These clever Japanese - how about this for a demonstration in joinery?

[PeteB]

 

Hi Guys not sure if this post is at home here as its not specifically maritime but to my mind could possibly be an alternative to a joining lengths of a keel together with no movement – Wonder if the Japanese ever used it for their Vessels ?

In any event it is a superb demonstration of carpentry to join what appear to be very long lengths of timber using nothing other than a wedge with no discernible sag or movement even after the wedge is removed.

Link to video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPUPyuz_ink

Cheers Pete

[Julie Mo]

Wow!  I watched the video.  If the beams didn't have differences in grain patterns, you wouldn't be able to see where the joint is.

 

Another video came up after that.  What the Japanese do with hand tools!

[grsjax]

Although more elaborate this is pretty much the same method used in the Royal Dock Yards to splice together the long keels of large ships.

[PeteB]

17 hours ago, grsjax said:

Although more elaborate this is pretty much the same method used in the Royal Dock Yards to splice together the long keels of large ships.

 

You're right but I understand keel scarfs had to be bolted together and thus subject to corrosion - the wedge being wood isn't and that contact with water would only make it swell and the joints lock even tighter

 

Glad you guys liked it Cheers Pete

[grsjax]

I would think that anything the size of a ship of the lines keel would require bolting as well as wedging.  Keels were made up of as many as 7 pieces and must have been under tremendous stress and strain all the time.  If I remember correctly there were a couple of different methods of making the scarp in the keel one of which did use a wedge in a similar manner.

[wefalck]

I had seen this before and it is quite amazing. For the parts of a vessel that are permanently under water such complicated joints with many angles and corners may be not such a good proposition, as there would be many places prone to attack by rot. On the prototype the joints would have been tarred before assembly, which would be not so easy to do successfully with the complicated patterns. Besides, such joint are very costly to make, requiring a lot of fitting ...