Skuldelev Wreck 3 (Viking knarr) by Antyronnen - Billing Boats - 1:20

[Louie da fly]

Aah, memories. What year(s) was that?

 

Steven

[Antyronnen]

Riveting stuff!  

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

So, back to the Vikings...

 

Here is a run through the revised, revised version of my rivet-fixing process.  The first set of photos are from yesterday morning, pre-Covid jab.  I have not duplicated photos of steps shown in earlier posts.

 

1.  Drill the hole for the rivet (as before).  I toyed with the idea of putting the rove in place first, then drilling through from the inside but after a moment's thought discarded this idea since the crucial visual alignment has to be the external rivet heads.

 

2.  Cut a small length of copper tape (as before).

 

3.  Pin the rove to a cutting surface and then cut to size.  I used a needle which was finer.

 

 

I discovered two things at this stage.  The good thing was that the cutting actually freed the backing paper making it much easier to separate but the cutting to size was actually easier to do before the pinning (the needle got in the way of the knife).

 

 

4.  Put the needle with the 'skewered' rove into the predrilled hole and press into place.

 

 

 

5.  Insert the copper nail into the hole, finishing off with what I now know is a rivet snap (as before) to dome the head (as before).

 

6.  Cut off excess internal nail (as before)

 

The next set of photos show the final result of the first complete one I did this morning:

 

 

 

After patination

 

 

 

This time I cut the rove before 'skewering' it.  By this stage the rove is quite small so getting the needle in place (as central as possible) takes practice; it also reminded me why I started out by cutting the rove AFTER it was in place, although being able to cut onto a harder board than the strake made for a cleaner cut and avoided damage to the strake.

 

As the pictures show the rove is still slightly bigger than it should be; the estimated size from the residual marks of iron on the excavated wreck is approximately 2x2.5 cm which would be 1x1.25mm at scale and this would leave hardly any copper around the needle.  I'll see how small I can get.  

 

Lessons:

This is fiddly work but a lot easier now than when I started, thanks to all your ideas and suggestions.

Don't do this when tired (obvious) or within 18 hours of a Covid jab (my arm was really sore last night but now fine!).

Magnifying spectacles would be really helpful (I've just ordered some).

Doing the riveting this way (without any clenching) means the entire process could be done after the planking has been finished.  This would means I could finish the smoothing, sanding and staining before any rivets and roves get in the way and are at risk of damage.

 

Antony

 

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

13 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Aah, memories. What year(s) was that?

 

Steven

  Hmmmm ... c. 1975

[Louie da fly]

More power to you, Antony. I wouldn't have the patience. You're doing a brilliant job.

 

9 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

Hmmmm ... c. 1975

 

  And I thought I was an Old Man of re-enactment having started in 1987!

 

Steven

[Antyronnen]

On 11/6/2021 at 12:32 AM, Louie da fly said:

More power to you, Antony. I wouldn't have the patience.

I suspect some of this is really displacement activity to put off starting the business of actually cutting and fitting planks!  Now I have decided how to deal with the rivets I’ll just have to get on with building the ship

 

…tomorrow.

 

Antony

[EricWilliamMarshall]

1 minute ago, Antyronnen said:

the business of actually cutting and fitting planks!

I hear that! I’m fingers are crossed for you!

[Antyronnen]

On 11/3/2021 at 3:13 PM, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

I'm considering making my own 'plywood' out of layered cabinetry veneers where the grain crosses less severely than 90 degrees - so it will be flexible but resist nuisance cracking.   

Johnny

This sounds like a potential solution to splitting in thin wood.   50+ years ago I made a couple of Graupner kits (Oseberg Ship and Santa Maria) and they used masses of thin ply which was strong but inflexible.  What adhesive would you use in your ‘ply’ to maintain flexibility?

 

Antony

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

3 hours ago, Antyronnen said:

This sounds like a potential solution to splitting in thin wood.   50+ years ago I made a couple of Graupner kits (Oseberg Ship and Santa Maria) and they used masses of thin ply which was strong but inflexible.  What adhesive would you use in your ‘ply’ to maintain flexibility?

