shaping masts, yards and bowsprits

[Charlie pal]

Hi all, hope all are well and had a wonderful thanksgiving:

   Built four ship models, but would like to get better at reducing mast, bowsprit and yard circumferences…..is there a preferred method?
……thanks….Charlie pal

[Bob Cleek]

Read this article from the "Articles Database" drop-down menu at the top of  the forum home page: https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/MakingAMastFromSquareStock.pdf  It should get you started off on the right foot for tapering spars with hand tools. From there, use the forum search engine to read the many threads on turning spars on a lathe, e.g. 

and this: 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by Bob Cleek

[allanyed]

Further to Bob's comments, if you start with round stock (dowels) you can anchor a hand drill and use it as a mini lather, but are probably limited in the type of wood.  Obviously oak is not a great choice as it is so grainy, but some of the other common species used for dowels might work for you.  In addition, for British ships there are quite a few scaled and/or dimensioned contemporary drawings of masts and spars on the RMG site and I think a few on the Wiki Commons site.  David Lees gives dimensions of all spars and masts covering 1625 to 1820 using ratios as an appendix in his book The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War.  There are also  spread sheets available here at MSW in the articles data base by Dan Vadas, (https://thenrg.org/resource/articles)   The Vadas sheets use the same ratios as Lees except for  the period 1670-1710 where unfortunately he made up his own formulas rather than use those provided by Lees. 

Allan

Edited November 26, 2022 by allanyed

[RossR]

I am finishing my first model, and had really good luck using a small plane to remove the bulk of the material.  Then I wrap a small strip of rubber around one end of the piece that I insert into a drill.  The rubber keeps the drill chuck from damaging the piece.  I use sandpaper to remove the rest of the material and make the piece round and then finer grit sandpaper to make it smoother.

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

It can be done without a lathe at all, just like the full-sized spars are shaped. There are numerous references online you can check out, whee the spar is made four-sided, then octagonal and finally rounded. (The last step can be done in the workshop with a strip of sandpaper.)

[GrandpaPhil]

I rough shape mine with a scalpel and then sand completely round.

Edited November 26, 2022 by GrandpaPhil