None but the largest block beckets were served.
 
The Serving Machine
 
Some sort of device is needed to facilitate the serving process. Below is a picture of the machine I made for this. The basic principle of this machine is that a rope stretched and clamped between the two lower shafts, would be rotated in the same direction and at the same rate from both ends to avoid twisting the rope. Fine thread could then be closely and uniformly wrapped around the rope from a spool as the rope was turned.
 
 

 
This is a closer view of the internals of the head end of the machine. A crank turns the shaft with the larger gear. This shaft is connected by a thick wire jackshaft to a large gear of the same diameter at the other end. These two gears rotating at the same speed drive smaller gears at each end on shafts to which rope is clamped. One turn of the crank gives, I think, three turns to the rope. Rope is held at the end of the shaft by jaws formed at the ends. The jaws are made tight on the rope by a threaded collar with a screw, which is slid forward. The screw is then tightened to hold the rope on the shaft centerline. At the other end, after clamping, the rope is pulled tight by sliding the shaft at that end backwards. With the right tightness on the gear set screw this can be done without having to tighten the set screw every time. Only enough tension is needed to keep the rope reasonably taut.
 

 
The serving yarn used was very fine cotton thread. The spool was given its own shaft so it can unwind as needed.
 

 
The Process
 
First, the portion of a line to be served was marked out with a white chalk pencil. Often this was done by putting the line in place on the ship to get this right. Small sewing needles are passed through the rope between the strands at each ends of the area to be served. The rope is then clamped into the machine, which was clamped in a vise. This is shown below in the following demonstration.
 

 
The end of the thread from the spool is then passed through the needle at the right hand end. It is then pulled through the rope and the needle is set aside.
 

 
After being passed through the rope the thread is passed through the eye of the second needle and that needle is pulled through to a point where the thread is close, but not yet into the rope. The purpose of this is to keep the thread alongside the rope for the first part of the serving process. This is shown below.
 

 
The next picture shows serving in process. The crank is turned so the thread gets laid over the top of the rope where it can be seen better. This helps assure that the turns are tight up against each other.
 

 
After about ten or fifteen turns, the crank is stopped and the thread that runs along the rope to the other end is clipped off with small scissors as shown below. That end of the thread is now securely fixed under the first turns, leaving a nice neat beginning to the served portion.
 
 

 
The serving then continues right up to the second needle at which time the thread is cut off as shown below, while maintaining a hold on the thread.
 

 
The loose end is then passed through the eye of this needle and pulled through. It is then clipped off. The fully served line is shown below before being removed from the machine. I usually wait for the line to be installed before clipping this right up close. At that point the line is taut and in position, so it’s safe to put a tiny drop of CA on this end before that final clipping off.
 

 
Eye splices were served by marking out just the loop of the eye itself. The needles were set at these points as above and the area between them was served exactly as above. Then the line was removed from the machine and the eye splice made. I will describe how this was done later. A needle was placed at the end of the area to be served below the eye. The eye itself was then clamped in the machine and the thread was tied to the bottom of the eye loop. The line was served up to the needle and finished off the same way.
 
Where needed on stays, a mouse was formed in the serving machine in a much simpler way than the original. Thread was fastened at the mouse location and a bump was built up in the shape of a mouse by winding the thread over itself and touching it with a small drop of CA a couple times as it built up in diameter and shape. It was finished off with a clove hitch to secure the end of the thread.
 
In the next part, I will describe how blocks and deadeyes were made.
 
 
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 13 – Ropemaking
Posted to MSW 8/28/10
 
There is a lot of rope needed to rig Victory, even without the rigging for the staysails, jibs, and studding sails, which as mentioned earlier were not modeled because without sails this is not practical. The rope ranges in size from the 27” circumference (9” diameter) anchor hawsers, down to 1” for flag halyards. All rope size is designated by circumference and I will refer to sizes on the model this way, using full scale measure. The picture below illustrates some of this diversity of sizes and types.
 
 

 
The largest line in the picture is the forestay, which is in a loop around the dense stack of shrouds above the foretop. This rope is 18 ½” in circumference. It has a bump in it called a “mouse”, which stops an eye splice. The stay is “served,” that is, wrapped with yarn, in this case very fine thread, from below the mouse around the masthead down to and including the eye splice. The smallest lines are the ratlines which are 1 ½” in circumference and tied around each of the shrouds with a clove hitch. The shrouds are 11” left handed, four strand cables, in pairs looped over the masthead. They are served from the masthead down below the height of the main yard. The first shroud on each lower mast is served over its full length. The sheets, which took the stress from the lower corners of the sails were among the largest lines in the running rigging. The end of the fore topsail sheets were 8” hemp. In this picture they rise up from blocks at the end of the yard where, in the absence of sails they are connected by a seized overhand knot through a loop of rope to the twin eyes of the clue line blocks, waiting for some miniature foretopman to untie them and make them fast to the corner of the foretopsail. . The standing rigging is black and the running rigging is hemp colored. The variety and complexity of all this adds a lot of interest to the model – and the modelmaking.
 
The Ropemaking Machine
 
 
Ropes down to 4 1/2” were made on a ropemaking machine, or model ropewalk, from small size linen thread. Sizes below 4 ½” were of mercerized cotton polyester thread. I will say more about this sizing and thread selection later, but first I will focus on the ropemaking machine itself. Longridge does a good job describing the ropemaking process and the machine needed and I have seen several good articles on this as well. I will describe what I did. Below is a picture of the heart of this machine.
 

 
You can see from this that I was robbing my kids’ toy chest in making this. First, the bed of the machine is a 2X4 about 10 feet long into which two slots were routed lengthwise to take two 1/8’ wide rails. At each end of this there is a sturdy pylon with adjustable eyebolts that stretch a strong steel wire taut about a foot above the bed. The rails carry the Lego cart, which holds one end of the rope strands in a spinning hook. This cart moves forward toward the headpiece as the rope is being twisted up. The “high wire” supports a rolling device that holds a slotted mandrel to keep the strands separate and feed them into the forming rope. The string trailing behind the cart drops over the other end of the 2X4 and has small weights attached. These weights put tension on the strands to keep the strands from tangling together. They also resist forward movement of the cart to give proper tension in the rope as it is made.
 
The headpiece component, shown closer below, consists of a central large gear with four planetary gears each with an extended shaft fitted with a stiff steel wire hook.
 
 

 
The central shaft has a hand crank and is fitted with a timing belt sheave for connection to a motor drive. This drive (not shown) is made from an old sewing machine motor with an adjustable speed foot pedal. It can be attached differently to yield right or left hand rope by reversing the direction of rotation. Either three or four strands can be tied to the planetary gear shafts to make three or four strand rope.
 
To make this machine, two aluminum plates were marked out and drilled accurately in a drill press to take the five shaft bearings at the right centers for the five gears. The gears are delrin on brass shafts and the bearings are brass sleeve thrust bearings. The two plates are spaced with shimmed wood blocks and bolted securely. The center gear is larger, I think 3:1, so, one turn of the crank gives three turns to the driven shafts. This assembly is securely bolted to the end of the 2X4. The last key component, and in some ways the most critical to getting good results is shown below.
 
 

 
On the cart are two hooks, one for large and one for small rope. These need to be as free turning as possible. This helps get the twisting up started and keeps it going at a uniform rate. For very small work friction can be a problem. The small hook, made from a round-headed pin, is used for most of the rope. To the right is the mandrel, a smooth piece of wood shaped to a bullet point with four evenly spaced grooves around its circumference. These grooves come to a point allowing the strands to converge freely together when being twisted. I used the four-slotted mandrel to make all rope. An interchangeable three slotted version was made and is better for three stranded rope, but I seldom took the time to change them out.
 
 
Making Rope
 
Even with all this apparatus, I found that making small ropes is still an art form as opposed to a scientific repeatable process, especially in the small sizes. I will outline the steps and highlight the critical factors involved in getting successful results, but this is very much a trial and error, learn as you go process.
 
First, a strand of linen thread is tied to the hook on one of the four shafts on the headpiece. I will discuss thread selection and size later. The cart is moved about seven or eight feet back and the other end of the thread is tied to the hook on the cart. The cart is then pulled back to put enough tension on the strand to make it straight and held in place with spring clamps placed in front of the front wheels. If four strand rope were being made I would loop the strand through the hook and take it back and tie it off to another on of the four shafts. Then a second strand is tied to one of the four shafts and taken through the hook and back to the headpiece where it is tied to another hook, trying to make the tension in all the strands as even as possible. Equal strand tension is the critical factor in this step.
 
Next the three (or four) strands are distributed into the grooves of the mandrel, which is brought up to within an inch or so of the hook on the cart. It is important in this step that the height of the mandrel is the same as the hook.
 
The crank is then turned by hand, or more normally, by the motor to start twisting the strands. Depending on the direction of turning, the linen strands may at first unwind before starting to twist up. Note that the clamps are still holding the cart. As the strands begin to twist and tension builds, the rear wheels of the cart will begin to lift. At this point the motor is stopped and the clamps removed. The tension on the weighted string at the back of the cart now becomes the critical factor. If weighted correctly, when the motor restarts the strands will continue to twist and the cart will soon begin moving toward the headpiece. Rope will begin forming between the cart hook and the mandrel, which will move toward the headpiece at a faster rate than the cart.
 
When the mandrel reaches the headpiece, it is swung aside. The rope will now be about four to five feet long. feet long – 65 to 80 fathoms in real length. The rope end is held between two fingers and the strands are clipped off the hooks. A knot is then made in the rope end and the rope is tied to one of the four hooks. The hook on the cart is then stopped from rotating with a clamp and the motor is run again. This process tightens up the rope.
 