 

Antony

  I'm considering two options, in that an adhesive with some flexibility would be better than a 'hard cure' type like epoxy (also messy).  One experiment I'll try is with  'craft glue' (PVA) sold as "Tacky Glue".  This I've used for bookbinding, and it allows the book to be opened widely without 'cracking' the spine - which has a leather covering in that area.  The idea is to apply a thin coat on the bottom veneer - perhaps using a glue spreader (found at Woodworker's Supply) - and then running a fine notched trowel down the strip to be sure the coverage is uniformly thin.  Lay on the second piece with the grain at, say, a 30 degree angle to the first, apply more glue and lay the third piece going 30 degrees 'the other way' from the first piece.  (Waxed paper would be on the very bottom over a wide board that is a base.)  Add a top piece of waxed paper and cover with another board, then weigh down with books of any other weight.

 

  When cured, the ply should be nice and flexible without splitting.  Another option I thought of was spray-on construction adhesive - but that can be messy with overspray, and I don't know how the bond would hold up over the decades.  PVA (NOT the Titebond or wood-glue variety, as they can set 'harder' than craft glue - but not as hard as epoxy)  has the advantage of cleaning up (before curing) with water and is easy on the hands.

 

[EricWilliamMarshall]

My personal experience with layered (regular commercial) veneers and PVA is that it sets hard but you can set it in curves (depending on grain direction) and then glue it. I would try a few samples with the grain in similar directions as well as part of your experiments. I'm very curious to see your findings!

[Antyronnen]

A multitude of reasons for the long gap between posts and now lambing is in full swing so this is a brief catch-up and there may well be a further longish gap until that is over.

 

Having procrastinated with the diversion into rivet options I returned to the main task of deciding how to address the conversion of the planking from the kit-supplied 1mm sheet to my preferred 1.5mm.  I experimented with a number of approaches:

 

1. Photocopying  - too much distortion, especially when joining two or more A4 sheets of  paper
2. Tracing - the printing on the supplied sheets was insufficiently clear to show through the tracing paper and the traced outlines too error prone (at least in my unsteady hands) over the length of a single strake
3. Template - in the end I opted to cut the strakes from the supplied 1mm sheet and then use them as templates.   To reduce the work I used one cut strake as a template for port and starboard labelling each side, as well as fore and aft, as soon as each template was cut out.  The cutting was relatively easy since the soaked sheets cut easily with sharp blade. Once all eight templates were cut I could set them out on the thicker sheets to optimise cutting and then drew round them to create four cutting plans, two for port and two for starboard.  The templates were fixed to the 1.5mm sheet with double sided Scotch tape which had good ‘hold’ but was relatively easy to separate once the outline had been traced and any residual adhesive was cleaned off with Isopropanol.  Once the port strakes were done the templates were removed, turned over, re-fixed, and the process repeated for starboard strakes.

Templates laid out for draft cutting sheet, in this case Port.

 

 

Close up of labelled templates fixed to 1.5mm sheet

 

Having finally decided on the optimum layout for cutting the next stage was to draw round the templates.  I used pencil rather than a permanent 'fine writer' on the basis that the pencil markings, although less visible, would be easier to remove .  It was quite difficult choosing the softness of pencil to use for tracing round the templates.  Using a soft pencil made for more visible lines but they were thicker than I would have liked.  In the end a compromise HB was used.  With appropriately angled strong lighting I hope the outlines will be easily visible when scroll sawing.  The end results are shown below.  The problem of visibility is apparent although overemphasised because of the limitations of my camera and lighting setup.

 

 

 

 

I managed to get my scrollsaw out of hibernation and set up yesterday but I suspect it will be a few weeks before I have enough uninterrupted time out of the lambing shed to start cutting out strakes.  I will however have plenty of spare wool should I wish to caulk the seams!

 

Antony