Historical Teachers of the Modeling Craft: Davis vs Underhill

[SaltyNinja]

Ok learned navigators of the nautical deep, and you pirates hanging in the yet loose bight who want to poke the establishment, I have a question.

 

After reading "The Ship Model Builder's Assistant" by Charles G Davis, I started reading, simultaneously, "The Built-Up Ship Model" by Davis and "Plank-On-Frame Models and Scale Masting & Rigging Volume I" By Harold A Underhill. 

 

While reading the two later books, I decided to stop with the Underhill book until I complete "The Built-Up Ship Model" by Davis. The two books, being similar, were causing me a bit of confusion keeping who said what straight in my small mind. This led me to the question:

 

Davis and Underhill seem to be well loved masters, but what are their similarities and differences in teaching, methods, and style?  Are they both disciples of a single historical grand master?

Edited February 19, 2022 by SaltyNinja
grammar, but it's still incorrect probably.

[Jaager]

It helps to have some perspective about what the hull construction methods were before they published.  They cracked open a new world, but both were grounded in vessels well after 1860.  They are a very dim light into how vessels before 1860 were built.  I consider them a general inspiration, but the specifics for vessels from the real age of sail are best obtained elsewhere.

Davis came from WWI emergency wooden hull construction that was an adaptation of steel engineering techniques back to wood background.  It has only the most general similarities with the then lost evolution of traditional hull construction.

They are both best seen as an important but small part of a now very large buffet of information. 

Both Petrejus and Longridge should be added to your canon.

[trippwj]

They are both very useful for the techniques of building a model - the process is applicable beyond the specific vessels they built.

 

 

[druxey]

If their usage has been somewhat superseded by others, they are the inspiration for those that have come since, myself included.

[Bob Cleek]

I don't think they are "disciples of a single historical grand master" at all. At the time they were writing, the "average Joe" had a much higher level of education and experience in the manual arts. Boys grew up learning how to drive a nail, shape wood with saws, planes, and knives, and how to keep their tools sharp. Paint and adhesives were easily understood. Perhaps most importantly, many who built ship models in the days before Davis and Underhill (which brings us up to the middle of the 20th Century) came from nautical backgrounds in which they learned the nomenclature and became familiar, often on a first hand basis, with the ships that they modeled. To a boatbuilder, there was little new about setting up, framing, or planking in Davis or Underhill's books. That said, Davis and Underhill introduced amateur hobby modelers to structural construction methods which were previously not widely practiced in the amateur modeling community, to wit: the "built up" or "plank on frame" ship model, rather than the solid carved block hull ship model. 

 

The value of these two early authors was in their publishing works that synthesized between two covers the many diverse crafts that must be practiced in the course of building a high-quality ship model. Davis and Underhill, of course, were also pioneers in publishing and thereby making available accurate plans of particular ships drawn for the modeler's use, without which truly accurate models are not possible. 

 

The rather limited ship modeling literature prior to Davisi and Underhill, and for a while thereafter, suggests that the average amateur ship modeler in the twenties, thirties and forties was turning out what to our eyes were some pretty primitive models. Today, eighty to a hundred years later, some of these models have "matured" to where they are beginning to become noticed as valuable folk art. Obviously, there were extremely detailed and accurate "professionally built" ship models long before the 20th Century, but they were built by highly skilled miniaturists of their time, often working in teams, each with their own trade specialty; not hobbyists working singlehandedly, and the recognizable quality of their execution is what has contributed to their conservation and preservation over centuries. The contemporary models from the Age of Sail we see in museums today are only what we have left of the creme de la creme of models built at their time. 

 

Davis and Underhill were writing during a period in which there was a veritable explosion of "how to do it" literature, Following the First World War, Middle Class folks found themselves with greater leisure time. Modern technology eliminated much of the daily drudgery that previously attended simply living. (Imagine! Store-bought butter and sliced bread!) That leisure time, before radio, and particularly television, proliferated, was filled with hobby pursuits and this created a strong market for instructional literature on related subjects. Before the "DIY" era, craftspeople kept their skills close to the vest. They did not share their "trade secrets" because their trade skills were their "rice bowl." That knowledge is what they sold to make a living. When the general public sought limited trade skill information for use in the pursuit of their hobbies, enterprising authors like Davis and Underhill started writing books containing specialized information that otherwise would have taken their readers a tradesman's long apprenticeship to acquire. What Davis and Underhill, and many others on other subjects, were providing in written form were not the secrets of some single "grand master," but rather, in the main, rather basic instruction in a variety of existing trade skills of the time.  Since then, the technology of ship modeling, as with so much else, has complexified exponentially, as would be immediately apparent from comparing the technological sophistication of the modeling discussed in this forum and the modeling technology discussed in Davis and Underhill.