The motor is then stopped and the rope is grasped at the cart end and pulled taut to help lock the rope fibers. It is then disengaged from the cart and pulled harder to tighten it further. It will stretch, but if it breaks you’ve pulled too hard. The rope is now made and stretched and can be removed from the machine. It will not unwind. It is now ready for the final step, coloring.
 
Standing rigging was black and running rigging hemp colored. Right after the rope was made, it was dyed in one of these colors, stretched to wring it out, and hung up to dry. When dry it was stretched again, re-dyed and dried again if needed, and wound onto a labeled bobbin. Rope was dyed black with a diluted acrylic liquid artists color. Hemp coloring was mixed from acrylic designers guache then diluted. Acrylic artists colors are made from finely ground pigments, so unlike dye, they will not fade. With the diluted mixtures there is no noticeable stiffness in the rope from the acrylic polymer. Both colors were diluted enough so that the rope would show some contrast, with the crevices being darker. Black is not black black. Same with the hemp. Where thread alone was used, colors were selected to be close to the linen dyed hemp. The black thread is black black.
 
 
 
Rope Sizes
 
 
I used primarily two sizes of linen to make all the rope. Other materials could be used and I made some nice rope with other materials – cotton, polyester, etc. I was concerned about stretching, but after a couple years there has been none on the made rope or even on the plain thread that was used for smaller sizes. Based on this I would consider using other materials if doing this again, mainly because linen thread, even the higher quality type I used, has imperfections – bumps – which sometimes show up in rope. Below is a picture of some of the leftover linen rope.
 

 
In this picture, on the end of one of the bobbins, you can see information about the rope on that spool – number of strands of which thread, right or left hand, and size. Here is a close up of some of the hemp rope.
 

 
With only two sizes of thread, there were limits to the sizes of rope that could be made. The variables were, number of strands, size of thread, number of threads in a strand. The smallest made rope was 4 1/2” and was made from only two strands of the finest thread (1684). To set the sizes, rope was made by all the different combinations available, then each was measured with a micrometer and each size needed was assigned the nearest combination. The card below shows the assignments for the smaller sizes.
 

 
This card was used throughout the rigging process to select the best size match for each rigging line. Below 4 ½” there are merely thread types, with their diameters. The larger sizes show the number of strands of which linen thread. The above sizes make up the bulk of the rope needed. Sizes above 9” were were listed on another sheet and made to size with more or bigger thread.
 
In the next part I will discuss serving and the serving machine.
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory1:96 Scratchbuild Project

Part 12 – Masts, Spars and Rigging 1

 
 

Rigging Overview

 
Before beginning the rigging, a number of questions had to be answered about the extent of rigging to be modeled.  First was the question of sails.  I knew I did not want to model sails, even though they provide an opportunity to model a lot of very interesting rigging features.  Having decided against them, some rigging could simply not be modeled effectively, for example, staysail halyards and sheets.  Beyond this type of rigging on staysails, jibs and studdingsails, I decided to model everything else on the rigging list.  This list can be found in Steele’s Elements of Mastmaking, Sailmaking and Rigging and is duplicated for Victory in John McKay’s book in the Anatomy of the Ship series.
 

 
 
As shown partly in the picture above, Victory’s rigging consists of hundreds of lines of many different sizes.  Some are right hand three strand hawser laid, some are four-strand left hand cable laid, with several varieties in between.  Each line has a variety of blocks, deadeyes, hooks, etc. associated with it.  Each line has a specified length and some are deceiving, introducing the possibility of coming up short after putting a lot of work into a line.  All this information is included in Steele’s for each class of ship and in McKay for Victory.  To make the use of this information easier, I made an Excel spreadsheet, specific to Victory to make all this information usable, to help total up numbers of parts, rope lengths, types and treatment and to provide a checklist where fabrication and erection of each item could be checked off.  This was an invaluable aid and a constant fixture on the workbench for years.  A sample page from this 20-page document is shown below.
 
 
 

 
Longridge was the other indispensable resource.  His book covers every single item of rigging in a simple ‘how to do it’ style.  Other important references I used were the McKay book and James Lees, Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860.
 
The order of rigging is often discussed.  I followed three simple rules in the following order.  First, fore to aft.  Second, bottom to top.  Third, standing then running.  I applied this approach to masts and spars along with the rigging, because so much rigging is attached to these before erection.  So, for example, the main topgallant lifts were made and installed before the lower mizzen mast.  Mixing the work between spars, rigging and other items like the tops and cross trees also helped relieve potential tedium.  This approach worked well with only a few awkward situations.  These were overcome with some good long tweezers, surgical clamps, long curved needles and a dose of patience.
 
Materials need to be decided.  I elected to make all the masts, tops, cross trees, caps, parrals, blocks, deadeyes, and most other accessories from boxwood.  Yards, except for the lower studdingsail booms were made from Gabon Ebony.  In larger sizes, 4 ½” circumference and above, rope was twisted up on a ropemaking machine from fine linen thread, three or four strand, right or left hand as required, if doable at the scale.  There is actually a lot of two-strand made rope on the model, because it looks better than plain thread.  Plain thread, mostly mercerized cotton polyester was used for the smaller sizes.  The smallest cotton thread I could find was used for serving.  Later, I will describe two machines that were made to: 1) make rope, and 2) serve rope.
 
 
Shaping Masts and Spars
 
Almost all of the masts and spars have some variation of diameter over their length, for example yards are tapered from the center out.  Most have either an octagonal or square section somewhere along their length or a combination of the two, for example, topmasts have a square of octagonal shape at the bottom, a flared octagonal shape under the cross trees and a tapered square section at the top.  For these reasons all these pieces were made by hand.  The process is simple and widely used, but I will describe it for those who may not have had a chance to try it yet.
 
First, a straight, straight-grained piece of wood, in my case this was box or ebony, is cut square on the circular saw to slightly over the final maximum dimensions.  This is then planed down square to the maximum diameter of over its full length.  The ends are then center-marked with a cross at the center of the breadth and width (not corner to corner).  Keeping these marks in the center of each side as the work proceeds  is important to assure that the finished spar is straight.  The squared-off blank is then marked at points of decreasing thickness, or at points where it transitions in shape, along its length.  The square is then shaped on all four sides down to these dimensions at these points, always making sure the center marks at the ends remain centered.  The spar is then placed in a v-shaped groove in a jig rotated so one of the corner edges faces up.  Using a small plane, scaper blade or files, that corner is taken down to the correct final dimension.  Doing this to all four corners yields an octagonal shape.  These tools Tools used for this and three sizes of jig are pictured below.  The plane blades are kept very sharp and only fine shavings are taken.  The rectangular scraper blade is a type commonly used in furniture making.  The scaper edge is filed square, then honed square on a flat fine sharpening stone.  I use a soft Arkansas stone for this.  A burnishing tool, consisting of a polished hardened steel rod is then used to form a small curl on the edge of the blade.  This curl does the scraping.
 
 

 
In the next steps the eight new corners of the round sections are taken down to yield sixteen faces and corners continue to be taken off until the final round shape is reached.  Some sections are left square, others octagonal.  The transitions are then worked with a file, the spar cut to length, other details added, and finally polished ready for rigging out and installing.  All masts and spars were made this way.
 
 
Lower Mast Cheeks
 
Making the lower mast cheeks presents an interesting problem.  The inside of the cheeks for the model are made concave to fit snuggly on the mast.  There is one for each side of the lower masts and a rectangular section at the top on which the beams of the top platform rest.  The cheeks taper to a narrowed shape, fore and aft, at their lower ends, and also in the side direction.   They were formed in one piece, turned to shape.  The fore and aft narrowing was planed off after turning.    Following is the process used, essentially as proposed by Longridge.  The lower main mast with its cheeks installed, with the framing for the top in place, is shown below.
 

 
The cheeks on either side of the mast and the rectangular section at the top were made from a single piece of boxwood slightly longer than the length of the cheeks, squared to a dimension slightly larger than the top rectangular section.  A long hole is bored down the center of this piece lengthwise to the diameter of the mast in this area.  For my model this was 3/8” for the fore and main, and 24” for the mizzen.   This was a convenient coincidence that allowed me to drill these with long brad point drills of those sizes.  The resulting piece was then put over a mandrel of the same dimension as the hole (a medium tight fit is desired).  The mandrel was then set up between centers in the lathe, as shown below, and the piece turned down to the shape of the cheeks.
 

 
The cheeks get very thin towards their bottoms, so very light cuts must be taken in the lathe, or the problem shown below is likely to result.  This process wastes a lot of costly boxwood even when successful, so breaking the parts adds insult to injury.
 
 

 
When the pieces are finished turning, they are planed down on the fore and aft faces to yield the shape of the cheeks.  These parts will fit neatly over the mast, as shown in the picture below.
 
 

 
The cheeks are fit temporarily in this picture.  Before final attachment, metal rings needed to be formed, soldered, blackened and fixed on to the mast under the cheeks.  After the cheeks are installed others are fit over it.  In my case these rings were thin enough to fit under the cheeks without causing a gap to show.  The joints in the rings were hidden under the rubbing paunch, a timber that fits on the front of the lower mast.  The finished lower foremast is shown below.
 
 

 
Iwill not discuss the making of spars any further, but if there are questions, please ask them and I will be glad to discuss those issues further.  I will add a few more pictures to show some of this work.
 
