Canoa de Rancho by JacquesCousteau - Scale 1:32 - Lake Chapala Fishing and Cabotage Vessel

[FriedClams]

Excellent result on the thatching, Jacques.  Your perseverance certainly paid off. 

 

Gary 

[JacquesCousteau]

On 5/31/2024 at 3:32 PM, FriedClams said:

Excellent result on the thatching, Jacques.  Your perseverance certainly paid off. 

 

Gary 

Thanks! Wefalck's suggestion to use string to weave together bunches was extremely helpful and has definitely led to a stronger thatching than my first attempt.

 

I've made the oarlocks/thole pins, using a bit of basswood and a thinned toothpick. From what I can tell, these weren't all that common on Canoas de Rancho, but some of the smaller ones had them. As my build is meant to model a vessel that would be used not just for cargo hauling but for fishing, which did require the use of oars, I decided to add them. They're not glued in place yet. From what I can tell from photos, they were often staggered, as I've depicted here.

 

I may redo them, though, as I think they came out a little oversized. I also might paint them instead of staining them.

[JacquesCousteau]

I've done a bit more work with the mast.

 

First, I drilled and cut out the sheave at the top of the mast. I decided to try to make a working sheave, as I had picked up a small bag of 3.5mm sheaves from the Crafty Sailor closing sale. I used a bit of 24 gauge wire. It was hard to get a good photo, but it is a working sheave.

 

Next, although I won't be fully adding the rigging until after the move, I thought that I could at least add the backstay and leave it dangling loosely off the mast. I used .7mm rope from Ropes of Scale, my first time using it. It's a very nice product! Worried that I would ruin it, I just worked on making a loop at the very end of the rope. First I tried to actually splice in the loop, but I had a very hard time opening up the rope for that. Instead I used glue to "knot" the loop, and tried my hand at serving the "knot" with some tan thread. I'm not sure whether they actually served any of the rigging on actual Canoas, as I couldn't find a very clear photo, but I figure that this is a learning experience, and if I decide against it later, I've only lost an inch or so of the nice rope.

 

Serving it was tricky and would have been impossible without a set of helping hands. Here's before I trimmed off the excess. As can be seen, it turned out rather lumpy, unfortunately.

 

In any case, once I tied off the end and applied some watered-down glue, I was able to place it around the top of the mast (nickel for scale):

 

And then a test fitting, although without getting the line taught yet (as the mast is just on a pin and not lashed to the crossbeam).

 

 

I'm still deciding whether to redo it, as the serving is a bit bulkier than I think I really want. It's still attached to the whole spool, so I wouldn't be wasting much rope.

 

After some consideration, and looking at lots of photos of canoas with one, two, or no backstays, I'm leaning towards giving this model just one, and tying off the halyard at the other belaying point aft.

 

[wefalck]

Some people, including myself, use hypodermic needles as marlinspikes for making false splices miniature rope. One has to blunt the edges a bit - they are obviously very sharp and meant to cut, but you don't want to cut your rope. You twist the rope a bit so that it splits and then you push the 'marlinspike' through. Now you can feed the free end into the needle and slowly pull it out with the rope inside - repeat and you will end up with a reasonable splice.

 

As I had a nice ebony handle lying around (which may have come from some antique medical instrument from my fathers estate), I made a brass ferrule for it and cemented a hypodermic needle into it. I think it was a 20G (yellow).

For serving, I would try to get hold of some 16/0 fly-tying thread, which is not fuzzy. Indeed, serving without some 'helping hands' is difficult. I tend to use half-hitches, rather than just winding the thread around. Each turn in this way can be set and does not come loose. Of course, having/building a serving machine would be the next step up ...

Edited June 15 by wefalck

[JacquesCousteau]

17 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Some people, including myself, use hypodermic needles as marlinspikes for making false splices miniature rope. One has to blunt the edges a bit - they are obviously very sharp and meant to cut, but you don't want to cut your rope. You twist the rope a bit so that it splits and then you push the 'marlinspike' through. Now you can feed the free end into the needle and slowly pull it out with the rope inside - repeat and you will end up with a reasonable splice.

