rlb

Hi Jay! Welcome aboard. Haven't sharpened the chisel yet--but I will before I next use it! Ron

August 11, 2010 Not much actual model work lately, but lots of thinking. I've decided to plank about 3 strakes on each side of the keel, for the mast steps to sit on. Then I'll run a strake farther up the hull on each side for the berth deck beams to fasten to. Then I'll plank just over half of the berth deck, to accomodate the stove, ladders, capstan; whatever needs to extend up through the gun deck. So, no bulkheads, compartments, or other detail below. At least that's the plan. First is some additional fairing at the bow and stern to make a smoother surface for the planks near the keel. I shaved away some very uneven framing with the scalpel, and then did some sanding-- August 14, 2010 I've finished (almost--last piece clamped and drying) two interior planking strakes. The gap between the planks and the keelson is taken from the INA Jefferson model. I have a feeling it's not exactly right as I've done it [not wide enough], but I don't think it's even going to be visible in the end-- Next will be the mast steps. That will be fun, it seems like I've been doing planking forever. Now I'll get to build a little structure. August 15, 2010 My mast steps are generally modeled after the INA Jefferson's, shown here- I think maybe they are made with a rectangular "mortice" which would be shimmed to fix the mast tenon in place, rather than the whole mast step being made to slide forward or back for adjustment. Just a guess. This was my first experience using the rotary tool as a milling machine. Here are two pieces together being cut out to fit over the keelson- Another piece was routed along the edge. This one will be cut into short lengths to make up the sides of the mast steps-- Here are the four pieces that make up the forward mast step. The long pieces have been sanded by trial and error to fit the curve of the hull-- Here they are glued up. The one on the left is turned upside down-- I'm mulling over whether to put the little bolts on them-- And here they are sitting in the hull-- Ron

Thanks, bigcreekdad! I'm using Formby's Tung Oil finish. I used it on my first model, and liked it, but it's not real Tung Oil. I'd like to try that someday, but I've never found any in the local stores. Woods: Cherry for hull and deck framing, mixed in there is some Willow used for spacers, Beech for the deck clamps, Boxwood for the carronade carriages and decorative details, Maple for the deck, and Swiss Pear for everything else. I haven't decided yet what to use for the masts and spars. Dave supplied me with enough square stock of Cherry and Maple (at least I think it's Maple), but there are some drawbacks to both of those, so I may use something else. Ron

August 1, 2010 Here's the current work on the clamps-- On the planked side of the hull, clamping is more challenging. I'm gluing in two phases, to lessen my chances of making a bad move during the rush to get the clamps set before the glue starts to harden. Stage 1- Then after Stage 1 dries, Stage 2- One more set to go. August 3, 2010 More pictures of the clamp clamping-- I think it's time to clean my tiny "workbench". You can see why I move the model to my dining room table to actually perform any work on it!-- The last deck clamp is now drying-- Now I have to make another decision--about whether to include any of the lower deck. I need to do the mast steps at least, and if I'm going to include any ladders going down from the upper deck, they probably need somewhere to land. And what about the stove? If I want to invite views in through the open frames, maybe I ought to put something in there, although doing so was not part of my original thinking, and it won't be very easy to see. August 5, 2010 I have decided to add some of the lower deck. I won't try to include everything that would be there (it probably won't be very authentic), but just enough to indicate that there was a lower deck, and for the ladders, stove and capstan to fasten to. The upper deck clamps have been sanded-- And now I have to do some research and planning for the lower deck. Ron

May 1, 2010 I cut a scraper to make some trim pieces for the stern-- Here is the stern with the transom trim pieces glued on. the starboard one (closest in the photo) has been sanded down to just about the final shape, the port side is still rough and just tacked on-- Here is a trim piece held up for fitting. It doesn't fit as well as I'd like-- In this view you can see the size of the gap between the counter planking and the hull planking. The trim piece just doesn't quite cover the ends of the hull planking well enough-- So I think I need to add a sliver more of counter planking, which will have to be blackened after I get it cut and shaped right-- Then I think the trim piece will fit better. This picture shows the two pieces, however they are not finished--when I'm done the pear filler piece will barely be visible, but it should help the boxwood trim piece cover the ends of the planks-- July 30, 2010 I cut some filler pieces for the counter planking, and glued them in-- I had saved some of my blackening solution from earlier, but I guess it has a definite shelf life, because it did not work this time. I used some black artist oil paint to color them instead. I cut a new (more traditional) profile pattern in my razor blade scraper, and made some new trim pieces, and glued them on-- And the trim piece that goes between the transom and counter planking has been boiled, and taped along a curve similar to the transom to dry-- July 31, 2010 Gluing the trim on-- And the stern is finished for now-- I think finishing the deck clamps, and then the deck will be next. Ron

Thanks, Toni. There are a few Oneida builders out there, and it's good to hear from them. They are all different! Ron