[Oldsalt1950]

Real building skills, and tradesmen started to disappear shortly before WW2. Once mass production came to be the norm, time really became money. My Grandfather was a carpenter, built his own house, and every corner were square and the walls were true both vertically and horizontally. Today, few carpenters have a plane they use at the job site. Show them a spoke shave, or an adze and they want to know what it is for. Only the Amish still hold onto the old skills. Pegs and blacksmith made "cut nails" hold everything together. Yes, it takes time, but anything they build stands for longer than any modern construction will. 

We try to emulate some of the techniques used long ago, but on a much smaller scale. It isn't easy, but once you understand the concepts, it is a joy to do. Just my 2 cents, your milage may vary.

[wefalck]

Honestly, I do not believe too much into 'grand masters', teachings, schools and such. There are few basic carpentry, metal-working and similar techniques applied to a specific subject, that is ship models. Each of the authors quoted uses different short-cuts for one reason or another, such as what they tried to achieve, what tools where available to them, their respective manual skill level, etc.

 

It's a long time since I read Davis and I did not check again before writing here, but seem to remember that his objective was to indicate to the reader techniques that would allow an averagely skilled person to turn out a ship-model without getting too desperate. I seem to remember that the book was written in the early 1930s. At that time most of the speciality tools (hand and machine tools) were available in the UK in principle - Clerkenwell Road in London was a dream of precision tool-shops and -manufacturers at the time, but it would have been much more difficult for the average person outside London at the time to put their hand on them.

 

By coincidence I just finished re-reading Underhill's volume on rigging. He wrote his book just after WW2, when again it was not so easy to find tools and machines (and money) as the UK was recovering slowly from the war economy situation. Underhill is much more pre-occupied with accurate reproduction of the 'real' thing, but also with showing ways to do this without a big tool-kit. His focus is, as stated in the titles of his books, on later 19th/early 20th century ships. This does not mean that many of the techniques he describes would not be applicable to other periods, though there would be less emphasis on iron-work, of course.

 

When looking at such books, one has to make a distinction between the artisanal techniques they describe and their description of representing actual shipbuilding techniques. Underhill, does not claim to be an universal text book - unlike some more modern publications, who make such claims and then fail, because the authors just do not have apparently the necessary breadth and depth of knowlege and the space provided by their publisher.

[Roger Pellett]

I hope that I’m not wandering too far afield but not all models from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50 only qualify as folk art.  A.J. Fisher located in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan offered a series of ship model drawings, kits, and especially fittings that could result in excellent models.  I am fortunate to own two A.J. Fisher models completed before 1945; a steam trawler and an unrigged Flying Cloud.  At 1:96 scale, the quality of the fittings, mostly machined from brass exceed anything commercially available today. All of these models featured solid carved hulls.

 

Charles Davis’s (I am unfamiliar with Underhill’s work) contribution was convincing model builders that it was possible to build Plank on Frame Models.  His historical research was sketchy but his writing inspired many of us to try.

 

Roger

[Bob Cleek]

51 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

I hope that I’m not wandering too far afield but not all models from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50 only qualify as folk art.

Certainly not! In every era, there were high quality models being turned out by master miniaturists who could produce an accurate model worthy of the term "fine art." I didn't intend the term, "folk art" to be a pejorative at all. (The top price paid for a Grandma Moses painting so far is $1,360,000.00!) "Trench art," for example, is an appreciating category of folk art at the present time and naval trench art is particularly desirable. In the case of trench art, its "folk art" aesthetic value is enhanced greatly by any historical provenance it may have. As we know, these shipboard-built naval curios have been collectable from at least the time of Nelson, the most well-known of which are the Napoleonic prisoner-of-war models most all of which are definitely in the "folk art" category artistically.

 

Other than those meticulously researched and executed models which serve as significant contributions to the historical record and qualify as "fine art" (a classification of model which doesn't get near the respect it deserves in the fine arts marketplace,) I'd consider most all scratch-built ship models to qualify as "folk art" of one sort or another, although spanning a wide range of quality and value. 