 

 
The above picture shows stiffeners being added to the top decking of the main top.  These structures were very lightweight, basically just crossed members of thin planking on a grid of four horizontal crossed timbers.  The seams in the planking are black paper.  The side rails are slotted to take the topmast deadeye chains.  Rounded bolsters are placed on either side of the lower mast open to prevent chafing of the shrouds.  Another timber across the back wil be drilled for handrail stanchions.
 
 
 

 
Above is the parral holding the spritsail yard to the bowsprit.  These were fitted to all but the lower yards and allowed the yard to be raised, lowered, and rotated easily.  The wheels for these very small working parts were turned from boxwood and drilled in the lathe before parting off.  The trucks were shaped and drilled in a thick piece, then sliced off on the circular saw to assure a similar shape to all the pieces. They are then held together and bound around the mast  by rope. Note the center section of the spritsail yard is octagonal in shape. This was true of all yards.  The multi sided polygonal shape can still be seen on the round part of the bowsprit above the parral.  The iron ring just above the parral is a part of the traveler for the jib.  The knotted ropes in these pictures are the horses for the jib boom and the yard.  These were of the smallest made rope on the ship and have only two strands – a modeling configuration only.
 
 

 
Above is the finished fore top.  The holes through the aft hand rail and the lower horizontal piece were drilled through one piece, which was then slit into the two parts.  This assured perfect alignment of the holes so the rail stanchions would be vertical and parallel.  The toggles on the decking between stiffeners support rigging blocks suspended below the top.  These were all put on before installation of the top itself.  The vertical battens around the square top section of the lower mast fit over the square iron straps and to absorb the rubbing of the lower shrouds.  The two pair of burton pendants have been lashed together and put over the mast to be following later by the paired shrouds.  The cap on top of the mast has a bolster on top with round grooves for slings, which will be put on later.
 
 
 

 
Above are the finished fore crosstrees.  Note the sheave in the bottom octagonal section of the fore topgallant mast.  This was provided for raising and lowering the mast into position – a frequent activity at sea.  The hole in the cap and the square opening in the cros trees were just large enough to allow the mast, including its flared out section at the top to be dropped when a supporting fid, just visible at the bottom of the lower square section, was removed. 
 
In the next section I will discuss rope-making and ropemaking machinery.
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 11 – Gunport Doors and Quarter Galleries
Posted to MSW 8/24/10.
 
 
The topics covered in this part are both somewhat out of sequence. I was going to cover the gun doors last because installing them was the very last task in completing the model. This was left till last to avoid the mass of rigging lines getting fouled with the doors, having to be untangled, or worse, breaking a door. However, some interest was expressed in this, so I have moved it up in the sequence.
 
Interest has also been expressed in the quarter galleries so I have added them to this part. They were built when the planking and details on the sides were done. Some of their construction was similar to what I described in the section on the stern galleries, some had other issues.
 
The Gun Doors
 

 
Although in this picture there is a bit of overexposure on the tops of the doors, they were planked on their outer face with the same boxwood and cherry as their surrounding planking. In fact, when closed the doors would match their surroundings, thicker if cutting a wale or the black strake just above the main wale, as seen in this picture, and of the same wood.
 
Making the doors was pretty straightforward. They consist of two layers of plank set at opposed angles. On the model the inside layer was cut from a single piece of cherry, 1/32” in thickness. The sides of the ports are vertical, since they are flanked by the frame timbers. The sills and lintels parallel the respective gun decks, so some of the ports have a slight trapezoidal shape, more at the fore and aft ends of the ship. Note that they do not parallel the sheer. This means that the outside planks of the door will sometimes be at an angle to the sills, where the sheer is more pronounced compared to the deck line. To get this correct the cherry inside blank was fitted to the port and marked at the planking seams on each side. Planks of the appropriate thickness and wood type were then glued on so their seams would match the marks. Excess at the sides was then trimmed off. The door in the picture below, which somehow got mislaid during construction, shows this slant in the planking and the difference in thickness and wood.
 

 
This picture also shows the closed vent opening, which was a feature of the lower gundeck doors, and the somewhat crudely made horseshoe hinge for this. The hinge was made by elongating a ring of the type cut for ringbolts and flattening it with a hammer. It was then glued on with CA. The other items in this picture are the very small eyebolts which were fitted at the bottom edge of the doors both top and bottom. These were formed from brass wire with a pair of small needle nose pliers which had been ground down at the ends to a small point. I will show these pliers later in the rigging discussion. Four of these were inserted in holes after the hinges were installed and glued with CA. I discussed making an applicator for very small drops of CA in a previous section.
 
Finally there are the hinges. One is shown at the lower right in the above picture. Two are shown on the doors after bending their profile to fit the wood thickness. They are attached by two small brass nails each, and further secured at the ends with the top eyebolts.]
 
The Hinges
 
Proportionality in the hinge detail was the principle factor in making these. This out weighed any thought of making working hinges at this scale, so a dummy hinge that would look like the original was adopted. The hinges were made by taking a strip of brass plate, the thickness of the hinge and about 1” wide by a couple inches long. A piece of straight brass wire was then silver soldered down the length of this strip at its center. The strip was then clamped firmly on top of a block of wood and the hinges were sawed off to the correct width. The resulting hinge blanks are shown below.
 
 

 
The hinges could be sawed manually, but I used a thin saw blade set up in the milling machine to slice these off. This assured the exact same width and minimized cleanup of the sawn edges. The three holes were then drilled in each hinge. A small drilling jig was made so these holes would all be spaced uniformily. The blanks above have had their first hole drilled and the finished hinge at the bottom has its final three holes and has been blackened. This hinge has also been filed down in size on the portion that will fit into a hole in the side of the ship. These holes were made small so they would not be visible when the doors were pushed in. The holes were spotted for drilling on the side using the final assembled door for that port as a marking guide. The picture below shows some more doors and the underside eyebolts. Note that the ports in the waist do not have doors.
 
 

 
 
Gun Door Lift Tackle
 
Making and installing the rope lifts to raise the doors presented the interesting problem of how to fasten the ropes inside the hull. The two lower deck aft chase ports under the wing transom were done simply by pushing line into holes and grasping the line inside with tweezers, then tying the two inside ends together, pulling the line out and tying it to the top door eyebolts. This would not work for the side ports for a number of reasons so another solution was needed.
 
The sleeves on the real ship protrude a bit from the side. They were probably lead liners through holes into the gundecks, where the tackles would be suspended from the beams. All I needed to do was simulate the sleeves and secure the lines inside. This was done by making small boxwood sleeves. These are about the size of the sleeves on the real ship and have a hole drilled through them just large enough to take the lift line. Below is a picture of some leftover sleeves and a piece of blank from which they were cut.
 

 
 
The sleeves were made by drawing strips of boxwood down to the outer diameter of the sleeve to form a long thin dowel. A drilling guide was then made with a hole through it the size of the sleeve. This guide was then secured in the cross feed of the Unimat. Actually, the guide was secured first, so the hole would be exactly centered in the lathe. The drawn boxwood dowel was then placed in the three jaw centering chuck in the lathe. The tool rest was moved toward the headstock to bring the dowel to the front face of the guide.
 
 

 
In this operation, the hole through the guide, which just fits the boxwood dowel, keeps the spinning dowel centered for drilling. The small drill bit in the headstock was allowed to protrude only enough to drill one sleeve. This reduces drill wandering in the hole. To drill a hole, the tool rest was backed toward the headstock until the dowel was even with the face of the guide. The tailstock was then advanced with its handwheel to drill the hole and then pulled back. The picture below shows the next step.
 

 
In this picture I am showing how a sleeve was parted off after drilling using a razor blade in a slot set back from the face of the guide by the length of the sleeve. Very gentle pressure is used with the lathe turning. It is very easy to crush these small blanks. When the sleeve was cut through the tool rest was moved toward the headstock and the finished sleeve pushed out. The next sleeve was then ready for drilling. A razor blade was used for this because even the finest saw I had fractured the fragile sleeves.
 
To install the sleeves and the line, holes were drilled in the side of the ship above the hinge holes. These holes, of course, matched the diameter of the sleeve. The line was then pulled through the sleeve and knotted on the inside end so it would not pull out. The sleeve was then dipped in Titebond glue and inserted into the hole. Later when the glue was set, the doors were inserted and positioned and the lines were tied to the door eyebolts, with proper tension on the line to maintain the door height.
 
The picture below shows some more doors, including the vertical opening bridle port doors doors of the infirmary on the middle deck.
 

 
Quarter Galleries
 
 

 
The main issue I had in making the quarter galleries was the overall shape. The drawings I had were not overly detailed, and although I used a very simple underlying structure for these, a number of factors affect their final alignment and appearance. The slight s-shape vertical curve of the hull combined with the slant and step tiered construction of the three levels makes the galleries a bit hard to visualize and depending on the view point they may look correct or incorrect because of these factors. Also, the outward curvature of the rail structure affects the window slant and to some degree where the columns between the windows end up if the parallel window geometry is maintained. The best advice I can give about these is to get the best set of horizontal rail profiles and fore and aft vertical sections of these that you can find. I have mixed feelings about my final results with these, but these were not negative enough to redo them.
 
 

 
This picture was taken during construction of the starboard galleries. Curved sections of rail were cut to shape and moldings were scraped on the outer edges with molding scrapers. These were made heavy enough to provide the underlying structure of the gallery. They are held in place with pegs and glue. Curve sections of thick cherry were then shaped and inserted between the rail sections. The balusters were carved in exactly the way described for the stern galleries, except that these balusters are slanted backwards and inwards along the rail, with the slant being more pronounced at the fore end. The picture below shows the slant of these balusters.
 