Thank you, Greg. Your work is an inspiration! Ron

March 9, 2010 A few more pictures of the hull, along with the most recent activity: The shine is dulled down a bit, but still there. (Funny, the previous pictures showed it stronger than it really is, these show it weaker than it really is.)-- A couple of closer pictures-- You can see where I've started to mark locations for the treenails in the wale. I'll probably wait until I plank the bulwarks, and treenail the wales and bulwarks at the same time-- Now I took one of those "hold your breath and hope" steps. I've been a little unhappy with the look of the cherry and pear side by side. As I've said, the cherry looks just great by itself, but next to the pear it takes on a yellow/green cast, which worsens with the finish I'm using. So I stained the frames darker. Gulp! Hard to tell if it's an improvement or not-- On the inside, half are still "raw"-- I would say that the unstained cherry frames look just fine in the photos. Maybe even better than those I've stained--you would have to really wonder if I did the right thing staining them. Unfortunately, the color problem just doesn't show in the photos. Even stained, it's not exactly what I want. I would like some contrast between the cherry and pear, rather than a "not-quite" match. Maybe if/when the cherry darkens over time, it might end up to what I see in my mind. [in hindsight, I don't think the cherry/pear combination is a good one. Pear is such a great wood for modeling, and when they're side by side, cherry just doesn't measure up. In staining the cherry darker, I was trying to make it contrast, in color, from the pear, so they wouldn't "compete".] Looking out the window, she's waiting patiently to be finished and at sea. How can I tell her she's destined to remain "docked"!? Ron

Thank you, Mark. Amfibius, stay tuned, you'll see some. Ron

Elia, I see you took her outside for photos! Nice even light. I know nothing about model painting techniques, so I can't give you any advice about that yellow cove difficulty. However, I think your colors are very, very good, and the grey you settled on for the deck looks perfect to me. Really sets off the deck furniture beautifully. Looks great. Ron

February 20, 2010 Not only do the upper stern strakes need more sanding, but there's an even worse problem lurking there. When I dry fit the sternpost, at the very top the planks tuck in too much. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the three or four strakes at the top of the sternpost do not meet flush with the edge of the sternpost-- I decided to go for the fix on this one. I applied alcohol to the problem area. Note, there was minor bleeding of the marker ink with the alcohol, so anyone who thinks to try the inked paper caulk--BEWARE. I don't think it has ended up causing a permanent problem in this case, but don't be surprised like I was! I also removed the shim I had put on to push the sternpost back about 1/16th of an inch. I needed to take the shim off because the alcohol was loosening it anyway, and it would give me deeper access to the planks-- Next I pried the loosened planks away from the deadwood-- I made a small shim to push the planks out, so they would meet the sternpost more correctly-- Then, after filing the excess part of the planking shim away, and sanding and filing the ends of the planks, I was able to glue the sternpost (and its shim) on, and then more sanding-- Those top planks still need some work, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get those few caulk joints to look the way they should, but the fit to the sternpost is better than it was. The photo (as they often do) is making things look worse than they really are. December 7, 2009 [i've grouped a couple of older posts regarding treenails here, to keep all of them together.] After weighing many factors, I think I may go with bamboo for the treenails, so I have started manufacturing them. I tried first with some bamboo chopsticks, and it was hopeless. They were very weak, and I couldn't make it past one or two holes in the drawplate. Then I remembered some bamboo gardening stakes I have. They were very weathered, and I wasn't sure they would be any better than the chopsticks, but they actually are working guite well. For the hull I need 1" treenails, which is .020". That's the third from the smallest hole on the drawplate. I was quite skeptical about my chances of working down that small (I can barely even see the hole!). But I've made about fifteen "straws". When I took the picture I had about 7 done-- They are about 7" long, so if I need a 1/4" long treenail (being conservative here--1/8th inch might be enough) that's 28 per straw. I might need 1000 or so, so I probably need between 30 and 40 straws. December 9, 2010 With some technique advice from other members, I was able to join the .016" club-- Couldn't do it without pliers, and it seemed like it took as long to do those last two holes as all the previous ones! The small one also makes my .020" straws look like logs in comparison! .020" is right for the hull, but maybe I'll need the smaller size for the deck. Good thing that's a ways off. January 4, 2010 After making all those bamboo treenails, I tested them out, along with some other techniques, on my hull section mock-up. I wanted to see how simulated caulking on the hull would look. The upper four caulk joints use black craft paper ("construction" paper is what I've always called it, but I don't know if everyone knows what I mean by that). The lower four joints use regular medium weight computer printer paper made black with a "sharpie" magic marker. I like the way the thinner joints look--they are much closer to scale [And indeed, as you have seen, that's what I used]-- The treenails are kind of a mess. I took the old planks off and put them back on (with the new caulk joints) so some of the old silver wire spots moved around a bit. But here's the key: The blue circle shows bamboo treenails in a hole that was drilled with a bit just a little too big. I was waiting for the right one (#76 .02") to come in the mail. The red circle shows bamboo treenails with the right size hole. I was unhappy with all the bamboo treenails. They look too dark to me. If they were larger, they might not have gone so dark, but this is the right size. The green circle shows .020" holes filled with a watered down slurry of pearwood dust and glue. When I went over it with the tung oil varnish, I think it may have disolved some of this filler because many of them look like dark empty holes now. The yellow circle shows.020" holes filled with a slurry of full strength glue and pear wood dust. This looks the best to me (actually you can barely see the good ones, but that's about right). The only problem here is that the results weren't consistent (some still showed as a dark hole). I need to make sure the "paste" gets down into each hole. I'll chew on these experiments for a while. But it looks like I am going to abandon all those bamboo treenails I painstakingly made!! And the silver wire I bought! February 22, 2010 Now it's on to treenailing! I've decided to go with the bamboo, partly since I can't bear for all those slivers I painstakingly drew down to tiny size to go to waste! I'm starting on the very bottom of the hull, which will be the least visible part--so if my beginning workmanship isn't the best, it won't be too obvious! Near the middle is a portion that I sanded down, to see how they will look. They're so small, that even though they are still darker than I would have liked, they really fade away from a distance-- I thought my caulk joints were very thin (and most of them are), but next to the treenails some of them look positively fat! On balance though, I still like the caulking-- Only a thousand or so more to go! I'm so glad I'm only doing half the hull--and this is a small ship to boot! February 23, 2010 Here's a picture--as close as I can get--of the sanded down treenails. The treenail diameter (1 inch) should be four times the caulk width (1/4 inch). Just by eye it looks--close enough. February 26, 2010 I still don't know whether treenails or iron spikes are historically accurate for this ship, but I'll settle for them just looking good! I looked at three sources for the treenail pattern. (Goodwin, Underhill and Davis) The one that was the most helpful and seemed most accurate was the one by Charles G. Davis in "The Built-Up Ship Model". It looks a bit random at first, but there is a very sound logic to the way the treenails are placed. However, Davis didn't show what it looks like where the butt joint of the planks interrupts the pattern, so I improvised there-- [i have not seen this pattern used in any other models--maybe because it's 'busier". Every model I see uses the simpler pattern, which according to Davis, would be for single frames, whereas this was correct for doubled frames] February 27, 2010 I've marked about 3/4 of the locations, and I have a growing patch of treenails. Doing about two planks worth at a time (or about 50 treenails), I start the holes with a push pin, drill them, and glue the treenails in. Then repeat for another small section. I do wish I had something that would cut these off flush. [How about the No.11 knife or a razor blade?] My supply of treenail straws is being used up faster than I thought it would, and surely there are or will be a couple of straws worth of waste in those bits that stick out. March 1, 2010 I ran out of treenail straws, so I draw down two or three, use them up, then draw down 2 or three more, etc. I'm a little more than half done, and the bow is marked and drilled-- March 6, 2010 Another small milestone in the long modeling process--the lower hull treenailing is done! After looking at the next photo I realized I wasn't completely done-- When I first looked at that photo one empty hole near the left center jumped out at me. I filled that one, looked at the photo again and noticed another! Hopefully there are no more empty holes, but I can't guarantee it!-- Now, I will sand it down. Then some thinking about what to do next. March 6, 2010 Here's the hull sanded down and with a couple coats of finish on. It looks pretty glossy, but I haven't steel wooled it yet-- Next I made a rough working stand to hold the hull upright. First cut a couple of templates for the supports out of cardboard-- Then cut them out of a piece of scrap wood with my jeweler's saw-- Then glued them on to a base. I need to do some fine tuning of the support curves, and then I'll put some foam padding on the supports, and it should be good to go-- Ron