 

Not to invite thread drift, but I'll mention in passing that a discussion of what the ship modeling community might be able to accomplish in terms of elevating the general public's appreciation of finely crafted ship models, and thereby the price such models command, might be a worthy endeavor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Bob Cleek

[allanyed]

9 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

His historical research was sketchy but his writing inspired many of us to try.

Touché Roger!!!   My first book was from Davis followed by Longridge (quite a leap, I know)   I no longer have the Davis book by I remember it inspired me to get my tool collection started including my first table saw and planer and start building  model ships.   I guess I can say his book cost me a fortune over the years, but it also led me to thousands of hours of pleasure in my little shop space which has value far beyond money.  

Allan

[wefalck]

In the German-speaking world, it was the translation from Italian of Orazio Curti's book that was most widely available and that covered the subject in breadth, using also many contemporary illustrations. The first rudimentary books specifically on ship-modelling, however, were already published in the years before WW1. I also have a small and probably not widely known German book of 1948, that already describes many of the 'standard' techniques.

 

Most books I know, are concerned with simplified methods, rather than describing methods to reproduce parts as closely to the prototype. Unfortunately, it seems that such methods then were perpetrated as 'this is how things are done'. Instructions in kits also often follow this idea.  

Edited February 20, 2022 by wefalck

[allanyed]

Eberhard

I agree that it seems like the kit makers do indeed follow the old protocols as you describe rather than doing any research into contemporary practices.  Three of the worst offenders to me include the belaying pins on ships that would not have had any or if they do belong are the size of bowling pins , gratings that look like dividers in a card board box, and copper sheathing with giant rivet heads instead of small nails.  

Allan

Edited February 20, 2022 by allanyed

[SaltyNinja]

23 hours ago, Jaager said:

Both Petrejus and Longridge should be added to your canon.

Thank you for the thoughtful input and further reading suggestions. I sent for a used copy of "The Anatomy of Nelson's Navy",

as I swim another few strokes into what as yet to me is deep waters.

 

 

 

23 hours ago, trippwj said:

They are both very useful for the techniques of building a model - the process is applicable beyond the specific vessels they built.

 

22 hours ago, druxey said:

If their usage has been somewhat superseded by others, they are the inspiration for those that have come since, myself included.

 

22 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

Davis and Underhill introduced amateur hobby modelers to structural construction methods which were previously not widely practiced in the amateur modeling community, to wit: the "built up" or "plank on frame" ship model, rather than the solid carved block hull ship model. 

 

22 hours ago, Oldsalt1950 said:

We try to emulate some of the techniques used long ago, but on a much smaller scale. It isn't easy, but once you understand the concepts, it is a joy to do.

 

17 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Charles Davis’s (I am unfamiliar with Underhill’s work) contribution was convincing model builders that it was possible to build Plank on Frame Models.  His historical research was sketchy but his writing inspired many of us to try.

In my journey, Davis and Underhill are my first steps into deeper understanding. I had not been thinking in terms of what era they covered, but the fact has been rove to. I am encouraged by the progress that I am procuring through their books.

 

 

21 hours ago, wefalck said:

Underhill is much more pre-occupied with accurate reproduction of the 'real' thing, but also with showing ways to do this without a big tool-kit. His focus is, as stated in the titles of his books, on later 19th/early 20th century ships. This does not mean that many of the techniques he describes would not be applicable to other periods, though there would be less emphasis on iron-work, of course

I'm one of the Green Men on board and still finding my station. I am charting in my mind the prize that may be had by each fulfilled duty onboard. I hold fast to your assessment that their techniques can be transferable to which may be my final port of call.

 

 

7 hours ago, allanyed said:

 My first book was from Davis followed by Longridge (quite a leap, I know)   I no longer have the Davis book by I remember it inspired me to get my tool collection started including my first table saw and planer and start building  model ships.

I'm plotting a similar course apparently; beating to!

 

 

7 hours ago, wefalck said:

Italian Orazio Curti's book that most widely available that covered the subject in breadth, using also many contemporary illustrations.

I'll check into Curti. I think I'm trying to learn what I can from a historical perspective, but as my destination appears over the horizon I don't want to drift too far off the course. I don't know where too far lies today, but I imagine the currents can be quite strong and the pull difficult to resist.

 

I think I can say that my goal is to balance a base of knowledge with what I think will end up being an attempt to scratch build early to mid 20th century wood fishing craft. 