 
This picture also shows the slant of the window columns, which were held nearly parallel with each other, with their bottoms and tops being set back by the same amount where they meet the rail. Finally the window frames and mullions were installed in much the same way as the stern galleries, except that with a lot more slant, the interlocking notches needed to be cut on angles.
 
The above picture shows the alignment of the galleries. Its close the original, but but perhaps not perfectly matched. I’ll let the reader judge. The following picture has been mirrored to align with the picture above. It is actually of the starboard gallery. It is taken from a lower angle than the above picture and from further astern.
 

 
I believe the way is now clear to move on the masting and rigging and I will start that in the next part.
 
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 10 – Deck Details 3
 
 
Ships Boats
 
The ships boats are prominently displayed on supports on the skid beams in the waist, and for whatever reason, the eye seems to be drawn directly to them when looking at the finished model. For years I was aware that they had to be modeled very well, but was stumped for a good process. I spent a lot of time over the years thinking about the inevitable task of building these. Finally a couple years ago, it could be put off no longer. I had a process in mind and in the end I was quite satisfied with the results. Before wading through the details I will show a picture of the finished product.
 

 
These are only two of the traditionally modeled five. I actually made three, the thirty-four foot launch, the thirty-two foot barge, and the twenty-eight foot pinnace. Only the latter two were installed, mainly because I did not want to completely obscure the view into the waist. The boats are made with scale thickness boxwood planking, cherry frames, stem and keel, and boxwood internals (seats, flooring, oars, etc.). The boats are carvel built, meaning the planks are butted together, not overlapped.
 
The following image is of the 34 foot launch from John McKay’s Anatomy of the Ship Series on the Victory. Many sources of drawings for these boats are available in various books. This one shows the hull profile with frame lines, a body plan and other necessary details. I scanned the image, resized it to my scale and made some modifications which are shown in the next diagram.
 

 
In the diagram below the image has been split, flipped and re assembled so that all the aft and forward frames are on their own single view. Below the aft frames are on top. In addition, a rectangular box was put around each of these plans. The height of these boxes is the same distance above the top of keel in both images. These boxes define the size of the rectangle of wood from which each frame will be cut.
 

 
First, multiple copies of these were made, enough so that a frame could be cut from each. They were then pasted on to cherry squares the thickness of the boats frames, about 3” (1/32”). The external shape only of each frame was cut out, leaving the top and sides of the rectangle intact above the gunwale on each. The top of the wood was held precisely to the top line. This would become a datum line on which the framing would be setup for assembly and planking. The next two pictures, taken during the planking process for this boat, show how these frames were setup, upside down, on a block of wood for assembly and planking.
 

 
First the frame bulkheads are glued upside down onto a block of wood. They are kept aligned with two strips along the sides. Their spacing was matched to the profile drawing. The boxwood transom was then cutout (from the last aft pattern) and glued in place, along with the keel and stem assembly.
 
 

 
Boxwood planks, 1/64 ‘ thick and 1/32” wide were then cut and fit into place. A lot of clamping was needed to hold these tight against their neighbors so no gaps would appear. The gunwales were put on early in this process so the planks would end up parallel to it at the top. Stealers were used to bring these planks up fair. This process was described earlier in the section on the planking of the main hull.
 
Unfortunately I have no pictures of the final steps, but once all the planking is done up to the gunwale, the boat is sawed off the frame bulkheads just above (ie below) the gunwale and detached from the wood block. The bulkheads were trimmed down the correct height at the gunwale and were then hollowed out to their final moulded breadth inside the hull. This was done with small chisels. A rotary tool could be used if handled very carefully. It is very easy to split the fragile frames, or worse, gouge through the hull. If done carefully with a very sharp tool, the frames can be reduced to a scale moulded breadth.
 

 
The above picture shows the finished hull planking on the launch and the last picture is a closeup of the interior of the 28 foot pinnace taken during the rigging of the ship.
 

 
The oars were made from boxwood drawn down to about .020” in the treenail drawplate. They were then steamed until soft. The blades were then formed by rolling the ends flat and wider, being careful not to oversquash them. When dry the flat ends were impregnated with CA.
 
In the next part, before going on to the masting and rigging, I will cover the very last task done before completion of the model, which was the making of the gunport doors, their hinges and their rigging. These were left until after the rigging was complete so they would not be ripped off by the tangles of rope during during that process. I will then plunge into the rigging.
 
Cheers,
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 9 – Deck Details 2
 
In this part I will focus on four modeling processes – the hammock nettings, the ships wheel, the lanterns and the anchors.
 
 
Hammock Nettings
 
Victory had hammock nettings on just about every rail, perhaps because they had to accommodate the hammock bags of 800 crew, but also, I am sure, because the more protection from flying fragments or splinters in battle the better. Anyway, there are a lot of them. They are of different sizes and those along the poop deck rail are tapered, being shorter at the aft end. If you look at pictures of the real ship, these nettings droop and sag as you would expect rope netting to do, so using rigid screen, for example, was out of the question. The method I used was to weave fine cotton thread on a 6” mesh grid to fit the shape of each of the sections of netting, then fasten these to the ironwork u-shaped hammock cranes that were fashioned from brass wire soldered together.
 
The hammock cranes were straightforward. On the real ship they were square, but because of the scale, I simply used stiff brass wire. This was bent into the u-shapes and a short piece was soldered to the bottom for insertion into the rail. Then longitudinal lengths of wire were soldered on at the tops to tie them together and provide support to which the netting could be lashed. Short pieces of wire were soldered across, between the tops of each crane. These assemblies were trial fit into place on the rails before adding the netting.
 
The nettings were a more difficult problem, though once solved the only issue was the tedious job of making them. First, a CAD drawing was made of the layout of each unique section of netting. An example for two of the sections is shown below.
 

 
On this drawing the diagonal lines are spaced 6” (1/16”) apart and the boundary of the net is drawn on this grid. A copy of this was the placed on a piece of Homosote board and a piece of wax paper placed on top of that. Pins were inserted at the four corners of the section and at the intersection of each grid point with the outside line. A piece of fine copper wire was then strung around the four corners and twisted taut. The following picture will help describe this.
 

 
In this picture the blue line represents the fine wire around the outside and the green closely spaced dots the location of some of the pins. When all these pins were hammered into place, fine cotton thread was tied off on one pin and then woven back and forth as shown by the red lines above. At each pin the thread was looped under itself and around the wire and then woven under and over previously laid thread alternatively to form the final woven mesh. A small curved sewing needle was very helpful in doing this endless over and under weaving.
 
When the section was completely woven, the mesh was pulled up on the pins about 1/8” to get it off the waxed paper. It was then coated with shellac to stick it together. This was done in several dilute applications to avoid the shellac filling in the holes in the mesh. If the mesh is bridged with liquid this can be removed easily with a Q-Tip.
 
When dry and with all the weave secured, the pins were carefully removed leaving the completed section of netting. This was then folded, inserted into its wire frame and secured to the top longitudinal wire with fine thread. The assembly was then given a coat of flat black enamel to deaden the sheen of the shellac and blacken the wire, an exception to my no paint philosophy.
 
When finished, the assemblies were fit into the holes in the rails and given a small drop of CA glue. The tops were then bent to the sag seen on the real ship. Some of the photos in Part 8 show these nettings well. The picture below is a close up of some of this on the port forecastle rail. These netting structures need to be fairly strong because it is impossible not to abuse them somewhat when doing later rigging, and once the mesh is in place they cannot be repaired with solder.
 

 
At this point I will mention a tool that was made to deliver very small drops of CA. Most applicators yield drops that are too large for most of this work, especially later when used for rigging. I use a very thin CA, which I buy in 2 oz. Bottles. I do not use the applicator tip. Instead the bottle is placed open in a safety holder made from thick wood with a hole bored to the diameter of the bottle. A 4” wide base is put under this. You do not want open bottles of CA free-standing on your workbench. I then dip an applicator into the bottle. The applicators I use were made from a piece of .020” brass stiff wire. A fine slot about ½” long is sawn into the end of this wire on the centerline with a fine jeweler’s saw. The end is then filed round and the two parts of the tip bent slightly into a shape resembling an old style drafting pen. This then holds a very small drop of cement. At least two of these are needed, because they quickly become coated with CA. The spares are kept standing upright in a tall closed jar with about 2” of Acetone in it. This quickly dissolves the CA so that a clean applicator is ready when needed. After awhile the Acetone needs to be refreshed. Keeping the jar closed is important, first because Acetone is hazardous from a health and fire standpoint, but also the vapors in the jar help clean the applicators.
 
The Wheel
 
The ship’s wheel is one of my favorite parts on the model, but unfortunately it is almost invisible tucked in under the poop deck and behind the binnacle cabinet. It is modeled in boxwood and is a pretty close replica of the original considering its small size of about ½” in diameter. The assembly consists of two wheels each with the standard 10 spokes. The steps to make these two wheels and the central spindle so that all the holes for the spokes were properly aligned is shown in the following drawing.
 

 
The first diagram at the top shows a square block of wood slightly larger in width and breadth than the finished wheel diameter. This is made long enough to eventually fit into a lathe chuck. To one end of this, thin pieces of boxwood are glued with alternating grain direction. In the diagram the darker grey is end grain, the light grey side grain. This lamination will yield strong wheel assemblies and mimics the real construction to some degree. “A” is the distance between the centers of the two wheels and the joints between wood layers must be located precisely on this dimension. The dashed line in these pictures represent the cuts to be made next.
 
