Bob Cleek

Apart what Bob said about 'restoration', there are couple of (European) books around on pond-yachts. One late 19th century one would be:
 
Walton, J.E. (1880): Model Yachts and Model Yacht Sailing: How to Build, Rig, and Sail a Self-acting Model Yacht.- 101 p. (Griffith and Farran),
https://books.google.fr/books?id=qrQ3AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
There has also been already a thread on this subject: 
 
 
 
 

Boy, do I !  Actually, polyurethane has its uses and, for those, it's great stuff. (It's great for hardwood floors and table tops that are going to see hard use.) Thinned, it can be wiped on wood and will result in a fairly decent finish if done correctly. That said, if you ever had the pleasure of having to refinish anything to which it's been applied, well... I share your pain. Maybe it's the Luddite in me, but there's just something about coating fine wood grown in the glow of God's smile with plastic that bothers me to no end.  

Your description, "a 1920's pond racer," serves only to put the knowledgeable reader on notice that it is possible, however remotely, that you may have in your possession an antique model, perhaps of some value. One hundred year old pond yachts have become desirable collectables in recent times. I would expect you may wish to request that a competent modeler who is familiar with the type send you a private message with their proposal for appraising the model and advising you as to whether or not it is worthy of a professional restoration. It would be a shame to cause further damage to a valuable restorable antique by mucking around with it yourself. Just remember what they say on Antiques Roadshow: "Well, it's worth about $10,000, but if you hadn't refinished it with wipe-on polyurethane, it would have been worth $250,000." 

Your description, "a 1920's pond racer," serves only to put the knowledgeable reader on notice that it is possible, however remotely, that you may have in your possession an antique model, perhaps of some value. One hundred year old pond yachts have become desirable collectables in recent times. I would expect you may wish to request that a competent modeler who is familiar with the type send you a private message with their proposal for appraising the model and advising you as to whether or not it is worthy of a professional restoration. It would be a shame to cause further damage to a valuable restorable antique by mucking around with it yourself. Just remember what they say on Antiques Roadshow: "Well, it's worth about $10,000, but if you hadn't refinished it with wipe-on polyurethane, it would have been worth $250,000." 

Your description, "a 1920's pond racer," serves only to put the knowledgeable reader on notice that it is possible, however remotely, that you may have in your possession an antique model, perhaps of some value. One hundred year old pond yachts have become desirable collectables in recent times. I would expect you may wish to request that a competent modeler who is familiar with the type send you a private message with their proposal for appraising the model and advising you as to whether or not it is worthy of a professional restoration. It would be a shame to cause further damage to a valuable restorable antique by mucking around with it yourself. Just remember what they say on Antiques Roadshow: "Well, it's worth about $10,000, but if you hadn't refinished it with wipe-on polyurethane, it would have been worth $250,000." 

Boy, do I !  Actually, polyurethane has its uses and, for those, it's great stuff. (It's great for hardwood floors and table tops that are going to see hard use.) Thinned, it can be wiped on wood and will result in a fairly decent finish if done correctly. That said, if you ever had the pleasure of having to refinish anything to which it's been applied, well... I share your pain. Maybe it's the Luddite in me, but there's just something about coating fine wood grown in the glow of God's smile with plastic that bothers me to no end.  

I've had a lot of experience with penetrating epoxies in full-scale boatbuilding applications. "Git Rot," a U.S. product that's been around a long time is quite outdated technology at this time. It continues to sell for some reason. I suspect it's its trade name, which promises much more than it can ever accomplish. The industry standard penetrating epoxy sealer for the last few decades is "Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer," ("CPES"tm) manufactured by Smith and Company. Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (smithandcompany.org) "Git Rot" is the consistency of honey. "CPES" is the consistency of water. "CPES" is an epoxy product which saturates the wood fibers and then cures, producing an epoxy saturated wood. It doesn't simply sit on the surface of the wood, like "Git Rot." "CPES" isn't simply "thinned epoxy," which can be easily mixed up by thinning epoxy resin with acetone. It contains serious-business solvents which you don't want to spend a lot of time inhaling in a closed area. "CPES" doesn't penetrate wood much deeper than water would, so a lot depends on the grain orientation and wood species in how deep the penetration goes. On flat-sawn surfaces, it can be as little as a 34th of an inch. Into edge-grain surfaces, it can easily penetrate a quarter inch or more and in open-grain species like white oak, penetration to the length of the grain is possible in pressurized or vacuum applications. All of which is to say that there's really no benefit to be had by laying a "crust" of epoxy saturated wood over the surface of a piece. The epoxy will not provide any substantial increase in strength or impact resistance and will be quite difficult to sand smooth, as well. In fact, in terms of surface hardness and sealing ability, a coating of thinned shellac will produce much the same result as penetrating epoxy for much less trouble, mess, and expense.
 
