Looking for Suitable Material Used For Making Shear Poles

[HKC]

Hello Modellers: I am building the old Denmark 1:75 scale and am looking for suitable material for shear poles. As I understand the term, these are the metal rods that are placed between the rigging pins to keep them from turning and they function as the first couple of rungs up to the ratlines on the shrouds. I've included a photo showing the fore mast starboard pins. I constructed them with paper clip wire and 1mm brass tubing. I need to install the shear poles but have a couple of questions. (1) should they be installed between the pins and if so, how, or should they be attached to the outside and overlap the pins slightly. (2) In either case, what material would be suitable? I could cut short lengths of wire and try to glue them in-between the pins but I sense this would be extremely difficult and might not result in a uniform look. Attaching them to the outside allows me to align them but don't know the best material to use (wire, wood, ??)

 

All suggestions and experience gratefully welcome.

 

HKC

 

 

 

[jud]

Not quite sure what you are asking about when you say rigging pins, I see turnbuckles in your photo that are used to set and adjust tension, they work by having a center tube with left hand threads on one end and right hand threads in the other that the eye bolts are threaded to. They are placed with the turnbuckle at it intended longest length with the bolts fully engaged and then the slack, in this case shrouds, is taken up and secured. Then the tension is put into the rig by turning the center piece of the turn buckle with the eye bolts kept from turning while that adjustment is done, then the locking nuts are set to prevent any movement so it is unlikely that your poles in question, are anything other than spreaders that also could provide a place to temporarily tie something off. I would expect them to be wood in a rope rig and steel or iron in a cable rig. Nice work.

jud

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Edited July 30, 2016 by jud

[Jim Lad]

From photos of the Danmark on the web, it seems that she has two sheerpoles on each set of shrouds and that that are lashed to the outside of the bottlescrews in short, separate sections with spaces between.  Have a look on YouTube for videos of the ship to see the exact configuration.  Brass wire would be a good choice of material.

 

John

[HKC]

Thank you Jud and John: 

 

Jud: I misspoke. they are not rigging pins they are called rigging screws (per my plans and also per Underhill's Masting and Rigging book upon which I totally rely. But, you are correct about how they function. Exactly like a turnbuckle.

 

John: I agree that wire would be the best for authenticity. My concern was how to affix the wire. I suppose the answer is "carefully." If you have the time, check out this link http://www.skoleskibet-danmark.dk/picsPHP/galleri.php?album=Togt92  I relied heavily on the photos on this site and updated my old model to some of the current features of the ship.Much of my workmanship leaves a bit to be desired but for a first effort, I'll take it.

 

Thanks again to you both.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Sure the shear pole is used as a step to get onto the ratlines proper, but its real job is to keep the eyes of the shrouds all in the same disposition. Without a shearpole running through the eyes of the shrouds, the ends would turn as tension was applied to them via the turnbuckles or bottlescrews, and all the shrouds would twist to greater or lesser degrees. So you may see extra shearpoles lashed onto or passed through the bottlescrews or turnbuckles themselves to be used as an interim step for people climbing the rigging, you are ALWAYS going to find them threaded through the eyes on all the shrouds and backstays since this is their primary function. Shearpoles on fiber rope shrouds are going to be lashed to the outside of the shrouds with a square lashing at each juncture with a shroud. The ones I most often see are right above the upper deadeyes.

[Jim Lad]

Some very nice photos on that site!

 

Although sheerpoles on ships rigged with bottlescrews often go through the upper eye of the screw, you will note from the photos of the ship that on the Danmark the upper poles are lashed to the outside of the upper eye.

 

I usually fit sheerpoles by securing them with a tiny dab of glue first up and when the glue is dry, lash them to the shroud or bottlescrew with very fine thread.

 

John

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Here is a very unambiguous shot of a shear pole holding two shrouds in the proper alignment to one another, you can see the turnbuckles at the bottom of the shot and the poles pass through the solid metal thimbles inside the eyes of the shrouds. This shot was taken on the bark Glenlee as she was undergoing comprehensive restoration and re-rigging in the 90's. Its taken from Jamie White's excellent website on the subject: http://www.thesquarerigger.com/glenlee_photos_page_9.html

I find it odd that the ship in the link above, the Danmark, is not utilizing the holes in the thimbles for shear poles but is instead using flat bar stock lashed to the turnbuckles. It could be that they simply lacked steel rod of the proper diameter?

Edited July 31, 2016 by JerseyCity Frankie