Bill Hime

Thanks for all the "likes" and comments.  After getting everything else around the house done and then getting the new mill set up, i'm busily planking the lower deck.
 
The first six strakes are finally in and I'm happy with them although there's some serious sanding in my future as they aren't all the same thickness...    But I've sorted out the planking scheme that I need to lay down.  This deck is all 1 foot wide and 4" thick planking.  It's actually thicker then the gundeck which is 3" thick but mostly not as wide.  I'll fight that battle when I get to the gundeck as there are some varying widths and thicknesses there.  
 
For the lower deck, as near as I can find, the planks are all run pretty much the same width from fore to aft with hook scarfs at the bow and some tapering at the stern.  I'm going full width but with the partitions fore and aft, I'm not planking much beyond them...  One reason is that the Admirals Plaque is behind the aft partition in the gunroom.
 
Here's a pic.  
 

 

Dan,
 
That's part of where I'm buried in....       But life has got in the way but I am making progress.   There's also the issue of bending the deck planking to fit the curve of the hull with a bit of head scratching going on.  But I think I'm on the right track at this point.  Lower deck, not raised in the center section, gundeck it is raised.   Also I'm noting that the coaming for the hatches sit on top of the planks at least on the lower deck.  I did the first version gundeck with the raised center section and flush hatches.  
 
I'm also looking hard at the Belle Poule plans but they seem a bit different as the center planks weren't raised.  And then there's the matter of the Great Cabin decking...  which I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
 
I do believe that 3rd picture down is the cross-section for Licorne.      Now if we look at the that section... lower deck hatch coamings and gundeck coamings are on top of the planks, not flush.
 
I'm not pushing too hard on the lower deck..  I'm getting a feel for the work and the look and have had several starts, stops and restarts but that seems to go with the turf.  The gundeck will get the full monty or as much of it as I can bring about. 
 
The other thing I'm still running up against is some things were done the "old way" similar to Renommee as when built.  Other's done the "new" way more like Belle Poule.  I hope it'll get sorted the further I get.  

Hi Mark -
 
Checking in again and love what I am seeing.  Those deck beams are very nicely done, and you should be justifiably proud of them.
 
As for decking, you have to be careful about the differences between British and French practice.  Since the French were strategically blockaded by the British for most of this period, their ship designs favored speed over carrying capacity.  With lighter hulls and scantlings they could make more knots, but the ships 'worked' much more than their British counterpart of similar size.  To counteract this they strengthened the decks with longitudinal stiffeners called binding strakes that were thicker and set into the deck beams, much the way the stringers stiffened the fuselage in those balsa wood planes we all built as kids.
 
Here are several contemporary cross sections of French ships.  Note that the outer binding strakes are set into the deck beams but do not rise above the deck surface. However, the ones toward the center rise above the rest of the deck level.  In fact, the entire center section of the deck is raised.  Frequently these binding strakes are shown on models as being contrasting color from the rest of the deck.  Whether this was true on actual ships, I do not know.
 
Further, as seen in the models, the gratings are set flush with this raised section of deck and do not have the coamings that are such a feature of British ships.
 
Didn't mean to make extra work for you, but hope it helps.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 
 
 
 
  

Bill,
 
Since you are basically going to be starting all over again, I would start a new log in the scratch section and add a link to the new log in this thread.
 
Cheers,

So I will be spending the weekend furthering  the new shipyard along. I have built a separate office/shipyard closed off from the main cabinet shop for obvious reasons...DUST!
I plan on going to Kinko's this weekend to resize the POB II plans from 1:64th scale to 1:48th scale. I know line thickness might be an issue but I'm going to keep this simple... if the line is 3/16th" thick then reason would be that the middle or center 1/16th would be the most reasonable.
I will be using one of the online scale calculators to resize my material's list.
 
The following list of materials will be the features for this build;
 
Bulkheads, filler blocks  will be Hard Maple and Basswood.
 
Deck; Holly and Yellowheart
 
Planking: Redheart
 
Finer details wil be Ebony. Walnut, and brass/copper fittings
 
Planking treenails will be  copper and brass pins
 
 
Wow it's getting late here..2:20 AM Central time.
 
 
 
Good Night!
 