February 14, 2010 These are the last two spiled planks to go on. The one on the right has been shaped, steamed, clamped to the hull to dry, and then removed. The one on the left was sanded to shape, but I'm not going to steam it. The water swells the wood, and if I steam that last plank it won't fit in place to dry anyway-- Here are the two planks dry fit. The one more forward is the plank that was steamed-- The plank which I didnt' steam appears by an optical illusion to bend away from the hull more that it really does-- I glued the paper caulking to the first plank and glued it in place. The pieces of wood which stick out are just scraps which I'm using to wedge the glued plank against it's neighbor-- Then glued the next plank. The excess paper doesn't look so good-- But it sands away nicely-- I calculate 11 more planks to go. After so many months of seeing the frames, it takes a little getting used to them being covered up! February 14, 2010 [Responding to a question about "exactly what" I was using for the caulking paper.] I am pretty happy with the way the caulking is turning out. I have a couple small "gaps" where either the paper didn't extend to the outer plank edge, or it got dislodged when glueing. To fix those I might score a line at those few spots and fill it with something black. But here's how the paper works. This is a sheet of regular weight, white computer printer paper (what some of us once knew as "typing" paper!)-- Using a permanent black marker, I color one side. Somewhere, I'm sure you could just buy black paper, and not have to manually color it, but it was faster for me to do this than try to find some at a store! Also, I don't even need a full sheet to do the whole hull-- The marker bleeds through, but not completely-- So I color the back side, too-- And there's my caulking paper. [i can't stress enought that you TEST your wood, marker, paper, glue, and finish combination. The last thing you want is for the marker to bleed when you put finish on a hull that you have finished planking!!!!] I haven't measured the thickness of the paper, but I think it is not too far off, scalewise. I believe the caulk joints should be about 1/4 inch-- When I am ready to glue a plank, I cut a strip of caulk-- I run a bead of glue along the edge of the plank, and smooth it to a thin coat with my finger-- Then glue the paper to the plank. (You can see a pencil arrow at the front edge of the plank. This reminds me which side of the plank is "out" and, of course, which is the front end. It's helpful both during the sanding, so I know which edge to bevel and which direction to bevel it, and also when gluing the paper caulk, just to help avoid gluing the paper to the wrong edge of the plank--which I have done!)-- After a couple minutes, I trim the ends-- Before gluing the plank to the hull, I glue a small piece of caulk to the end of the previous plank. Usually I forget to do this until I have the new plank coated with glue, and then I'm rushing to get this small piece in before the glue on my plank starts to dry! But this time I remembered-- Then I put glue on the frames, and run glue along the long caulk edge, and short end, of the plank-- And clamp the plank in place-- There's still just enough space to wedge a couple clothspins in the frames to push against the edge of the plank-- February 19, 2010 Last plank!!-- I still have to do some clean-up and overall sanding, but, by golly, she's planked! Ron