That said, I agree strongly with Roger Pellett's point that there is no reason not to use quality wood species suitable for the modeling purposes. In terms of cost, construction time, appearance, if that be an issue, and overall engineering suitability, there are any number of wood species anywhere one might be, short of Antarctica, that will serve the purpose better than balsa wood. Balsa is a very soft, light wood. It has very little strength compared to other species. It is difficult to work with because it does not hold a sharp, crisp edge when cut and it does not sand smooth without the use of a sanding sealer which adds additional steps to the finishing process. 
 
The quality of the materials that go into a ship model have a lot to do with how long that model survives. A quality model is more highly valued and appreciated than one made with inferior materials. Some modelers have expressed their belief that quality materials don't matter to them because they are only building for fun and that perspective has a certain commonsense appeal, to be sure. However, for the more anally inclined, I'd recommend Dan Wegner's classic article on "Ephemeral Materials in Ship Models" as the serious ship modeler's guide to modeling materials. Nautical Research Guild - Article - Ephemeral Materials in Ship Models (thenrg.org)
 
 

Boy, do I !  Actually, polyurethane has its uses and, for those, it's great stuff. (It's great for hardwood floors and table tops that are going to see hard use.) Thinned, it can be wiped on wood and will result in a fairly decent finish if done correctly. That said, if you ever had the pleasure of having to refinish anything to which it's been applied, well... I share your pain. Maybe it's the Luddite in me, but there's just something about coating fine wood grown in the glow of God's smile with plastic that bothers me to no end.  

Avi,
 
Here are a couple of photos of the two styles. 
 
The first one shows hooked ends to three deck planks. The planks themselves are tapered and curved which reduces the number of hooks, and at the stern the tapering removes the need for hooks or nibbles. The photo also shows hooked scarf joints. The pink colour is deliberate for this Bermuda built schooner. 
 

 
The second picture is of a cutter and has nibbling, also called joggling (please correct me anyone if my definitions are wrong). I used a cheat method for the joggling, which was to first take the planks right up to the bulwarks. The waterway is cut from paper and is glued on top of the deck planks. This is much easier than trying to match cuts in the wood but depends on finding paper of the right colour. (The joggling on this model is quite extreme and the deck planks near the centre line could just have the ends cut at an angle to match a plain waterway.) 
 

 
Hope this helps,
George
 
 
 

Ship model building flourished during the 1930’s and 40’s encouraged by serialized articles published in Popular Mechanics and Mechanics Illustrated Magazines and probably because it did not require a lot of expensive materials in depression era America and later during WWII.  These models featured hulls carved from solid blocks or laminated pieces of pine.
 
During the 1970’s there were a number of articles published in the Nautical Research Journal and Model Shipwright Magazine advocating use of today’s classic ship modeling woods; Boxwood, Pear, holly, etc.  This was in connection with making built up or Admiralty style models.  About this same time, POB model kits began to be imported into the US.  Heavily marketed, they displaced many of the traditional American solid hull kits.  Hooking on to the desire of the uninformed to build a “museum quality” model these kits often feature deluxe sounding but unsuitable Woods like a brown wood marketed as walnut.
 
I have two models built by my father with solid pine carved hulls.  One is over 70 years old and one is over 80, even though adhesives used today are much better than those available to him.  Both are in perfect condition.  The solid hull construction method using readily available inexpensive pine lumber should not be overlooked by scratch builders wanting to build a model that can be passed along to grandchildren and great grandchildren.
 
Roger

Bob, you really do hate polyurethane don't you. 

Your description, "a 1920's pond racer," serves only to put the knowledgeable reader on notice that it is possible, however remotely, that you may have in your possession an antique model, perhaps of some value. One hundred year old pond yachts have become desirable collectables in recent times. I would expect you may wish to request that a competent modeler who is familiar with the type send you a private message with their proposal for appraising the model and advising you as to whether or not it is worthy of a professional restoration. It would be a shame to cause further damage to a valuable restorable antique by mucking around with it yourself. Just remember what they say on Antiques Roadshow: "Well, it's worth about $10,000, but if you hadn't refinished it with wipe-on polyurethane, it would have been worth $250,000." 