This piece is then setup in the lathe between centers and turned to the outside diameter of the wheels as shown in the second diagram down. This now round piece is chucked in the lathe. I used a three jaw centering chuck. A center hole is then drilled to take the spindle axle and the wood between the spindle and the inside diameter of the wheel is removed with a very small lathe tool.
 
The bottom view shows the final steps. The ten holes for the spokes are drilled 36 degrees apart around the outside diameter, all the way through into the central spindle, before the wheels are parted off. The distance between these holes can be set off with dividers. It is essential that the piece be set up for drilling so that the drill is perpendicular to the tangent of the outside diameter at each point. If not, the wheel spokes will not be radial and that is one of the main goals of this process. An index mark is placed on both wheels and the spindle to assure correct alignment later.
 
Finally the wheels and the spindle are parted off where indicated by the red lines. This must be done carefully to avoid breaking the wheels. The excess at the end was taken off by turning it down on the lathe. Then the two wheels were parted off manually with a fine blade jewelers saw and the sawn surfaces were sanded flat and smooth.
 
Spokes of the correct diameter can then be inserted to assemble the three parts. This can then be mounted on an axle and supported by appropriate pillars. The best picture I still have of this assembly is shown below.
 

 
 
Lanterns
 
There are four lanterns on Victory, three at the stern and the Admiral’s lantern mounted on the aft side of the main top. I felt these were too small to be made in wood and decided to make them of brass to be chemically blackened. Making the main body of the lantern with its paned windows was the most challenging part. The lanterns are octagonal with the fore face of the bottom aligned vertically with the fore face of the larger top, so they basically slant aft. Each face has two vertical rows of panes, slanted down its centerline. The forward faces have no panes. The tops and bottoms have a curved shape on each octagonal face segment and each lantern has a small octagonal chimney on top. There is one large central lantern at the stern flanked by two smaller ones. The lantern in the maintop is quite small and eventually was done as a solid chunk of brass.
 
First the outside shape of the lantern was filed into a small block of brass. Extra length left on this was then clamped securely in a milling vice and the inside of the lantern was hogged out on the milling machine. In the next step, shown below, the bodies have been cut down to final length and the window holes are being milled out with a 1/32” milling cutter. These were milled across the whole face, since the cutter and my files were too large to make individual small panes.
 
 

 
After this milling step, the holes were squared as much as possible with a very small (1/32” sq.) jeweler’s file. I have had two of these for years, one square, one round, but have never seen them on the market since. I try not to break or lose them and save them for jobs like this. After squaring the holes slots were sawn vertically down the center of the faces to take the center mullions, which were made from brass wire and were soldered into place. Two of the completed lanterns with their mounting brackets are shown below before blackening.
 

 
The last picture shows the three lanterns mounted at the stern.
 
 

 
Anchors
 
Victory had several anchors of various sizes. There were, of course, the two main bower anchors, which were attached to their hawsers and made fast to the side below the catheads ready if needed.. In addition, there were two spare bowers lashed to the side at the aft end of the forecastle. One of these had the smaller sheet anchor lashed to it for storage. Lastly there is the kedge anchor, which was stored on one of the mizzen channels. The bower anchors were huge, 21 feet long and weighing almost 8400 pounds. Making them with eighteenth century technologies with only muscle power forging was a major feat of engineering. For the model all these were made from brass and blackened chemically. The picture below was taken during fabrication.
 
 

 
At the top is a finished bower anchor and below are the parts of its three mates. The shaft is square at the top so was turned from a square brass rod along the middle section. It was left square at the bottom to fit into a notch that was let into the piece that was cut from 1/8” plate in the shape of the arms. These were silver soldered to the shafts and filed to the rounded shape as shown. The triangular flukes were cut from 1/16” brass sheet and silver soldered to the arms. Each was filed to the correct final shape. The rings were inserted into holes drilled in the square tops and then silver soldered together. After blackening, stocks made of boxwood were and fitted, square brass metal bands installed (not shown above) and the ring was “puddened”, that is, wrapped with thread. The picture below shows the spare bower and the sheet anchor, both lashed to the starboard fore channel with the fluke of the bower resting in a special block for that purpose on the planksheer.
 

 
 
Silver Soldering
 
The last thing I would like to mention in this part is silver soldering. I have referred to it a number of times and there is a great deal of it to be done in the fabrication of all the ironwork on this model, some of large pieces, like the anchors, and some of very small pieces, like eyebolts and small diameter rings. This can be a difficult technique to do reasonably well, let alone master, and many shy away from it. I had a lot of difficulty with it until I got a small propane torch and the right soldering materials. A small propane torch is inexpensive and very adequate for this type of work. I have a small dual gas high temperature torch which was expensive and uses expensive fuel. This is not needed. However, I found that the right soldering materials are most important. I started with brush on fluxes and wire solder, which had to be cut into small pieces which always seemed to be too large or resistant to being attached to the work. All these problems ended when I went to syringes of powder solder in flux, which can be injected directly where needed in very small amounts, easily controlled. Toxic and non-toxic, high and low temperature varieties are available. I purchase mine from an online jewelry-making supplier. They are inexpensive, last a long time, and for me at least, have made the process simpler and if fact manageable. They have also helped produce higher quality work, avoiding large blobs of solder on the final piece.
 
In Part 10, the last section on deck details, I will discuss the modeling of the planked ships boats, two of which are partly visible in the above picture.
 
 
Please stay tuned.
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project

Part 8 – Deck Details 1
Posted to MSW 8/20/2010.
 
In the next three parts I will describe, in general, the construction of the upper decks and their detailing, taking the narrative up to the completion of the hull.  I have selected a few parts of this work to describe in some detail, but will not cover every point.  As always, I welcome any questions.  If there is some aspect where more detail is desired, let me know and I will be glad to describe it. 
 
The picture below shows the status of the model by the end of 1996.  The exterior and most of the interior of the hull and the upper gun deck has been planked. The partition, which bars the way to the Admiral’s cabins is in place and framing of the quarter deck is about to begin.
 

 
The extent of detailing on the upper deck was limited to what would be visible, so no more of the interior aft partitions or decoration was done beyond what is shown in this picture.  Details visible through the hatches were modeled, for example the capstans, one of which is visible below the main hatch. 
 
The planking of the upper deck, the quarterdeck the poop deck and forecastle was done in European Boxwood using a four butt shift pattern.  All the planks were glued and pegged with boxwood treenails.  These were described in an earlier chapter.  The 12” wide planks were ripped from 1/8” thick by about 1 ½” wide Boxwood strips using the Unimat circular saw.
 
The black caulking between planks was simulated using black construction paper, which was glued to the strips before ripping them into planks, so that after ripping, each plank would have one edge with paper attached.  This saved a lot of messy gluing of individual strips between planks.  It also eliminated the need for scraping off excess glue and paper.  Only the ends of the planks had to be fitted with paper strips.
 
After gluing and tree nailing, the tops of the nails were cut off, the ends filed down flush and the decks scaped to a smooth finish with a 1/2” scraper.  The picture below shows some of the finished decking, as well as some of the final deck detailing.
 
 

 
 
However, quite a bit of work had to be done before getting to this stage.  Back at the stage of the first picture, the next task, to be done before framing the quarterdeck, was the installation of the thirty long 12 pounder upper deck guns.   On the finished model, some of these would be totally visible in the waist, and to some degree under the forecastle and quarterdeck, so these had to be well detailed.  The gun carriages of the lower and middle decks were roughed out in maple and not rigged.  The visible guns of the upper decks, all long or short 12 pounders, were modeled more completely and precisely, with full rigging.  The carriages of these guns were made in boxwood, based on large-scale drawings.  The barrels were described earlier.  The picture below shows a collection of leftover or reject parts, which will help describe the carriage construction.
 
 

 
The items in the above picture are laid out in a circular progression of the various steps. 
 
Starting at about ten o’clock is an odd shaped piece of boxwood.  This has been milled to the shape of a carriage side, actually two sides facing away from each other.  The sides were then ripped off of this on the circular saw and trimmed to size. 
 
The axles were made from rectangular pieces, which were drilled to accept the round parts which were inserted in each end.  The wheels were turned to size, bored, scored around their circumference and parted off  in the lathe. 
 
The larger assembly of wood at 3 o’clock is an assembly jig, into which the pieces were inserted for gluing, yielding the assembly at 4 oclock. 
 
Finally, an iron bar was inserted between the sides to hold the elevating wedge platform.  Eyebolts were then added, the guns were pinned to the deck and rigged.  Below is a picture of a finished quarterdeck short 12 pounder.
 
 

 
 
The rigging of each gun includes the heavy breeching which restrains the recoil of the gun when fired. One end of this has an eye spliced around a large ringbolt in the side.  The other end goes through another ringbolt on the other side of the gun, loops back on itself and is seized with lashing.  Two training tackles, each consisting of a double and single block attached by hooks to eyebolts on the carriage and in the side.  These were coiled up for storage.  Ringbolts were also installed in the deck behind each gun. 
 
All the eyebolts and rings were made from brass wire.  Rings were made by tightly wrapping brass wire around a rod the diameter of the ring.  This coil of rings was then sawed through along the axis of the rod, producing many open rings.  The ends of each of these were then silver soldered together to form a strong ring.  All the brass parts were blackened chemically.
 