Bill

So I will be spending the weekend furthering  the new shipyard along. I have built a separate office/shipyard closed off from the main cabinet shop for obvious reasons...DUST!
I plan on going to Kinko's this weekend to resize the POB II plans from 1:64th scale to 1:48th scale. I know line thickness might be an issue but I'm going to keep this simple... if the line is 3/16th" thick then reason would be that the middle or center 1/16th would be the most reasonable.
I will be using one of the online scale calculators to resize my material's list.
 
The following list of materials will be the features for this build;
 
Bulkheads, filler blocks  will be Hard Maple and Basswood.
 
Deck; Holly and Yellowheart
 
Planking: Redheart
 
Finer details wil be Ebony. Walnut, and brass/copper fittings
 
Planking treenails will be  copper and brass pins
 
 
Wow it's getting late here..2:20 AM Central time.
 
 
 
Good Night!
 
Bill

Jcoby - Hello my friend! POB II will be larger for sure. I have not decided if she'll be fully masted yet or not. Want to treat her like a fine jewelry box, celebrating the schooner lines and deck with exotic woods and metal details
 
Eamonn - Thank you my friend! I will be starting a log for Connie very soon. I'm suspecting at 10' in length she will be with me for sometime
 
Grant - My dear friend, you've always been so supportive, thank you. The game has commenced
 
 
Bill 

So I will be spending the weekend furthering  the new shipyard along. I have built a separate office/shipyard closed off from the main cabinet shop for obvious reasons...DUST!
I plan on going to Kinko's this weekend to resize the POB II plans from 1:64th scale to 1:48th scale. I know line thickness might be an issue but I'm going to keep this simple... if the line is 3/16th" thick then reason would be that the middle or center 1/16th would be the most reasonable.
I will be using one of the online scale calculators to resize my material's list.
 
The following list of materials will be the features for this build;
 
Bulkheads, filler blocks  will be Hard Maple and Basswood.
 
Deck; Holly and Yellowheart
 
Planking: Redheart
 
Finer details wil be Ebony. Walnut, and brass/copper fittings
 
Planking treenails will be  copper and brass pins
 
 
Wow it's getting late here..2:20 AM Central time.
 
 
 
Good Night!
 
Bill

Jcoby - Hello my friend! POB II will be larger for sure. I have not decided if she'll be fully masted yet or not. Want to treat her like a fine jewelry box, celebrating the schooner lines and deck with exotic woods and metal details
 
Eamonn - Thank you my friend! I will be starting a log for Connie very soon. I'm suspecting at 10' in length she will be with me for sometime
 
Grant - My dear friend, you've always been so supportive, thank you. The game has commenced
 
 
Bill 

Great to see you back Bill. Looking forward to resumption of play!

Great to see you back in action Bill .. !  
 
Don't forget to give us a quick heads up when your Connie build log is up and running so we can shift over there and follow along 
 
All The Best
 
Eamonn

Hello to everyone!
Well my almost annual reopening of the C.W. Hime Shipyard is here once again. So after spending the winter and spring renovating our new property, including a cabin next to the house that we have turned into my cabinet/furniture shop, space was made for the shipyard in the shop.
I'll post some pics of the new space very soon.
 
I also retired from healthcare after 25 years this past February to pursue carpentry full time once again. Business started out with a bang, but herwe recent I'm finding we have no work on the books.
So what a great time to get the shipyard open as the Wisconsin winter will be soon to follow.
 
With that said, back to the Baltimore II;
 
I'm changing this from a kit to a scratch build, scaling my plans from 1:64th to 1:48 scale. I will be using Maple and Basswood for the structure and Redheart and Yellowheart and Holly For blanking and decking. I will be incorporating some Ebony, brass and copper parts for highlights.
 
I'm also starting a log for my scratch build of the USS Constitution half hull diorama. 
 
So I know I've come and gone, for now life is affording me the time to be here, with all of you, doing what we love together.
 
Sincere Regards,
 
Bill

Wow that's going to be an amazing build. At 39.25" total spar length and 26.75" height she's going to be huge! Best of luck. I'll be paying close attention!

Hello to everyone!
Well my almost annual reopening of the C.W. Hime Shipyard is here once again. So after spending the winter and spring renovating our new property, including a cabin next to the house that we have turned into my cabinet/furniture shop, space was made for the shipyard in the shop.
I'll post some pics of the new space very soon.
 