 

Thank you to all for the travelled experience and input!

Edited February 20, 2022 by SaltyNinja
grammar

[wefalck]

An isue with most of the books quoted is that they combine proposals for resolving technical problems with some historic context. In most cases they dive not deep enough into the historic context to be really useful. Underhill is an exception as he deals specifically with the last half century of commercial deep-water sail and clearly states so. Hence, if you are interested in a specific period, you certainly will need addtional literature in order to understand what was going on. This is a point perhaps not made clear enough in these books.

 

BTW, we didn't mention

Frölich, B. (2002): The Art of Ship Modeling.- 303 p., Nice (A.N.C.R.E.).

yet, which is both useful and aesthetically well done. He doesn't say so in the title, but his subjects clearly span the mid-1700s to early 1800s, a period short enough to provide a reasonable amount of historical detail. Plus the book uses contemporary models from the museum in Paris for illustration.

 

@SaltyNinja, what country/region are you looking at? There are quite a few in-depth books on fishing vessels around.

 

[Harvey Golden]

5 minutes ago, SaltyNinja said:

I think I can say that my goal is to balance a base of knowledge with what I think will end up being an attempt to scratch build early to mid 20th century wood fishing craft

 

This is an area of interest of mine, too.  I've sort of backed into model building having come from a few full-size (albeit small) projects; Period books (and historical retrospects) covering full-size boat building may be the best source of information for craft of this period/genre.  Books on models will certainly help with many aspects of scale, approach, fittings, etc., especially if you are building solid-hulls.  

Best,

Harvey

[Bob Cleek]

1 hour ago, SaltyNinja said:

I think I can say that my goal is to balance a base of knowledge with what I think will end up being an attempt to scratch build early to mid 20th century wood fishing craft. 

 

58 minutes ago, Harvey Golden said:

Period books (and historical retrospects) covering full-size boat building may be the best source of information for craft of this period/genre.

I greatly agree with Harvey's observation. My primary interests also focus on post-Nineteenth Century small craft. I have accumulated a large library of books on the subject of all things maritime and, specifically, about ship modeling, but when building a model, I always "build it in my head" the same way I'd build it if I were building it at full scale, while also taking the liberties possible when working in smaller scale. I always find something interesting in any book about ship modeling technique, but I've found many technical books on other subjects as valuable, if not more valuable, than the ship modeling volumes. There is much for the ship modeler to learn from basic woodworking technique books, wood and metal staining and finishing books, jewelry-making books, basic metal machining books, and basic dental and surgical procedure books. I don't think there's any procedure in ship modeling that doesn't come from some other craft, but I've never seen a book on ship modeling which has covered every one of those procedures from all those other crafts between two covers.

 

If you are interested in early to mid 20th century wood fishing craft, you may wish to consider the works of Howard I. Chapelle and the resources of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History which has available an extensive collection of your kind of boat.

 

See: Ship Plans | National Museum of American History (si.edu)

 

         Historic American Merchant Marine Survey Records | Collection | SOVA (si.edu)

[SaltyNinja]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

what country/region are you looking at? There are quite a few in-depth books on fishing vessels around.

Pacific West Coast. NorCal to Alaska.

 

Probably take me 5 years to get ready, but I would like to start with a salmon troller 42 foot or so. I have a few fish boat books, specifically:

Drawing on Our History: Fishing Vessels of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska (Cole, 2013) Beautiful book

Legacy in Wood (Wahl, 2008) is the story of Wahl built boats from Prince Rupert, B.C. Norwegian boat builder and family that followed for 3 generations.

Fishing Boats of the World (Chapelle et al., 1955) Haven't read yet. Appears to be a wealth of information

Whale Ships and Whaling (Church, 1938) A lot of old photos and good information about the whaling process

The American Fishing Schooners (Chapelle, 1973) haven't read yet

 

 

2 hours ago, Harvey Golden said:

Period books (and historical retrospects) covering full-size boat building may be the best source of information for craft of this period/genre.

 

1 hour ago, Bob Cleek said:

I always find something interesting in any book about ship modeling technique, but I've found many technical books on other subjects as valuable, if not more valuable, than the ship modeling volumes.

I agree and if you have any book suggestions please shoot them my way. Edwin Monk has a book that I'll probably end up getting. It's called Modern Boat Building (Monk, 1973).