I elected not to model the breeching rings on the pommels or the brackets over the trunnions.  The scoring around the middle of the wheels was to simulate the two pieces of wood bolted together crosswise to make the wheels.
 
The above picture also shows some of the very few purchased parts in the model – the belaying pins and the cannon balls.  The pins were too short and a constant headache during rigging.  The balls were perfectly sized and held in place with cyanoacrylate.
 
With the upper deck guns in place, the quarterdeck framing could proceed.  Some of this is shown below.  It is semi authentic and certainly not completely represented.  The upper deck guns are visible in this picture.  Notice only those forward of the partition (and visible) are rigged.  The first plank, the king plank, in the center of the deck has been laid.
 
 

 
 
In the following picture the quarterdeck and forecastle planking has been installed from the center out to the inside line of the gangways.  The waist beams have been temporarily setup to fit the notched gangway facings, which line the waist opening, and also to fit the turned posts, which support these beams.  The beams themselves are 50 feet long and so are scarfed together with a long vertical scarf, which can just barely be made out in this picture.  When all these parts fit correctly they were glued and treenailed into pace.  All the remaining planking at this level was then installed.
 
 

 
 
The next picture shows the model with all the decking and most of the deck detail finished.  This picture shows the extent of the hammock netting.  I will describe how these nettings were made in part 9.
 

 
 
The remainder of this part consists of some pictures of other deck detail, which I will describe only briefly, but will be glad to discuss further if someone is interested in more detail.
 
 

 
The above picture shows the belfry, the vent stack from the stove and low profile, rounded up coamings and gratings of the forecastle.  On either side of the belfry is a row of timberheads with knees.  These will carry buntlines, leechlines and braces for some of the forward sails.  On the waist beams are the shaped supports for the ships boats.  I will cover the modeling of these tiny, planked boats in a later chapter.  All of this woodwork is cherry.  The two boxwood posts at the rail on each side are kevels.  There are several more about the deck.  These two will take the fore topsail tyes through their sheaves and belay them around the timberhead top of the kevel.
 

 
The starboard 68 pounder carronade is shown here before its breeching was installed.  Four of its large diameter balls are in the shot garland along the catbeam.  The timberheads along the forward fife rail have simulated sheaves and timberheads and will eventually be almost completely covered with the many lines that belay here.  The topsail sheet bits, shown partly in the upper left corner have brass sheaves, which will take topsail sheets later. 
 

 
The above picture shows ringbolts in the deck for the guns, some of the shorter hammock netting, the large wooden staghorn for the port main sheet, and more of those purchased belaying pins.  The penny was not part of the real ship.
 

 
This last picture shows the flag lockers, which held the dozens of different signal flags.  These were made, “egg crate style” by a method like that used for gratings which was discussed earlier.  The stern lanterns are prominent in this view.  I will discuss how these were made in part 9.
 
Cheers,
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 7 – The Bow Structure
 
The bow structure is one of the most interesting assemblies of woodwork in the ship, and perhaps one of the most challenging to model. In the picture below, taken later in construction, the various parts of the bow structure can be seen.
 
The topmost of the curved horizontal rails is the “main rail”, which provides a bulwark for the fore face of the cathead, but more importantly is a critical triangular brace for the beakhead. The main rail is supported along its length by four Y-shaped “head timbers” which rest on the gammoning knee (barely visible), which acts as a brace between the stem and the beakhead.
 
The head timbers are faced with a decorative beaded facing. The bottom feet of the head timbers also rest on the “upper cheek”, which fays to the lower plank of the middle wale, then curves inward, forward and upward to fay against the aft side of the beakhead right behind the figurehead.
 
The “lower cheek” is of a similar pattern running from the top plank of the main wale up along the beakhead, ending just at the base of the figurehead. Both these timbers act as horizontal knees for the beakhead. Between the cheeks are heavy planking overlays, surrounding both the hawse holes and the gammoning slots.
 
There is also a curved knee supporting the underside of the cathead and then curving forward along the hull to end just behind one of two lighter weight rails which are supported in notches cut into the head timbers.
 
Finally, we have the figurehead and some leafy scrollwork that trails aft between the cheeks.
 

 
In addition to the timber structure and figurehead, there is other interesting detail visible in the above picture, including the forecastle timberheads, the decorative arches along the face of the forecastle bulkhead, the “marines walk” with its two vertical supports curved around the bowsprit, the knightheads, pierced for the lower end of the mainstay collar, and, of course, the huge wormed anchor cables, patiently waiting many years for their anchors.
 
The following picture shows a top view of bow structure.
 

 
This picture, taken much later in the process, shows a different view of some of the details mentioned above. It provides a better picture of the decoration on the forecastle bulkhead and also clearly shows the toilet accommodation for men and the rounded enclosed stalls for the junior officers, all of which derive their name from their location at the “head” of the ship. The top of the marines walk is also interesting with its rectangular openings to take the collars of the mainstay and preventer. As I said above, I found this whole array of detail to be one of the most interesting parts of the ship.
 
Before any modeling of the bow structure could be done, a lot of work was needed to complete the framing of the fore end of the forecastle. My drawings were sadly lacking in details of this and a lot of time was spent looking for better sources of information and translating that into some sketches to base this on. The small, decked area in the above picture is actually at a level above the upper deck in the forecastle and the heavy cat beam across the top of the forecastle bulkhead actually is higher than the forecastle deck. This seemed quite unusual and confusing. The picture below, taken later shows some of this internal structural work.
 

 
Once this work was done and the basic dimensional information established, the first task was to fashion and install the Y-shaped head timbers mounted on the gammoning knee. These were fairly straightforward except that the notches for the light rails and the points of connection with the main rails had to be carefully laid out. Once that was done the making of the main rails had to be faced.
 
In the full version of part 2 9posted on MSB), I described how to loft the true shape of these rails. Now with the correct pattern in hand the rails needed bending to that shape in European Boxwood. First attempts to get this degree of curvature on this large timber failed – several times. I did not want to cut the rails against a weak cross grain because I wanted the full strength, and also did not want to show weak cross grain in the final model. This problem would also have to be faced in forming the two cheeks, which although having a gentler curve had the additional complication of a wide horizontal triangular shape. The picture below shows these three rails on the port side shortly after their installation.
 
 

 
This problem was solved by using laminations of very thin boxwood.
 
First, a six inch piece of 2X4 lumber was cut into two pieces along a line conforming to the curve of the rail with a small blade on a band saw. This would act as the form that would press the wood to the shape the rail. Then boxwood was ripped into very thin strips between 1/32” and 1/64”. In the case of the triangular cheeks these strips were 1½” wide sheets. Then the thin strips were steamed until very pliable. One side of the 2X4 “mold” was clamped in the vise. Strips of wood were then removed from the steaming and immediately given a liberal coating of Titebond glue and layered onto the mold in the vise. The mating part of the mold was then fitted on top and with large clamps the two parts of the mold were pulled together forcing the strips into the shape of the rail. After drying for 2 days, they were released. Below is a picture of a leftover lamination for an upper cheek showing how the cheek was then cut from it. With laminates there is virtually no spring back, so the mold shape will be retained exactly.
 

 
For some reason this piece was not used, but the lamination is very good, with little evidence of it being a laminate. Once these pieces were scored down with a beaded molding cutter, joints would really be imperceptible. This picture also illustrates the amount of expensive boxwood waste suffered in this process. This cheek, because of its triangular knee shape, required a wide laminate. Below is a picture of a failed delaminated main rail attempt, the result of not enough glue.
 

 
Once these curved rails were conquered, the work on the bow became easier and I will only describe it briefly since it was pretty straightforward modeling work.
 
The figurehead was carved out of a solid block of boxwood, using a rotary tool with small burrs for roughing out, supplemented with some small gouges and chisels to finish the shape. A picture of the finished carving is shown below. The stance of the two figures took some time and a few failures to work out. Final polishing was done with fine steel wool. If I were to do this again, I would make a mockup first using something like epoxy putty to help fully understand the shapes before diving into the boxwood.
 

 
The picture below shows the gratings over the bow timbers and in the marines walk. I will describe how these gratings, and many more to follow, were made, I will also discuss the issue of correctly locating the openings in the Marines walk grating for the main stay collars. This picture also shows the areas of straight beam grating, which for some reason was used in part of the surface. This picture also shows the safety netting and some hammock netting, which I will discuss in a later chapter.
 

 
Gratings were made using the setup shown in the picture below. First, an auxiliary saw table was made from a sheet of 1/8” clear Plexiglas to fit over the Unimat saw table. Then a groove was dadoed into the top surface with a .030” saw blade. A strip of boxwood of the same thickness was force fit into this groove, then trimmed down so that the top of the strip was 1/64th” above the top of the Plexiglas. A slot to take the .030” Unimat blade was cut through the Plexiglas and the table was clamped to the saw table in such a way that the blade projected just 1/64” above the Plexiglas. The table was then adjusted horizontally to give a spacing of exactly .030” between the blade and the strip of wood.
 

 
A 1” wide blank of 1/32” boxwood was then dadoed with 1/64” deep cuts across its width. First the blank was held against the strip of wood to make the first cut. Then, succeeding cuts were made by placing the previous cut over the strip and making another cut. This was repeated across the length of the strip. A small sample with a few cuts is pictured above. Then, 1/32’ strips were ripped from this piece. To avoid tear out a very high speed and very slow feed should be used with a sharp fine toothed blade. The strips were then interlocked together to form grating.
 