Thank you, Crackers, Russ. Patrick, below is something I said in a "side" post in the old log that I edited out, but it speaks to your comment: "A large part of the enjoyment of my build is posting this log. I'm certainly no expert, but if anyone can take away the idea "so that's how you do it" or "that doesn't look so impossible" or "look at this crazy way of doing something...but it works!" then I am pleased." Ron

January 28, 2010 I shaped and glued a few more planks on-- But the bow is not right. I think the termination spot is about right, perhaps it could go forward another 1/8th inch, but what really started to give me a headache is how it sits in the rabbet. At the very tip, it's not sitting right. I had tons of trouble trying to get the next plank to match up to it, and sit in the rabbet correctly. (This is actually the second try on that piece.)-- In the area of the circle, there is a "hollow" where the plank doesn't meet the keel cleanly, and the paper caulk shows too much. I could scrape the paper out, but the gap will remain-- I though briefly about trying to fill the gap with sawdust/glue paste, but decided to take the two planks off and try again. It wasn't a major flaw, but everything else was looking so good, I just couldn't let it be-- So a little backstep--take 3 on the two bow planks, hopefully third time's the charm! January 30, 2010 The problem with the forward plank was the twist and bend. Mostly it was that I had bent the tip just a bit too much. But I did decide to lengthen the new one about 1/4 inch anyway, thinking that the run will be a little better looking. Here's a comparison between the previous plank and the new try-- And here it's glued on, also a new second plank. These are better than before-- Here's a bent and tapered stern plank, ready to go-- I dry fit the plank-- Then glue the paper caulk joint. Because of the extreme curve at the end, I glued an oversize paper to it. When it dries I'll trim it back to the plank edge-- And then I glue it in place. The angle of the light emphasizes the difference in thickness between the new plank and the previous one. This will require a lot of sanding to get the planks to match up. This the most extreme example of this so far-- With eight strakes to go, I'm just over halfway done with the hull planking. February 2, 2010 Ship work is rather slow, just a small update here. This plank I made from the wider stock, and roughly sanded it to a curved shape-- Here is a wet bow plank being clamped to dry, and a middle plank being glued-- And a shot of my work area. When I am able, I move some of this into the dining room next door, but sometimes I work right here. The rotary tool is the only power tool I've used (it's the only one I've got!), and up to this point just for sanding-- The drawing is the Chappelle plan from the Smithsonian Institution. February 8, 2010 Planking continues slowly. I'm working now on closing the bow area, and then continuing aft. In this photo the gap at the stem looks narrower than it really is, but even so I think I need to shave a little off the planks there to make it just a little wider (about 1/32 wider, it's really pretty close to all right)-- February 11, 2010 Here are the last couple bow planks being installed. First they are roughly sanded to shape, and dry fit-- Some more sanding, and they fit pretty well now-- After sanding just a bit more, and cutting them to the correct length, the paper caulking is glued on to the plank edges, and then the planks are glued in-- Then I did some overall sanding-- I'm on the planking home stretch now! Ron

Thanks, Robert! That's "Puff" supervising. Ron

January 23, 2010 I've reached the point where the stern planking starts to turn down along the sternpost. I figured this is a good time to switch gears and work from the garboard strake upward. I cut a piece of paper the complete length of the garboard. Later I'll divide this into shorter lengths-- I spile a line from the keel. It's very interesting that this line isn't just a straight line, since the keel is straight. I don't quite understand that, but that's the way it is-- Here's my paper with the line drawn on it. Again, just to be clear, this is the line that goes next to the keel-- I cut along the line and checked it on the model-- Then I drew the other edge of the plank, wide at the stern, narrowing, widening again at the dead flat frame (the widest part of the ship) and then narrowing to a point at the bow. I cut this line and taped the complete garboard plank to the keel. (I forgot to take an overall picture of this, I'll get it next time.) Next I lined up a row of plank pieces on the dead flat frame to check the number of strakes needed. There's a slight gap, so I will make the garboard strake and the one next to it just a little bit wider-- After the gluing of the last stern plank had set, and I removed the clamps, I did some trimming of the aft end, and dry fit the sternpost-- The planking tucks right under the sternpost, and now will follow down the rabbet [This shows more clearly why I needed that shim piece to move the sternpost aft a bit] -- January 26, 2010 Here's the picture of the garboard paper template in place on the model-- From the paper template I traced the 4 pieces of the garboard strake, making the pieces a little fuller than the template to account for the spacing and to allow adjustment-- Here are the four pieces-- And here they are dry fit on the hull-- I decided to glue the stern piece first and work forward-- The bow piece needed another boiling and bending session-- Here's the next piece being glued on-- The other two pieces are just laid in place, to see how they all fit-- January 27, 2010 After having a very difficult time trying to glue the paper caulk joint into the rabbet, I thought I would try gluing the paper to the plank instead. This is much easier and I will adopt this method for all remaining planks! I also decided to taper the garboard to a point. There is a photo from a David Antscherl planking tutorial, that I hadn't remembered correctly before, that convinced me. So now I glue the remaining pieces-- And there's the garboard-- Ron