Your description, "a 1920's pond racer," serves only to put the knowledgeable reader on notice that it is possible, however remotely, that you may have in your possession an antique model, perhaps of some value. One hundred year old pond yachts have become desirable collectables in recent times. I would expect you may wish to request that a competent modeler who is familiar with the type send you a private message with their proposal for appraising the model and advising you as to whether or not it is worthy of a professional restoration. It would be a shame to cause further damage to a valuable restorable antique by mucking around with it yourself. Just remember what they say on Antiques Roadshow: "Well, it's worth about $10,000, but if you hadn't refinished it with wipe-on polyurethane, it would have been worth $250,000." 

I've had a lot of experience with penetrating epoxies in full-scale boatbuilding applications. "Git Rot," a U.S. product that's been around a long time is quite outdated technology at this time. It continues to sell for some reason. I suspect it's its trade name, which promises much more than it can ever accomplish. The industry standard penetrating epoxy sealer for the last few decades is "Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer," ("CPES"tm) manufactured by Smith and Company. Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (smithandcompany.org) "Git Rot" is the consistency of honey. "CPES" is the consistency of water. "CPES" is an epoxy product which saturates the wood fibers and then cures, producing an epoxy saturated wood. It doesn't simply sit on the surface of the wood, like "Git Rot." "CPES" isn't simply "thinned epoxy," which can be easily mixed up by thinning epoxy resin with acetone. It contains serious-business solvents which you don't want to spend a lot of time inhaling in a closed area. "CPES" doesn't penetrate wood much deeper than water would, so a lot depends on the grain orientation and wood species in how deep the penetration goes. On flat-sawn surfaces, it can be as little as a 34th of an inch. Into edge-grain surfaces, it can easily penetrate a quarter inch or more and in open-grain species like white oak, penetration to the length of the grain is possible in pressurized or vacuum applications. All of which is to say that there's really no benefit to be had by laying a "crust" of epoxy saturated wood over the surface of a piece. The epoxy will not provide any substantial increase in strength or impact resistance and will be quite difficult to sand smooth, as well. In fact, in terms of surface hardness and sealing ability, a coating of thinned shellac will produce much the same result as penetrating epoxy for much less trouble, mess, and expense.
 
That said, I agree strongly with Roger Pellett's point that there is no reason not to use quality wood species suitable for the modeling purposes. In terms of cost, construction time, appearance, if that be an issue, and overall engineering suitability, there are any number of wood species anywhere one might be, short of Antarctica, that will serve the purpose better than balsa wood. Balsa is a very soft, light wood. It has very little strength compared to other species. It is difficult to work with because it does not hold a sharp, crisp edge when cut and it does not sand smooth without the use of a sanding sealer which adds additional steps to the finishing process. 
 
The quality of the materials that go into a ship model have a lot to do with how long that model survives. A quality model is more highly valued and appreciated than one made with inferior materials. Some modelers have expressed their belief that quality materials don't matter to them because they are only building for fun and that perspective has a certain commonsense appeal, to be sure. However, for the more anally inclined, I'd recommend Dan Wegner's classic article on "Ephemeral Materials in Ship Models" as the serious ship modeler's guide to modeling materials. Nautical Research Guild - Article - Ephemeral Materials in Ship Models (thenrg.org)
 
 

Your description, "a 1920's pond racer," serves only to put the knowledgeable reader on notice that it is possible, however remotely, that you may have in your possession an antique model, perhaps of some value. One hundred year old pond yachts have become desirable collectables in recent times. I would expect you may wish to request that a competent modeler who is familiar with the type send you a private message with their proposal for appraising the model and advising you as to whether or not it is worthy of a professional restoration. It would be a shame to cause further damage to a valuable restorable antique by mucking around with it yourself. Just remember what they say on Antiques Roadshow: "Well, it's worth about $10,000, but if you hadn't refinished it with wipe-on polyurethane, it would have been worth $250,000." 

As a dentist who has spent a half century using rotary hand tools, I have my preferences.  But here are my reviews of other hobby alternatives ...
 
 
 
 
I hope this gave you a little more information.
 
Paul

Although a horde of ants climbing in your rigging might be a bit disconcerting for some!