 

As I had a nice ebony handle lying around (which may have come from some antique medical instrument from my fathers estate), I made a brass ferrule for it and cemented a hypodermic needle into it. I think it was a 20G (yellow).

For serving, I would try to get hold of some 16/0 fly-tying thread, which is not fuzzy. Indeed, serving without some 'helping hands' is difficult. I tend to use half-hitches, rather than just winding the thread around. Each turn in this way can be set and does not come loose. Of course, having/building a serving machine would be the next step up ...

Thanks, I'm definitely going to look into some fly-tying thread and a needle. I used to tie flies and this definitely reminded me of that, although I'm very out of practice and don't have my old tools anymore.

[Glen McGuire]

3 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

I'm still deciding whether to redo it, as the serving is a bit bulkier than I think I really want. It's still attached to the whole spool, so I wouldn't be wasting much rope.

In the close-up picture, it looks a little bulky.  However, when I see as part of the whole boat in the latter pics, I thought it look fine.  But definitely your call on that as things can look different in person vs pictures.

 

Regardless of what you decide, the boat is really coming along nicely!  Such a cool project.

[JacquesCousteau]

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

In the close-up picture, it looks a little bulky.  However, when I see as part of the whole boat in the latter pics, I thought it look fine.  But definitely your call on that as things can look different in person vs pictures.

 

Regardless of what you decide, the boat is really coming along nicely!  Such a cool project.

Thanks! I do think it's a bit bulky, and I would have liked to properly splice the rope, so I think I'm going to try to redo it once I get some fly-tying thread. 

[JacquesCousteau]

No updates yet on the build itself, but a bit more research and photos.

 

There were a couple of interesting photos on the Memorica site that I found, which I think do add something worthwhile to my understanding of these vessels and their context. First, this fun one from 1908 of two small canoas absolutely filled to the brim with bananas. I almost want to try to make a few bunches to add to the Cargo Canoa, although I have no idea how I would do that at scale.

Source: https://memoricamexico.gob.mx/swb/memorica/Cedula?oId=K76c_YsBTon6gu63yMbs

 

Second, there’s this amazing photo from 1905, by photographer José María Lupercio. It highlights a few details of canoa construction. It’s notable how thin the anchor chain is, for instance. More importantly, it has a clear view of the aft bench/helmsman’s platform, which is clearly just a seat and not a locker as I built into my models. While it’s still possible that a larger canoa (as this photo is of a fairly small one) might have a more substantial sort of locker there, which would fit with Ramón Rubín’s reference to there being a “box,” I think it’s most likely that this is an inaccuracy in my build. Oh well, it’s not like I’m going to redo it now, but it is something I’ll be aware of. It’s also notable that there seem to be a few ropes dangling from the rail, perhaps serving as tie-down points for the sheets. Beyond that, the photo is also a highly evocative portrayal of daily life for the canoa sailors of Lake Chapala, although there’s a lot that’s not clear. Is the man in the bow the captain/owner? He certainly looks proud of the vessel, and he doesn’t seem to be helping with the unloading going on at the stern. It’s interesting to see so many children on the boat—are they his?—and the one in the water is actually playing with a toy canoa, perhaps looking forward to one day having his own real one. The photo, and the fact that children might have toy canoas, gives some suggestion of what these vessels meant for the people of the lake.

Source: https://memoricamexico.gob.mx/swb/memorica/Cedula?oId=j_ts2osBVs6S4R6nmMnO

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Changing gear a bit, I’ve also found that the basic Canoa design was slightly more widespread than I originally thought, although still seemingly limited to the Lerma River area. Originally, based on the photos I could find, it seemed like the Canoa—by which I mean a plank-built vessel, with a sharp raised bow, a squared-off stern, crossbeams running across the fore half, and usually staggered half-frames instead of complete frames—was entirely limited to Lake Chapala and the nearby small lake of Cajititlán. Elsewhere in Mexico, they seemed to mainly use dugout canoes—a seemingly endless variety of which were in use everywhere from the central highlands to the coast—, the flat-bottomed bargelike trajinera (also called a canoa) of the area around Mexico City, or vessels that appeared more like European-style standard plank-on-frame small craft.