January 13, 2010 I'm going to do one strake on the port side, to visually transition from the strong horizontal of the black wale to the vertical frames. But when I spiled the bow plank I discovered that the curve of my wale on the underside was not very good. This was the result of the very difficult to shape bow pieces of the top and butt wale planking. I did a better job on the starboard side, but on the port side I needed to take a chisel to the bottom edge of the wale and fine-tune the curve-- You can see a small spot where I tested a Sharpie marker to re-blacken the wale (I wasn't going to go through the whole iron staining bit for this barely visible edge). I wasn't happy with the sharpie color, and I ended up painting the edge with some artist oil paint-- I also had to do some minor surgery on the transom framing, and I'm sure there is more surgery to come in this area-- Some shots of the general clamping mayhem-- In the next photo you can see the paper I "painted" with marker for my caulk joints. Near the top of the photo is the marker I used-- Here's my cobbled together jig of clamps and masking tape to induce an approximately correct bend and twist in a stern plank-- And some shots of where I'm presently at with the planking. I have done some sanding as I go, mostly to make sure that my paper caulk joints will look okay. I'd rather know now if they are not good. Less planking to tear out if it doesn't look good. But I think the black paper works-- I'm pretty much on target with my batten marks. At about 3/4 near the stern, I need to do some tapering in the next planks. It narrows there, then seems to widen back out again. I'm actually enjoying the spiling part. It's kind of gratifying to have those planks happily fit right into place instead of having to force them into submission! January 22, 2010 I haven't had much time to spend on the ship until the last couple nights, so here's a small update: One plank gluing, and another spiling-- For the center hull planks, the screws and washers at the ends, and dismantled clothespins wedged in the frames in the middle, are sufficient for clamping the plank-- Here's a stern view-- My lack of experience with stern framing creates a problem--I discovered that my planking wasn't going to line up with the sternpost the way it is supposed to. The planking was ending farther aft than the front of the sternpost, which is where it should end. My first thought was to trim the planking back, and I started to cut the ends of the first planks I had done. Part way through the cutting, I realized this was going to create other problems and maybe I shouldn't do this. I decided to shim the end of the deadwood, which would move the sternpost aft just a little bit. Maybe these pictures will explain better than words-- That picture also shows some careless scratching on the sternpost. It should sand out. There is going to be more work to fine-tune things at the stern, between the keel and sternpost, and the planking and lower edge of the counter. There's an awful lot going on here, and the kit directions are conspicuously silent about the stern framing! The instructions don't avoid the stern completely, but there are some gaps in the information, and filling them in would benefit a first-timer! I shouldn't be harsh, it's the planking that brings the issue to light--and the kit was not designed to be fully planked. I think it will work out in the end, though now I'm wondering how well I'm going to be able to cover up that premature cut in the planks; we'll see how it goes. I've planked six bands. That should mean I'm one third done-- Ron

Thank you, Russ and hamilton! Ron

Thanks Gary, for reposting these. You look at them once, are awed, and then they slip away. Seeing them again is just great. Thank you. Ron

