AON

Made my transfer batten from a piece of plaster wall lath (hemlock strip). Marked off each quarter location and step where the diameter dimensions were indicated. I was concerned my three pieced glued mast might pull apart on the lathe during turning so I marked off where the hoops and woolding bands are located and drilled #31 hole on centre at each location through the port/starboard sides and pinned through each hole with a 1/8" dowel. I lightly crimp notched the surface of the dowel with the grooves on my pliers, applied wood glue, then tapped it through the hole and cut it flush. Belts and braces. This might not have been necessary but I'd rather not find out. Once the woolding ropes are wound on the lower pins will be hidden. The upper pins will be under the cheeks so they won't be visible either. Now we let that dry and cure. Turning hopefully tomorrow.

Sanded the spindle to shape. Glued up the three pieces (side trees and spindle) and left them clamped overnight. Trimmed the excess off the sides of the tree blanks and put these pieces aside to be used for the aft fish and cheeks. Now being square I can shave off the four corners a bit and it will be ready to turn down to size.... maybe tomorrow or Wednesday. I've prepared another sheet with location and diameter info that will be transferred to a batten which can be held against the part on the lathe to help relocate these critical spots once the pencil marks have be cut away. I will leave the square ends untouched to help me relocate the four sides to create the flats for the fore and aft fish and side cheeks. Hopefully I've thought this through adequately.

For me the 27ft Whalers were single banked while the 32ft Cutters were double banked.

Extremely short frames progress report: I am presently working on square frames 13Aft to 11Aft having made up a batch of new blanks. As the nice weather is upon us I will find myself drawn outside to soak up some vitamin D from the glorious sun. I will be making another attempt at my figure head while out there. Third time is the charm??? Always eager to attempt something new, I spent a considerable amount of time studying the construction of "made masts". My ship would have had them for all the lower masts. The problem with these are that all the pieces that make up a "made mast" are hidden from view so the question that begs to be answered is "why bother?". My answer seems to be "for the challenge of it". I'll try one to start. My bowsprit is already done so it was spared the trial. I've drawn up a simplified version of the Main Mast and will attempt it first. I've ripped and planed two blank pieces for the side trees and one for the spindle (and one spare). I've completed the notching of the side trees to accept the spindle by double side taping the two pieces together with the centre of each facing upwards. I rubber cemented my cutout pattern to the outsides of each and double side taped two hacksaw blades to the pattern with the non-tooth edge lined up to the edge of the cutout on the pattern to act as a stop guide when removing the waste. I removed the waste from the spindle notch with a wood rasp and files. Presently the spindle blank ready to be shaped. I rubber cemented my template to one side and will use my 90° setup block as a backer to hold it dead parallel to the bench disk sander on the rest plate. This will take some patience to assure the fit is proper... even though no one will see 80% of it as it will be inside the mast! The lower portion will be hidden by the front and rear fish pieces. Wish me luck.

Excellent photo of the brass tube support.... it answered all my questions. Even the ones I didn't know I had yet!

looking more and more like life size

Stay safe.

The ones I knew had not changed much in those hundred years...only when they started using fiberglass hulls a few years after my time. I hadn't appreciate the American cutter was considerably different. Always have time to learn something different.

Thank you for the link to the photos and lines. This is not like the cutter I was familiar with in the very early 70's which explains my confusion... I thought it was my mind slipping again. 🤪 Alan

Have you a photo of the area from the real boat you can share? It will help me appreciate what you're assembling as opposed to what I think I remember from 50 years ago. Alan

Apparently (per a video I watch a short while ago) cleaning out the sawdust from all the nooks and crannies in and under table saws should be a regular occurance to avoid an electrical fire.

To put that in perspective... That is about the thickness of 4 human hairs side by side.

The wife claims she heard you using your "sailor words" ... muffled as it was due to the distance.

OMG... I am so much smarter this morning for having visited! I've looked back but cannot find the answer to my one question: are you using PVA or CA glue to nail this strake in place?

Mike Pongee de Soie is not Silkspan. Silkspan is very much like the material used to make Tea bags... When I first saw it that was exactly what I thought of. Alan

got the booklet from LVT in yesterday's mail and was studying it myself.

Tom wonderful bowsprit rigging beautifully clear and focused photos thank you. Alan

A blended colour. I work with acrylic paints in a tube and put a small dab of black and white on my palette then mix a tiny bit of white into it, adding more if necessary to get something not quite Grey but more dirty... a smokey black. So it is as if the sun's rays caught it at just the right angle to give it a little highlight and make it appear out of nowhere. I paint it onto the raised surfaces sparingly with a fan type brush. A hint of a different shade. I am not an artist... but it works.

Use thick paper, print it on the paper, cut it out with a scalpel, paste it to the barrel. In real life I think they protrude about 3/4" minimum so what is that at your build scale? After painting the whole thing flat black highlight the raised parts with a smokey black.

Yes but the person doing the captions did a bad job of it. Thank goodness I seem to speak a version of Australian 😉

I stumbled onto this video this morning. At 52.27 minutes long I was sure I'd watch 5 minutes or fast forward a bunch but I found it captivating. I feel that understanding how a wooden bucket is made will help modellers create realistic looking buckets for their ship models.

Ras I love the bulldog clip planking clamp! Alan

All I can wonder is... how do you hide mistakes at that scale?

When making my spritsail and spritsail topsail yards I was wondering somewhat the same thing. I discovered these sails were mainly used when running (wind from behind), and their existence depended on the era. My build straddled the time period of having a spritsail topsail and not having it. At first I couldn't see the use of my spritsail topsail as the spritsail would surely have stolen all the wind from it... but then when I did a mock up I realized the angle of the bowsprit allowed the spritsail topsail to be set just above the spritsail so it would catch a breeze. The martingale, dolphin striker, and bobstay was a concern for me... but when my build was first commissioned there was no dolphin striker. Then I could imagine the spritsail topsail being slipped in just above all this for a period, until they realized it just wasn't worth the effort. Progress seems to move slowly sometimes.

sounds like a case for a need of a quantity of wood filler as I cannot imagine my cutting a straight enough line to result in a good fit