Pre-made deck planking sheets

[Rcboater Bill]

I have some of those commercially available sheets of planking- the ones with the thin black lines to simulate the caulking between the planks.  You find these in the simpler kits, and they are also sold separately.

They generally look pretty good, and hit the 80/20 rule, which is good enough for me in many cases.  (80% of the look for about 20% of the effort, compared to doing it the “real” way.)

 

A problem with them is that all the “planks” run the full length of the sheet, which looks a little odd, especially on longer pieces.

 

Is there a trick for adding in lines to simulate plank ends?  A pen is too dark, and the ink bleeds into the grain. Maybe there’s a pencil that would work?  I was going to try a variety of colors and hardness options, but then I thought this may be a wheel that has already been invented.....?

 

TIA for any advice...

 

-Bill

 

[ccoyle]

One possibility would be to grind a chisel blade for a hobby knife down to the plank width. Run the blade edge across a permanent marker and then use it to gently stamp a butt joint between planks. The amount of ink transferred would be very small and shouldn't bleed badly.

[Rcboater Bill]

Thanks- the chisel idea has promise. I had thought about a using a scriber, but that might tear the wood fibers, plus it would be easy to overshoot the stop lines — a chisel solves both those problems.

[hexnut]

You could also try a dark grey colored pencil--I like Prismacolor.  The "lead" is soft, but an electric pencil sharpener will help keep a fine tip, and putting them in the refrigerator helps to keep the lines crisp (seriously).

 

[Rcboater Bill]

Bluejacket Shipcrafters is one source-  search for “glued-up decking”.

 

[marktiedens]

MicroMark has the glued up decking also.

 

Mark