January 7, 2010 It's important not to "steer" the battens too much, but to try and let them run true. The stern battens seem to run pretty true, and the width doesn't change too much so hopefully it won't give me too many problems. I think where the planking bends up to the counter will be one challenge. The bow is another story, and there I have to bend the battens where they don't really want to go. I guess that means most if not all the bow planks will need to be spiled [Yup]. I'm going to work down from the wale, and up from the garboard, trying to avoid drop planks and excessive tapering. I marked the location of the battens with pencil, and then took them off. This way I can still do some fairing if necessary, and there is less to get in my way as I do the planking-- I steamed an extra wide wood strip, and spiled the bow plank. I also steamed and twisted the stern plank. Each planking strake will generally be made of four individual planks--24' scale length, typically. I glued the stern, then the bow, then filled in the inner two-- Voila! One strake done! There will be 18 strakes, plus or minus. I apologize for not taking more photos of this process. Probably some of you would like to see the spiling part. Until you actually do it, it really is kind of a mystery (at least it was to me). I hope I have managed the first one okay. January 8, 2010 [i received a bunch of very complimentary posts at this point, of which I was very appreciative!] Thanks, everyone! Oh my gosh, the pressure. It's just the first strake! Well, you've been there for the ups and downs so far, we'll see how it goes. (I am pretty excited to be at this stage.) Here's a little bit about spiling, those of you who have done it before feel free to laugh, and tell me how it should be done if I am presenting something misleading. This is how a guy who has never done it before does it. But before that, here's my chart of the planking. The vertical lines are the frames (44 I think) and the horizontal lines are the planking bands. The "x"s are butt joints. I tried to lay it out so there were no obvious patterns that would draw the eye too much, but still follow the Lloyds rules and use 24' planks [Here I have to say--all the models I see follow an idealized pattern, with joints all lining up. This just looks artificial to me, as well as too conspicuous. Your hardwood floor has irregular lenghts of wood, and my gut tells me shipbuilding was the same. Furthermore, this irregularity would validate the Lloyds rules, which don't negate the variation, but keep it under control. I could be completely wrong, of course. Visually, as well as what I logically think was actual practice; I like some randomness in the planking!]-- So first is to mark the end of the next bow plank (after looking at these photos, I realized I have marked the wrong frame! It should be the next frame forward from the one I marked-- Then I cut a heavy paper blank, and bent it across the frames (NO edge bending, just the natural lay). The distance from the last plank depends on how wide your spiling compass or "staff" is set, you'll see in a minute-- This is my high-tech, micro-tolerance, expensive spiling staff-- And here it is in use. Just follow the edge of the plank, and it miraculously draws the same line on the paper. (Landlubber carpenters call this "scribing".)-- So now we have a paper with the exact curve of the previous plank drawn upon it-- I cut along the pencil line-- Hold it next to the previous plank, and yes, it matches pretty well-- That's half of it. Next you mark the width of the plank. In this case, it needs to taper down from the standard width. I did this by eye, but you could get very precise and plot the width at each frame and get a very accurate line. I'm not so precise at this point because I know I'm going to cut the plank a little full, and sand it to the right width-- I cut the paper plank out-- And check it again-- Then I trace it onto a piece of planking stock-- I've run out of time. Part two will be the cutting, sanding, fitting and gluing. But I have to let you in on a little secret. On that first strake I skipped the whole paper step and just scribed (oops-spiled) that first line onto a piece of steamed wet wood I held against the bow! The softened wood cut pretty easily, too. Skipping the paper step cuts out a lot of work, but I'm not sure it's the best thing to do, so it's good for me to try it this way, too. [i used the paper for all the rest] January 9 2010 Now to finish up the demonstration of the bow plank: I have sanded the upper edge that I traced from the paper template. Note: I actually traced the template upside down (mirrored). I can't seem to avoid these careless errors, but this one is of no consequence, it just might be confusing because we're looking at the back of the plank in this photo-- I roughly sand the lower edge with the drum sander on my rotary tool, and check the upper edge against the last plank--it needed some minor sanding adjustment to achieve a good fit-- Now I go to work on the lower edge, trying to sand a nice even taper-- I check it again (many times, actually) to judge the fit and taper-- Here's the plank with bow, top, and bottom edges done, I'll leave the aft end until just before gluing-- But first I need to steam (boil, actually) the plank and clamp it to dry-- Here is the plank, dry, aft end trimmed, sitting comfortably in place [This is really a nice achievement. It makes you feel good]-- I glue the black paper caulk joint in place-- And finally the plank itself-- Spiling is a fair amount of extra work, but I've found that it's absolutely no more difficult than many of the other tasks involved in making a model, and you really can't avoid it to get an authentic planking run at the bow. On to the rest of the planking! Ron

January 3, 2010 Starting the new year--I feel like I'm jumping all over the place with my model, but having gotten the counter timbers 75 percent done, and the transom about 75 percent done, I don't want to finish them yet. I'm afraid the boxwood edge and trim pieces will get nicked up if I glue them on now, with all the planking yet to be done, and lots of handling the hull still. So now that I at least have the stern in a little better shape to withstand some of that handling, it's on to the deck clamps. I boiled and bent the bow and twisted the stern part of the first piece. Then I did some sanding at the aft end of the clamp so the deck beams would lay flat on top of the clamp. I glued some temporary deck beam spacers around the hull (cut from the extra deck beam I was using in my earlier hull section mock-up). Then glued the starboard deck clamp in-- Here's a close-up of the stern area, with the heavily twisted deck clamp being clamped-- After the starboard side set, I removed the deck beam spacers, glued them to the other side, and after they set, I glued the port deck clamp in place-- There are two more to do on each side. But I am now puzzling a little bit over whether I should do the hull planking first. Finishing the clamps will take away some access from the inside of the hull--I might need it to help with clamping the hull planks. January 4, 2010 [i did postpone finishing the deck clamps at this point in order to allow easier installation of the outer hull planking.] In anticipation of the hull planking, I tried tying a batten strip (a piece of maple to be used for the deck planking) to the frames to try and get a feel for how the planking will run. I fiddled with it for at least an hour, trying to get it to look gracefull from all angles. Eventually I realized I have a "bulge" in the hull-- It looks like the plank is just bent at that point, but I've studied it enough that I know I have to take some wood off the frames at that point of the slight "bend" shown in the photo [not surprisingly, it was at the point where the full frames change to half/cant frames, and likely it was caused by innaccurate framing, which also led to the slightly too-narrow stern]-- I scribbled on the offending frames, and I will take the batten off and start sanding-- I had noticed this bulge way back, and thought I sanded it down enough, but the batten exercise showed I hadn't quite taken care of it. January 6, 1010 I've sanded the frames down in the offending area, and run some more batten strips along the hull. I think it looks okay now. I'm just guessing, but it looks to me like I may not need any stealers at the stern. The amount of tapering at the bow looks pretty substantial. I need to taper to about half the thickness of the widest part. I'll need to be careful with the garboard and lowest strakes to make sure they don't "creep" up the stem-- I'm also not sure if spiling will be necessary, especially at the lower part of the bow. This is new territory for me. [Yes, it will be necessary all over the bow!] I do think planking the hull is next (just the starboard side)--pretty exciting! I'm boning up on whatever my books (Underhill and Charles G. Davis) have to say, and re-reading the MSW planking tutorial. One more decision first--I'm going to show the caulking on the hull planking with black paper. This is fun! Ron