Yes, my mother was a "scrub nurse," what would now be called a "surgical assistant," I suppose. We had a fair amount of the same sort of things in everyday use around the house: bandage scissors, needle holders, hemostats, curved Kellys and the like. I still have a few pieces. Back in the old days, instruments were high quality and autoclaved and reused. Nowdays, a lot of them are disposable and correspondingly of lower quality because they are "single use" and don't have to last. A lot of the old-time basins and trays were monel metal, too. Now, if plastics will serve the purpose, that's what they use and then just throw them out. A doc I know explained that it was difficult to access used instruments these days because with the bodily fluid transmissible diseases like HIV and hepatitis everything is designated as "hazardous bio-waste" so it's disposed of following strict haz-mat protocols. 

Amen to that! Do you have a recommendation for a reliable source of surgical instruments that aren't super expensive? The ones I see on eBay and elsewhere all seem to be the cheesy ones that are made in Pakistan.

Yes, you've correctly identified your problem. Pin, or brad, "pushers" are made in a variety of sizes to fit the brads and pins they are intended to push.
 
Here's an example of a pin pusher made for small ("lil") pins often found in ship model kits:
 

 
 
Model Craft PPU8174 Pen Grip Pin Pusher (activescalemodels.co.uk)\
 
and another:
 

 
Pin Pusher & 100 pins | eBay
 
The pusher you have purchased is designed for much larger brads or escutcheon pins. This size brad pusher is frequently employed by picture framers to push finishing nails into picture frames.
 

 
 
These pushers are handy if you have a lot of pins to insert, but holes must always be drilled in wood when inserting pins. Attempting to push a brad or pin in wood without drilling a pilot hole will usually result in a bent pin, a cracked piece of wood, or both. 
 
I've acquired a few pin pushers of various sizes over the years at garage sales and the like and I occasionally use one, but a more versatile and more easily controlled solution, as Jaager sagely notes, is a pin insertion plier.
 

 
Pin Insertion Plier - - Amazon.com
 

The way I think of it, kits are assembled, while scratch models are built. It's a subtle distinction, to be sure. However, at the end of the day, every model stands alone on its own merits. The same goes for every modeler. For me, "amateur" or "professional" are virtually meaningless terms, particularly because with the possible exception of a handful of impoverished "starving artists," very, very few people can seriously claim to earn a living building or repairing ship models. There are those, of course, who earn their livings selling modeling kits, materials, plans, books, and so on. That's the the "gold rush economy." The  gold miners made little, while the guys who sold them the shovels got rich!  

The way I think of it, kits are assembled, while scratch models are built. It's a subtle distinction, to be sure. However, at the end of the day, every model stands alone on its own merits. The same goes for every modeler. For me, "amateur" or "professional" are virtually meaningless terms, particularly because with the possible exception of a handful of impoverished "starving artists," very, very few people can seriously claim to earn a living building or repairing ship models. There are those, of course, who earn their livings selling modeling kits, materials, plans, books, and so on. That's the the "gold rush economy." The  gold miners made little, while the guys who sold them the shovels got rich!  

Yes, my mother was a "scrub nurse," what would now be called a "surgical assistant," I suppose. We had a fair amount of the same sort of things in everyday use around the house: bandage scissors, needle holders, hemostats, curved Kellys and the like. I still have a few pieces. Back in the old days, instruments were high quality and autoclaved and reused. Nowdays, a lot of them are disposable and correspondingly of lower quality because they are "single use" and don't have to last. A lot of the old-time basins and trays were monel metal, too. Now, if plastics will serve the purpose, that's what they use and then just throw them out. A doc I know explained that it was difficult to access used instruments these days because with the bodily fluid transmissible diseases like HIV and hepatitis everything is designated as "hazardous bio-waste" so it's disposed of following strict haz-mat protocols. 

Yes, my mother was a "scrub nurse," what would now be called a "surgical assistant," I suppose. We had a fair amount of the same sort of things in everyday use around the house: bandage scissors, needle holders, hemostats, curved Kellys and the like. I still have a few pieces. Back in the old days, instruments were high quality and autoclaved and reused. Nowdays, a lot of them are disposable and correspondingly of lower quality because they are "single use" and don't have to last. A lot of the old-time basins and trays were monel metal, too. Now, if plastics will serve the purpose, that's what they use and then just throw them out. A doc I know explained that it was difficult to access used instruments these days because with the bodily fluid transmissible diseases like HIV and hepatitis everything is designated as "hazardous bio-waste" so it's disposed of following strict haz-mat protocols. 

Amen to that! Do you have a recommendation for a reliable source of surgical instruments that aren't super expensive? The ones I see on eBay and elsewhere all seem to be the cheesy ones that are made in Pakistan.