Edited February 20, 2022 by SaltyNinja
grammar

[Jaager]

3 hours ago, SaltyNinja said:

my goal is to balance a base of knowledge with what I think will end up being an attempt to scratch build early to mid 20th century wood fishing craft. 

To reiterate what is written above:

There is no Arban Book for ship modelling.  It is much too broad a topic for that. There is no single source, or even just a few.   The best that can be expected is to mimic the hermit crab and grab bits and pieces from as many as you can access.  

All of the 3 journals sold here as CD are treasure troves of information and techniques.

Best practice is to find out as much as possible about the original vessels.  Then go to school on which aspects you need to replicate at model scale and match your skills and tools to a way to do it.  This stands ship modelling apart from other forms and subjects being modeled. 

 

Here is a bib from my library database keyed to your stated interest - I stopped updating in the mid 1990s':

 

BOATBUILDING  1941                                               
CHAPELLE,H I    W W NORTON CO  NEW YORK 1969

 

YACHT DESIGNING AND PLANNING  1936                               
CHAPELLE,H I     W W NORTON CO    NEW YORK    1971
   
AMERICAN SMALL SAILING CRAFT                                     
CHAPELLE,H I     W W NORTON CO  NEW YORK 1951
    
AMERICAN FISHING SCHOONERS 1825-1935, THE                        
CHAPELLE,H I    W W NORTON CO    NEW YORK  1973

 

AMERICAN FISHING SCHOONER BENJAMIN W LATHAM, THE                 
RONNBERG,ERIK A R JR  
 
AMERICAN AND CANADIAN FISHING SCHOONERS -PICTORIAL SUPPL VIII                                                                     
PEABODY MUSEUM  - AMERICAN NEPTUNE   SALEM MA   

 

CHESAPEAKE SAILING CRAFT  PT.1                                  
BURGESS,ROBERT H    TIDEWATER PUBLISHING  CAMBRIDGE, MD  1975

 

CHESAPEAKE BAY CRABBING SKIFFS                                   
CHAPELLE,H I    CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM     

 

LAPSTRAKE BOATBUILDING                                           
AMMONS,WALTER J    INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUB   CAMCEN, ME   1978
 
CLENCHED LAP OR CLINKER                                          
MCKEE,ERIC     NATIONAL MARITME MUSEUM   GREENWICH, LONDON   1972

 

LITLE BOATS,THE INSHORE FISHING CRAFT OF ATLANTIC CANADA         
MACKEAN,RAY  PERCIVIL,ROBERT   BRUNSWICK PRESS   FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWIC  1979
 
GLOUCESTER CLIPPER FISHING SCHOONERS                             
RONNBERG,ERIK A R JR   AERO PUBL  FALLBROOK, CA  1976

 

TO BUILD A WHALEBOAT                                            
RONNBERG,ERIK A R JR    MODEL SHIPWAYS  BOGOTA, NJ  1985

 

WHALEBOAT ,THE 1850-1970  2ND ED                                 
ANSEL,WILLITS     MYSTIC MARITINE MUSEUM   MYSTIC, CONN  1983

 

TANCOOK WHALERS ,THE                                             
POST,ROBERT C   MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM  BATH, ME  1985
 
WATERCRAFT MODELER'S HANDBOOK                                    
LANKFORD,BENJAMIN JR    NAUTICAL RESEARCH GUILD INC     SILVER SPRING,MD      1988

 

BUILDING THE BLACKFISH                                           
STORY,DANA     TEN POUND ISLAND BOOK CO  GLOUCESTER, MA  1988

 

CHESAPEAKE BAY SCHOONERS                                         
SNEDIKER,QUENTIN  JENSEN,ANN   TIDEWATER PUBL  1992

 

CHESAPEAKE BAY LOG CANOES AND BUGEYES                            
BREWINGTON,M V   CORNELL MARITIME PRESS   CAMBRIDGE, MD   1963

 

WORKING WATERCRAFT                                               
GILMER,THOMAS C    INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUBLISHING CO.   CAMDEN, ME 1972

 

GAFF RIG                                                         
LEATHER,JOHN      INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUBLISHING CO  CAMDEN,ME   1970

 

BUILDING CLASSIC SMALL CRAFT                                     
GARDNER,JOHN    INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUBL   1977

 

COMMON SENSE OF YACHT DESIGN, THE                                
HERRESHOFF,L FRANCIS   CARAVAN MARITIME BOOKS  JAMAICA, NY  1974

 