December 23, 2009 The hull seems very strong and stable now. I tried squeezing the sides together with a hand on each side and it's very stiff. Doesn't give much at all. I squeezed a little harder, but stopped that foolishness immediately when I heard a slight *crack*. I've decided to work on the transom/counter. The pieces back there that have come loose and fallen out over the last few weeks pushed me to tackle that area, and catch it up to the rest of the hull-- I've put the rest of the inner counter timbers in, which will all be covered by planking-- Now for the outer counter timbers, which are very complex and are an important part of the appearance of the transom. First I cut a paper template of the shape-- Traced it onto a block of 3/8" boxwood-- Cutting the pieces out-- These blanks need to be shaped in two directions-- The one in the foreground is about the right thickness here-- It looks about right-- From the stern, you can see the timber needs more curvature at the wale-- So I boiled the piece for about 5 minutes and tried bending it. Still very stiff. I boiled it some more, but it really doesn't want to bend, and I broke it. This is not going to work-- Plan B-glue up a thicker counter timber blank. I had to cut two more blanks from my boxwood block, and another set from a thinner billet to make up thicker blanks-- While I was sanding the first set of blanks, and test fitting it to the hull, I realized I need to cut back the wale about 3/32" at the stern. So while my new timber blanks were drying, I trimmed the wale with a knife and chisels-- Then I started shaping the second set of counter timbers-- After a short while, I realized that my template wasn't quite right, and I didn't have the right angles and curve to ensure a good fit. I had to abandon the second set of blanks and try again. I feel like I'm using up my limited stock of boxwood at an alarming rate. I hope I don't have to do this again! This time I used just a partial piece of the thinner stock to cut down on the amount of sanding-- While these dried, and because I was a little discouraged and tired of sanding, I looked at the stern some more, and decided that it would be okay to plank the counter and transom before gluing the outer counter timbers on. So I glued a temporary guide at the point where the hull and counter planking should meet-- And glued planking on--a nice simple first planking job-- Then I chiseled and filed the ends to a rough shape for the counter timbers-- Next I need to plank the upper part of the transom. I'll also use a temporary piece at the joint between the lower and upper parts, because that piece needs a fancy profile and I'm not ready to tackle that. You can see here the "slot" at the junction of the wale and counter that the doubly curved counter timber needs to fit into. The upper strake of this planked section also has a curve that needs some more fine tuning. The area below the counter looks like it need a good deal more fairing to be right for the hull planking-- December 31, 2009 I have spent a good part of two days continuing my work on the transom. First I needed to edge bend some planking for the upper part of the transom. The curve on the front of my work table looked close enough-- Here is the transom planked. Later I will cut out the two stern ports. They need to be adjusted inward from where the framing puts them (an adjustment needed by my slightly narrow stern). They also need to be adjusted vertically to coordinate with the planking strakes. The kit instructions called for the transom planking to be a few wide planks (about 18" in scale), but I opted for narrower planking that could follow the double curve of the transom-- Next I went back to work on the outer counter timbers. I very roughly shaped the starboard one, and then temporarily glued it on to do further sanding-- Here it is sanded down quite a bit-- A comparison photo of the mostly shaped starboard piece and the still very rough port piece-- After some more shaping of the port timber (I used my rotary tool sanding drum up to this point) here is the comparison of the two pieces-- As I did with the starboard side, I temporarily glued the piece on to do more sanding (now all by hand)-- This is just about right for now-- I removed the piece and here are the two. They are not exact twins, and there is more shaping to be done, but that will wait until I glue them permanently-- Next I iron stained the transom-- And take a breather. I've also cleaned out this room enough that I can now work here instead of the dining room table [That plan didn't last very long]-- Ron

December 16, 2009 The gunport sills have now been glued in. [You might wonder why they were glued now, so far in advance of the deck, waterway, etc. This is clearly not the order that the actual ship would be built. Gluing them now makes it easiest to get good joints between sills, the wale and the waterway. Then the deck can be built up afterwards for good tight fit.] The gunport sills have now been glued in-- I have to think now about what to do next. Probably the deck clamps, which is going to take some studying about what to do at the stern. There doesn't seem to be enough space to fit everything. I think I will need to remove some more material from the aft most frames where the deck beams and clamps are to go. December 20, 2009 There's definitely not enough room at the stern! I'll have to do some surgery on the frames and a little fakery on the deck beams when I get to them. The whole deck will be planked, so none of that will show. I'm going to work my way down to the clamps. The order of construction (on the model, not real practice) is 1)Wale 2)Sills 3)Waterway 4(Deck beam temporary spacers 5)Clamps. Then after the clamps are in, I'll remove the temporary spacers and install the deck beams. At least that's the plan! I'll do each waterway in three pieces. Here's a center piece-- It's temporarily clamped in order to see if the sills need some trimming. They do. The sills should extend just a bit less than the edge of the waterway. [i modeled the waterway and sills to be similar to the replica of Niagara, which I had recently visited. I later saw photos of Glenn Grieco's model of the Jefferson for the Institute of Nautical Archeology, where he had chamfered the waterway in between the sills to a more usual shape. A nice detail that I wish I had done]-- Sanding the edges of the sills-- Gluing the first piece in-- Here's the stern piece being glued in-- And a view that shows the run of the port waterway under the sills-- The bow pieces are next. I think I may need to use a wider piece and sand it down to shape. The cross section should change from rectangular to trapezoidal as it curves forward to the stem. I could ignore this if I was going to build the forcastle deck, but since I'm not doing that, the forward section of the main deck will be visible. December 21, 2009 Here's the work on the bow waterway pieces: First I boiled a couple .125 x .25 inch pieces--the rest of the waterway is .125 x .18 inch, so these are quite a bit wider. Then clamped them to the bow to dry-- I checked them after a couple hours, then moved them closer to the final position to dry some more-- Once dry I was able to sand them to the right width on a piece of sandpaper flat on my table. Because the bend and twist are set, the changing bevel along the top and bottom of the piece took care of itself. The end bevel was more tricky to sand. Here is one piece done, and the other "raw"-- The pieces are dry fit here. They are not exactly in position, when they are the gap at the stem should go away. [it didn't. In my sanding and resanding the bevel at the tip, I made the starboard piece too short. If this was going to show I would redo the pieces, but this joint will be quite hidden by the bowsprit. However, if it ends up being necessary I'll put a little filler piece in.]-- Gluing the waterway piece in-- All done! Ron