On the real ship grating was not interlocked but merely had cross pieces set in grooves in the support members. Interlocking simplified accurate spacing and also allowed me to avoid using glue. The unglued grating looks crisp and clean and none has ever come apart. A setup like this could be done on any small circular saw, or the grooves could be cut on a milling machine, a process I used later for the flag lockers. I used an angle cut with different spacing to make ladder sides and a similar setup to cut notches in window mullions.
 
The last point I will address in this part was the location of the three rectangular holes in the grating of the marines walk. These openings take the collars of the main stay and the main preventer stay. They must be located very accurately so that when tension is put on these stays no stress is placed on the grating, which would then break under the strain from these very large lines. These openings can be seen in the earlier pictures. The grating in this area is in the shape of a trapezoid and is 3” thick.
 
To locate these holes a dummy mainmast was setup and temporary stays run from the correct height do to their connections under the bow. Using 1/32” stock, a pattern was developed showing spaces needed for the stay collars. These hole locations were set out on an enlarged piece of grating to assure that the openings would clear the stays and also that openings would be bounded by grating bars on all sides. The grating shape was then cut and fit into the opening. The goal here was to avoid having to cut the grating in a haphazard way later. The last picture shows how this worked out on the final model. The stay collars, with their hearts and lashings, actually bend down over the forecastle fife rail. This could not have been foreseen without a mockup.
 

In the next part I will begin to discuss planking and detailing of the upper decks. I have not tried to cover everything in this log but only items I felt would be interesting to a range of modelers. Most of all I would like to reach those less experienced in scratch building, who may well be facing the same dilemmas I faced with Victory. To some, more experienced builders, there may be few revelations here, but if I have glossed over something too lightly, where there may be interest in a better explanation, please let me know and I will try to address it in a future chapter or separately.
 
Cheers,
 
Ed Tosti

HMS Victory
1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 6 – The Topside Planking
Posted to MSW 8/18/10
 
In Part 5, we started working up to the task of topside planking by discussing the objectives I had for the final appearance. I like to set these objectives up front for each major stage to use as a quality yardstick when deciding how far to go with each aspect of the work or when to scrap some unsatisfactory work. In this Part, I will cover some aspects of the planking that may be of interest. I will also discuss how the rail moldings and the “rigols” over the gun ports were made.
 
Planking from the lower wale up to the waist rail.
 
The Lower Wale, or Main Wale
 
The main wale is a band of thick structurally important planking that runs from just above the waterline at midships up to the bottom sill of most of the ports of the lower gun deck. Because the line of the lower wale, and almost all of the topside planking for that matter, parallels the sheer line, and because that line has more curvature than the line of the decks, several of the after gun ports on the lower deck actually cut into the lower wale, the aftermost one being almost entirely within the wale. So, before doing any planking of the lower wale, the gun port framing had to be dealt with.
 
Because the gun port sides, tops and bottoms were formed by the ships structure, a collection of Lauan frames and pine filler pieces, the ports needed to be re framed to improve their appearance. This was done by enlarging the port openings and framing their insides with strips of 1/32” cherry. This also provided an opportunity to check the final location of the ports and make any necessary adjustments. Once all the lower deck ports were lined, the planking could begin.
 
Because the lower wale was expected to contribute longitudinal stiffness to the hull structure, its lower four strakes had planks in the shape of anchor stocks, that is, of increasing width from the ends to a point in the center of the plank. The lowest row had the peaks on the top and the second on the bottom and then a repeat for the next two strakes. This provided an interlocking structure which would help resist bending stresses on the hull, specifically “hogging,” the tendency for the ends of the ship to bend downwards as a wave lifted the center of the ship. The picture below describes this along with the slightly different configuration for the middle wale, known as “top and butt”. The picture above shows how this looked on the model.
 

 
These special shaped planks had to be made accurately or they would not fit together seamlessly, which was quite important to the final appearance. Special devices were made to cut these and the slightly different shapes for the middle wale, in which the highpoint is off center. The tools shown below were used to cut these planks all to the same size.
 

 
These two slightly different cutting guides, were made by filing steel plates to the correct profile of the pyramidal edge of the planks, making sure their top edges were smooth and accurate. Then they were fitted into wood forms, which set their height correctly and also the length of the plank. Spacing was set to just over the plank thickness for easy removal. The guide at the top right was for main wale planks and the one at the lower left for the middle wale top and butt planks. For use these were secured in a vise. Planks of the final thickness were cut to the correct length and just over correct width, allowing the guides to set the final width. These blanks were each placed between the steel rails and pared down with a sharp chisel flush with the top of the guides. This produced uniform planks with sharp square edges, which fit together well when installed.
 
Planking Procedure
 
All the planking was cut from 8/4 (2”) by roughly 6” wide stock. European Boxwood of this size was hard to come by even in the 1970’s, but I was fortunate to be able to acquire two pieces in this size about 3 ft long. Cherry was not a problem, but it needed to be selected for straight grain from pieces I had. The wide stock was then cut to about 12” lengths, ripped down to the plank width, using a very thin kerf 10” circular saw blade, and then if necessary, cleaned up with a cabinet scraper to assure a very smooth edge on the planks. Planks were then ripped to thickness on the Unimat circular saw, using a relieved fine tooth metal working blade that produced a glasslike finish on the surface of the planks. As I mentioned in Part 5, wales were done in cherry and the rest in European Boxwood.
 
Anchor stock and top and butt were worked in paired rows to make sure pieces fit each other as the rows progressed. To assure tight joints the back corners of each plank was very slightly chamfered with a file to assure that the front faces would touch. Titebond glue was applied to the back and bottom edges – also to the appropriate end if the plank was butting another installed plank. Since the framing and filler on which the planks bedded was solid, clamping was done using short pieces of soft pine about 1/8” thick through which stiff pins were hammered into the frame. Friction between the pin and the pine held the plank down and in until the glue had a chance to set. Below is a diagram illustrating this clamping technique.
 

 
Excess glue was then brushed off using a wet artists brush kept nearby in a jar of water. This eliminated the need for later sanding or scraping to get the glue off. After 30 years, none of these glue joints has failed and all the planking is still tight. Finally, holes were drilled to receive the treenails. This was done later, when enough planking was complete to draw in pencil the lines of the nails. Holes were then pricked with a center punch to assure that lines of nails would be straight. A drill size just below the diameter of the treenail was used to assure a tight nailed fit. The sharp end of the nail was dipped in the glue, held in the hole using tweezers or small pliers, and tapped in with a small hammer. Excess glue was brushed off and when dry, the surface of the plank was leveled off with a small file. Using a file here assures that the nail head will be flush. Sanding may leave a bump with the hard end grain of the nail. It also tends to ruin nearby sharp edges.
 
Toward the ends of the hull, planks needed to be curved to fit. This was done by cutting the plank to size, steaming it in an old teapot until pliable, then fitting and clamping it in place – without glue. As the plank dries, it will shrink, and if glued, will leave gaps. When the plank was completely dried it was glued in place. Boiling water sometimes discolored the surface of the planks, but I found this could be removed with the file. There are other good ways to bend wood, but this was the method I used.
 
The areas between and above the wales was done in straight boxwood planks using the same procedure as above. This planking was thinner than the wales, so care had to be taken to avoid sanding or filing off the raised edges of the wales. These were given a very slight rounding during the final polishing of the hull exterior.
 
As each strake of planking was completed, a dimensional check was made, by measuring up to the sheer line to make sure the height was correct along the hull. Discrepancies when found were very small and could be corrected easily with a file or small scraper. Doing this at each strake avoided a potentially nasty surprise when the planking ultimately reached the sheer line. Finally, before beginning the next strake, a triangular file or scraper was used to remove any fillet of glue left between the top of the planks and the frame to assure next strake would seat neatly.
 
Where planks ended at a gun port, they were left slightly long, then filed flush with the frame later. Where a gun port sill or lintel cut into the edge of a plank this was also filed out later. This assured a nice sharp corner to the port openings.
 
 
Rails
 
The picture below shows the three rails the run the length of the hull above the upper wale. The lowest is the waist rail, which in this picture is cut by the line of the upper deck 12 pounders. Above that is the sheer rail, which is in line with the fore, main and mizzen channels, and above that is the planksheer rail, which runs under the planksheer at the waist. There are additional “drift” rails aft and forward.
 

 
These rails add interest and accentuate the lines of the hull. The upper two have a similar profile. The waist rail is different. These rails were shaped in Boxwood, using a profile scraper which was drawn along the edge of a strip of wood with thickness equal to the width of the wale, but much wider so it could be secured in a vice while being shaped. After shaping the rail was sliced off on the circular saw. These rails were bedded on the framing, not on top of planking, so they replaced a row of planks. Actual practice may have differed, but this seemed a logical approach on the model. A picture of the profile scraper used for some of these different shapes is shown below.
 

 
These profile cutters are easy to make and do a nice job making moldings. The above cutter was used for the sheer rail, the steps up the side and the cap rails on the channels. The cutter is made by marking out the shape on the metal with a sharp scriber, then sawing out the rough shape with a jewelers saw. The shape can be dressed with small files, but very small parts of the shape were done with the saw alone. Very fine blades are available for these saws. Small files made for sharpening Japanese style saws have very sharp sides and work well. I made my cutters from some 1/16” stainless steel plate I had. Cutters like this were also used for things like the fenders shown in the picture below and for making rigging blocks, which I will discuss later.
 