I also retired from healthcare after 25 years this past February to pursue carpentry full time once again. Business started out with a bang, but herwe recent I'm finding we have no work on the books.
So what a great time to get the shipyard open as the Wisconsin winter will be soon to follow.
 
With that said, back to the Baltimore II;
 
I'm changing this from a kit to a scratch build, scaling my plans from 1:64th to 1:48 scale. I will be using Maple and Basswood for the structure and Redheart and Yellowheart and Holly For blanking and decking. I will be incorporating some Ebony, brass and copper parts for highlights.
 
I'm also starting a log for my scratch build of the USS Constitution half hull diorama. 
 
So I know I've come and gone, for now life is affording me the time to be here, with all of you, doing what we love together.
 
Sincere Regards,
 
Bill

Just spent some time here cruising through the whole log. Great work, and even more so that you are showing that a person doesn't need a shop full of fancy tools to do beautiful work. Mastery is in the hands, not the toolbox
 
Best Regards,
 
Bill

Just catching up on this one. Beautiful work Dave! Just hit the follow button
 
 
Bill

Just catching up on this one. Beautiful work Dave! Just hit the follow button
 
 
Bill

Just catching up on this one. Beautiful work Dave! Just hit the follow button
 
 
Bill

Just catching up on this one. Beautiful work Dave! Just hit the follow button
 
 
Bill

Just catching up on this one. Beautiful work Dave! Just hit the follow button
 
 
Bill

First thought, not all glass is created equal! There are different hardness factors and flexibility. Not to mention, brittleness. Weak, cheap glass can even leave micro shards behind, similar to fiberglass. Others like borax glass are very stiff and dense...and will cut you like a straight razor!
 
If you look carefully at a tooled scraper, it's edge is defined but not sharp like a razor. If you look closely at wood that has been sanded with 100 grit paper the pores, or cells, are open but uniform across their plane.
A scraper folds the cell walls over and removes the the uneven material, or fuzz. 400 grit paper and above close the cells as well.
 
Well that's too much info..I like the control of metal scrapers. Lee Valley are great!................bronze and bone work quite well also !
 
 
Bill

First thought, not all glass is created equal! There are different hardness factors and flexibility. Not to mention, brittleness. Weak, cheap glass can even leave micro shards behind, similar to fiberglass. Others like borax glass are very stiff and dense...and will cut you like a straight razor!
 
If you look carefully at a tooled scraper, it's edge is defined but not sharp like a razor. If you look closely at wood that has been sanded with 100 grit paper the pores, or cells, are open but uniform across their plane.
A scraper folds the cell walls over and removes the the uneven material, or fuzz. 400 grit paper and above close the cells as well.
 
Well that's too much info..I like the control of metal scrapers. Lee Valley are great!................bronze and bone work quite well also !
 
 
Bill

First thought, not all glass is created equal! There are different hardness factors and flexibility. Not to mention, brittleness. Weak, cheap glass can even leave micro shards behind, similar to fiberglass. Others like borax glass are very stiff and dense...and will cut you like a straight razor!
 
If you look carefully at a tooled scraper, it's edge is defined but not sharp like a razor. If you look closely at wood that has been sanded with 100 grit paper the pores, or cells, are open but uniform across their plane.
A scraper folds the cell walls over and removes the the uneven material, or fuzz. 400 grit paper and above close the cells as well.
 
Well that's too much info..I like the control of metal scrapers. Lee Valley are great!................bronze and bone work quite well also !
 
 
Bill

I scraped the hull of my Victory to great effect. I started by experimenting with razor blades but moved on to proper scrapers - the Lee Valley ones in fact. One thing I learned was how quickly the scrapers dulled. It is the burr on a scraper that does the work - in effect it acts like a plane. Here's the video that was so helpful to me: http://woodgears.ca/scraper/index.html
 
Best, Ian

The difference between sanding and scraping =  sanding fills the pores on the surface with saw dust. scraping - they are open.  This is important for violins and guitars - not sure about ship models.
 
 
I use single edge razor blades for deck scraping also.
A 5 inch wall scraper blade has uses.  I recently made a handle for mine from a 1x 5x 5/16 piece of hardwood.  Cut a slit for the blade and drilled a hole to match the one in the blade.
 
For heavier scraping, I have use a steel set sold by Lemuel Violins.  It is 7 shapes and the size is right for 1:48 - 1:100 scale range.
https://www.violins.ca/tools/tools_cutting.html