December 2, 2009 I have started a concoction for simulating ebony. I'm very curious now to see how it turns out. [i realize this is a little repetitious since I only recently showed doing this at the start of the new site log--but I included this for the sake of completeness, and these photos showed the process well.] [Also, this seems kind of abrupt in the log since in the last post I was doing gunport sills. I needed to stain the wale black before gluing those sills on.] On the left is a packet of Quebracho Bark powder, ordered from a taxidermy supply website. On the right is a hunk of steel wool stuffed into a bottle about a quarter full of plain vinegar-- I need to wait for the steel wool to disintegrate into rust, then I'll continue. December 7, 2007 Not much happening with Oneida. I wait for my steel wool in vinegar to rust. It looks pretty disgusting-- I feel like a mad scientist-- December 10, 2009 I decided to test the witches brew, and see if it was ready to go-- The result was a very rich black (this also has some Tung Oil Finish on it), so I decided to go ahead and stain the wales. First I masked off the frames below the wale. I suspected that this wouldn't completely keep the stain from seeping onto adjacent areas, but I hoped the tape would help minimize it. The only critical areas are at the stem and on the port side frames which I hope to leave exposed below the wale. If there's too much seepage, or it can't be removed I can put a strake below the wale to cover any staining on the frames-- Now, here's the procedure: First I strained some of the steel wool/vinegar into a small cup-- Then in another cup mixed up some Quebracho bark tea-- Here are the two mixtures ready to go-- First the wale needs a complete soaking with the bark tea. This took a couple of passes to make sure the wood had absorbed enough-- After letting the wood set a little (just so the tea is soaked in and not standing on the surface), the iron stain is painted on. It goes on just barely darker at first-- But within a minute it starts to turn black-- And after about 5 minutes, the time it took to paint the sides, top and bottom of the wale, it turns completely black-- After this dries--the wet black turns to a slightly lighter flat tone--it is washed again with the bark tea-- This deepens the black, and it's done-- The port side wale (which I had done this afternoon) has now had a light sanding and light initial coat of finish. I won't do any more finishing than this because I'll probably need to glue things to the wale-- Is it any better than just painting the wale? I think it does look better. It's black without covering the grain--which shows if you look close. I can't say how close it is to ebony, I don't have any. But it's definitely black. And hopefully it won't disintegrate the wood or glue. Time will tell. Next is finishing the gun port sills and gluing them on. Ron

November 15, 2009 I could go a number of different directions now. The Lumberyard instructions are listed by topic, i.e. "Building Frames, "Counter Timbers", Wales". However they are listed alphabetically and not in building order. So you have to look at everything (which is a good idea anyway) before you know what to do next. At this point I could work on the decorative fashion timbers and the transom planking, or I could work on the port sills followed by the deck clamps, or even the bulwark and/or hull planking. I've decided to do the gunport sills and deck clamps, to further strenthen the hull. First step now is to sand the bulwarks down to final thickness, which I can do with much less trepidation knowing the wales have added strength to, and helped stabilize, the hull. I took the temporary deck beams out and am now sanding away-- While I was sanding the bulwarks I thought I better see how high they really are supposed to be. I was surprised at how much taller they were than they needed to be. I cut a spacer piece and slid it along the top of the wale, marking a consistent line at the correct bulwark height-- Then I carefully took most of the excess off with this dangerous tool-- And hand sanded down to just a little above the line-- I also made the decision to go ahead and cut two new forward gun ports. I'm going to supply the ship with two long six-pounders instead of the long 32 pounder on the pivot. It's doubtful the ship was even built with the forcastle deck and 32-pounder. Possibly I will still build the 32 pounder, and forcastle deck, and display the big pivot gun on its own on the display base board-- November 28, 2009 Today I finished sanding the bulwark thickness at the bow-- Next I went along the hull, and with a small chisel cut down (where needed) and evened up the framing at the bottom of the gunports so the sills would fit-- Now I have to cut replacement port sills. I want to use pear instead of cherry, and they need to be about 1/16th inch thick instead of 1/8th. I'm stealing a piece of the wider hull planking strips to cut the new port sills [some things don't work out right if you mix woods on the Oneida kit, because of which particular billets various pieces are located. Not a big problem though, and in this case I needed thinner sills anyway because of my carronade modifications]-- Here are the rough cut sills, along with the kit piece, and a new shaped piece-- Here is a the shaped sill dry fitted. It sits flush with the top of the wale. In the photo you can't see the joint between the sill and the wale. The gap on the right will be covered by the bulwark planking-- Ron