 
]The picture, above, shows some of the other detail that was added after completion of the topside planking – the molded steps up the side, the elaborate middle deck entrance way, the two vertical fenders to protect the hull when loading barrels, the “wriggles” over ports to divert water and the sheave set into side which would later take the mainsail sheet into the waist. The scrolls at the ends of the drift rails were made by turning grooves on the end of a boxwood dowel. This was a compromise I have regretted. They needed to be carved as a scroll with decreasing radius to the center, but I gave up on this too quickly and took the easy way out. I have never been happy with this decision.
 
Port Rigols
 
The rigols over the ports presented an interesting problem. There are two types. On the lower deck ports they are straight across the top and on the middle deck they curve up into a point at the middle. The undersides are concave curves. The challenge was to make them proportionately correct and to have them uniform.
 
Both were made starting with a strip of boxwood the thickness of the horizontal thickness of the rigols and maybe 3/8” wide. The inside concave shape was cut along the face of the boxwood strip near its edge with a small ball end mill to make a rounded slot of the correct length and depth for the interior curve. The depth of this milling cut left about 1/64” of wood at the bottom. Several slots were cut along this line on the strip. The circular saw was then used to slice off enough so that only the top half of the slots remained on the edge of the strip. Then the inside lower 1/64” edge was trimmed back to its profile with a knife. Then the strip of “wriggles” was sliced off above the slot leaving a strip with quarter concave slots on one edge. The rigols were cut off to length and the outside curve at the ends shaped with a chisel.
 
The middle port wriggles were done the same way, except before slicing off the strip the upward interior concave pointy shape was cut with a small gouge. The strip was parted off, the pieces were cut to length and the top curvature carved manually. The picture below, of some leftover work-in-progress pieces I found, should help clarify this explanation. In this picture, initial milling of the some middle deck rigols has been done and the bottom half of the slot sliced off. The next step would be to shape the interior curves with a small gouge, then trim the lower edge inside the curve to match that shape. Next, the strip would be sliced off and the pieces cut to length. Then the top edge would be shaped to match the curvature of the inside.
 

 
In Part 7, I will address what I felt was some of the most difficult woodworking in the ship, the complex curved rails and supports at the head and also the detailing of the head back to the forecastle bulkhead, which was easier.
 
 
Cheers,
 
Ed Tosti

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 82 – Stern Framing/Alignment
 
At the end of the last part, I promised to complete the description of adjusting the stern into its precise shape.  I have found that regardless of the care taken in aligning frames during erection there is always some degree of error that needs to be corrected at some later point – especially on something that will be as prominent as Young America’s beautifully curved stern. 
 
The heights of the stern timbers and the aft part of the poop deck were carefully set in the last part.  This allowed the poop deck transom to be installed as shown below.
 

 
There is a clamp on each of the glued stern timbers and aft cant frames to secure this piece – except in the case of two of the stern timbers that were about 3” outside the line.  One can be seen in the above picture.
 
After the glue on these had set, each of the glued timbers was through bolted with epoxied copper wire as shown in the next picture.
 

 
As discussed previously, these “functional” bolts are glued at both ends.  The two misaligned stern timbers were then clamped and glued as shown below.
 

 
I wasn’t sure if these could be pulled into place or would have to be removed and reset, but fortunately they could be clamped and glued without distorting the other timbers.  This picture also shows the concurrent installation of the cabin deck clamps, but this will be discussed later.
 
With the circular stern lined up, there was a bit of work to do on the poop deck top timbers.  There was a bulge of about 2” in the starboard side – enough to disrupt the symmetry of the poop deck when viewed from aft.  In the next picture this is being remedied.
 

 
The deck template has been pinned in place at three points.  The slight bulge is being pressed into the template with the rather large Jorgensen clamp.  The errant timbers were then soaked with water inside and out down to the middle deck clamps and left overnight.  I anticipated further wetting and using a hair dryer on this are but that was not necessary.  The timbers remained in their correct alignment when the clamp was removed as shown below.
 
 

 
The alignment is almost perfect but it will be again checked and if necessary corrected when the cabin and poop deck beams are installed.  The last picture shows this area with the template removed.
 

 
With the frames in this area set accurately by their inboard faces, the outboard faces were sanded fair back to the specified 6” siding.
 
The large pine ribbands on the outside of the hull are now redundant in this area at least and will soon be removed.  This picture also shows the cabin deck clamps installed.  I will get back to that later.
 
 Ed

Slowly trucking right along.... fore cant frames are in and need fairing.  A lot of fairing but that's what I planned.  I'm working on cutting out and fitting the hawse timbers as this is being written.
 
Much research still going in in the background.  Probably more research than work right now...     I fully believe that Mr. Delacroix is spot on about using the Belle Poule monograph for details and rigging which is not what Hahn used.  Hahn used Le Venus which is too late in the period and things were done differently in the planking, rigging, and details area.  Le Renommee is too early with the wales, quarter galleries and stern areas as well some minor details.
 
I fully suspect that Licorne was built originally along the lines of Le Renommee per the bow, stern, wales and gallery drawings I've seen but that there was a major rebuild somewhere before she was captured as she has much of the Belle Poule features.  I'm still sorting out the odd yard dimensions which match Le Venus but not Belle Poule.  Again, this may have been part the transition period so the rigging will probably be the spar and yard dimensions per the NMM (as captured) but use the Belle Poule rigging plan as that seems more appropriate for the time frame.  I still have a long way to go before I even think about rigging, but its something that needs to be sorted out for the hull sheave placement.
 
My plan, subject to change,  is to carry on and once the hull is framed and faired, plank the exterior per the NMM/Hahn drawings with mods from Belle Poule. 
 
By all means, feel free to click the pic for a larger view.  Critiques (negative, corrective, etc.) are always welcome as I'm still trying to get a handle on this beast.
 

Hi Guy and Pat. See below the plate Pierluigi made for me. I suppose he is willing to make and sell it again. I suggest to contact him directly by e-mail (pier@pimini.it) and to have a look at his website (www.pimini.it). I could not believe my eyes the first time I actually saw the stuff he makes.
Regards
Salvatore

And thank you Harvey, David, Tony, Cog and Ben.
 
 
Good question - I don't remember if I did or not   . I'll find out tomorrow when I pay a visit to my daughter's place where some of my stuff still is, but I hope I did .
 
EDIT - Yes I did
 
Bolsters
 
The Bolsters sit atop the trestletrees and ease the angles of the Shrouds and Forestays over them to prevent chafing :
 

 
  Danny

And thank you too Geoff and Jason.
 
Cross Trees
 
The Cross Trees are the Top supports that run athwartships. All the work in cutting the rebates was done on the Byrnes saw, and the tapers were done on the disc sander :
 

 

 
  Danny

Bibs
 
The Bibs were made next and fitted. As with everything else on the masts the sizes are all proportional to the mainmast :
 

 
The Mizzen Mast has a very abbreviated pair of Cheeks :
 

 
Trestle Trees
 
The Trestle Trees took quite a bit of working out to get them spaced correctly. Unlike the earlier volumes of TFFM there are almost no detailed scale drawings of the various parts needed for the masts, and everything has to be calculated :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks once again for the kind comments Tony, Nils, Spyglass, Hjalmar, Mark, David, Christian, Remco and Steve, and all the "Likes". Always appreciated.
 
Mast Cheeks
 
The Foremast and Mainmast both have Cheeks fitted to each side of the mast. These extend from the top of the Hounds to about 3/4 of the way to the deck. The Hounds are incorporated in them at their top - something I'd always puzzled about in previous builds, but now have become clear .
 
First the mast had to be narrowed to accommodate them, all the way to the top :
 

 

 
Next I tapered the cheeks to the same width as the flats on the mast, half-rounded them to the bottom of the hounds, and cut in the scarf joints for the Bibs. As the bibs are thinner than the hounds the scarf joints were cut in to their thickness :
 

 
The bottom of the cheeks were shaped into a "duckbill", with the inner face scalloped out for the last couple of millimetres :
 

 

 
Filler pieces were then glued to the masthead and tapered :
 

 
A tenon for the Cap was cut into the top of masthead at an angle. In real practice this was done to prevent the very heavy cap from tilting down at the fore end :
 

 

 
The lower Woolding Bands were made from thin card. They measure 0.8mm wide by 0.3mm thick. The wooldings will be added when my next stock of rigging thread arrives, and an upper band will finish them off :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks again John, Vivian, Michael, John and Greg - your comments are always appreciated.
 
Bridle Port
 
Looking through the above pics I realized I'd forgotten to mention the Bridle Port. This port is the foremost one, and is quite a bit different to the gunports. It's main function was to assist in attaching the tackle to the anchor when it broke the water so it could be stowed. An ancillary function was to provide ventilation below the foredeck which houses the galley, the manger and in some ships was used as a recovery area for sick or injured crew.
 
Unlike the gunports the bridle port is hinged horizontally. It's construction was otherwise similar to the gunport :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you Remco, John and Allan.
 
OK Remco - you asked for it :
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
There are four supports Allan. They work fine at the moment, but as I get into the smaller sizes I'll remove a couple of them and replace them between a couple of the existing ones. BTW - this jig came with the Masting Package.
 
  Danny

This is a few photos of the windless. I used walnut for the barrel and yellow hart for the gears.

The capstan is shown being assembled and installed in this set of photos.

This is a few more pictures of the great cabin. I added a door to the quarter gallery and the settee. The settee is made from walnut.

The Great Cabin has a frieze shown on the wall in the practicum and sense I am not much of a painter I decided to use a simple floral relief carving for decoration.

I added some grating and planking to the main deck over the weekend.