DORY BOOK, THE                                                   
GARDNER,JOHN    INTERNATIONAL MARINE     CAMDEN, ME  1978

 

OYSTERMEN OF THE CHESAPEAKE, THE                                 
DE GAST,ROBERT  INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUBL  CAMDEN, ME 1970

 

BUILDING OF BOATS, THE                                           
PHILLIPS-BIRT,DOUGLAS   W W NORTON AND CO   NEW YORK   1979

 

SPRITSAILS AND LUGSAILS                                          
LEATHER,JOHN    GRANADA PUBLISHING INC   LONDON 1979

 

UFFA FOX'S SECOND BOOK  1935                                     
FOX,UFFA     INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUBL  CAMDEN, ME 1980

 

SAIL AND OAR                                                     
LEATHER,JOHN      CONWAY MARITIME PRESS   LONDON   1982
    
CHESAPEAKE BAY SLOOPS                                            
GILLMER,THOMAS C    CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM    ST MICHAELS, MD  1982

 

BOATBUILDING MANUAL  2ND EDT                                     
STEWART,ROBERT M  INTERNATIONAL MARINE PUBL  CAMDEN, ME  1980
 

[Harvey Golden]

To Jaager's list, I'd add these two volumes by Harry Sucher: "Simplified Boatbuilding: The Flat-Bottom Boat" (1973), and "Simplified Boatbuilding: The V-Bottom Boat" (1973 & 1974)-- both geared for chined craft, as their subtitles suggest.  Each is a building manual with regional nuances highlighted (mostly U.S.) and each features numerous scale drawings of many types.  

 

Ed Monk's books are superb, and also Sam Rabl's "Boatbuilding in your own Backyard" (1947) would be helpful.  

 

(As an aside,  I hope I'm not the only one who thinks a large bibliographical resource on boats, models, ships, etc. would be a nice thing to have here... I'd be willing to help with this.)

[Roger Pellett]

I recently gave away a stack of “How to do it” ship model books. Over time I have found these to be less and less useful.  There are two reasons for this.  First of all we have MSW, a great resource.  Second once the broad outlines from these books have been absorbed and evaluated, the books are no longer useful.

 

Many basic techniques are not Ship model dependent.  Measuring, marking out, machining, soldering, milling lumber, are examples.  The one area that is unique to ship modeling is construction of a hull that accurately reproduces the lines of the the real thing.  POF, POB, or Carved hull there are several ways for doing this. Part of the learning process is understanding the  various methods and selecting ones that best meet your needs.

 

On they other hand, my library of books dealing with design, construction and appearance of real ships including ones written Chapelle are as useful as when they were brand new.  Every once in a while I survey my library to decide which ones are excess.  I have yet to find any.

 

Roger

 

 

[mtaylor]

Taking in what others have recommended, I'd take the book list and go visit a public library.  If they don't have it, they can usually order you a copy via inter-library loan.  You're usually limited on number of books at any one time, but it would allow you browse through them and then only purchase the ones that you can use.

[allanyed]

9 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I recently gave away a stack of “How to do it” ship model books. Over time I have found these to be less and less useful.

Hi Roger

I am very curious to know which books you gave away or better, which you use on a somewhat regular basis.  I have about 40 or 50 books I rarely, if ever, use and could probably let go and not miss them.  There are another dozen that get used once in a while and my top 15 or so that I reference on a regular basis depending on the project and/or item I am dealing with.

Thanks

Allan

 

[wefalck]

My library comprises hundreds of books - you never know, whether you may need/want a book (again) at some stage.

 

Ordering through inter-library loan is a good strategy. I used to do this extensively with newly published books, as there is a system whereby a central German library has to buy a new book, when it is somewhere ordered in Germany through inter-library loan. Otherwise, it would have been not so easy to look at new English-language books, if you didn't have a suitable bookshop nearby.

 

Not sure what the rules are in the USA, but in the EU a publication normally becomes public domain 90 years after the author's death unless someone else acquired the rights. Which means that most pre-WW1 publications are no free to copy or to distribute as ebooks. The amount of digitised books rises by the day and many small libraries are doing actually a better job on this than Google (which nor normally unfolds tables and such things, thus missing the key information). So before looking in antiquarian bookshops or physical libraries, I am checking whether a book is available as PDF somewhere.

 

As to 'how to do it'-books, I have only a few and decided not to buy any other, because they mostly just copy from each other or repeat what is more or less common knowledge. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by wefalck