 

However, I recently found that Lake Yuriria, a smaller lake located over a hundred miles east of Chapala but connected by a canal to the same Lerma River that feeds into the larger lake, also had vessels very similar to canoas, a photo from 2006 of several of which is below. The design is clearly very similar to the Chapala Canoa, down to the use of naturally curved sticks as frames. The main difference visible from this angle is at the tip of the bow, which is capped with a triangular bit of wood—on Lake Chapala, there was always just a small crossbeam here used to support the anchor half-ring.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_yuriria.jpg

 

As it turns out, several of these vessels are also in museums. In fact, I likely saw the one below at the Guanajuato Regional Museum when I visited years ago, without paying much attention. Wish I had taken some measurements then! Notably, the “canoa” here (which is listed as a “lancha”) has another feature not seen on Chapala canoas: some sort of rubbing strip running the length of the side and seemingly covering one of the seams in the planking.

Source: https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/en/museos-inah/museo/museo-piezas/14955-14955-lancha-y-atarraya-de-pescadores-de-la-presa-de-yuriria.html?lugar_id=440&item_lugar=481&seccion=lugar

 

The Ex-Augustine Convent Museum in Yuriria itself also has a similar vessel or two. More photos can be found uploaded to google maps by visitors than on the museum website itself. Notably, one of them (as seen in google maps photos) has its bottom planked with planks running side-to-side (like on a sharpie or some skiffs) rather than the more usual fore-and-aft, although I’m not sure if it’s an actual vessel or a replica made for the museum. They also seem to have a metal reinforcement along the stem.

Source: https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/museos-inah/museo/museo-espacios/12308-497-2-escaleras.html?lugar_id=9804

 

Interestingly, as far as I can tell this type of vessel is limited only to Yuriria (and Chapala and nearby Cajititlán). Notably, I can’t find any evidence of them using similar vessels on Lake Cuitzeo, Mexico’s second-largest lake, which is a bit south of Yuriria and is not connected to the Lerma River. Instead, they seem to use distinct, extremely boxy vessels, a photo of which can be seen below:

Source: https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/republica/sociedad/pescadores-del-lago-cuitzeo-arrastran-sus-lanchas-por-kilometros-de-lodo-para-sobrevivir-10275847.html

 

Meanwhile, Lake Pátzcuaro, also nearby and again not connected to the Lerma, instead traditionally used dugouts of various sizes—the small icharúta are still used by fishermen there, while the larger tepari was used for cargo-hauling. Planked vessels never seem to have seen much use there.

 

The museum in Yuriria also has another vessel, labeled a “canoa,” which has a different design. As can be seen, this canoa has a single plank on each side of a flat bottom, with a squared-off stern. The bottom rises at the bow, but the sheer of the hull doesn’t really sweep up, and rather than ending at a point, the bow is somewhat squared off, too, although it seems to taper to something narrower than the stern.

Source: https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/museos-inah/museo/museo-piezas/14043-14043-10-445557-canoa-con-red.html?lugar_id=9804

 

So, what can we make of all this? At the moment, I have questions but no definitive answers.

 

One question is why plank-built, sharp-bowed vessels seem to have spread to some areas (Chapala, Yuriria, etc) but not others (Pátzcuaro). It’s interesting that Lake Yuriria is not a natural lake, and was only created in 1548 after the Spanish ordered the construction of a canal connecting the existing basin with the Lerma River in order to make a reservoir. In contrast, Lake Pátzcuaro is a natural lake, and in fact was the site of Tzintzuntzan, the capital of the Purépecha Empire, in the Pre-Hispanic era. It’s tempting to suggest that Pátzcuaro had a stronger indigenous boatbuilding tradition, centered around dugouts, while Yuriria’s more recent creation meant that it had no indigenous boatbuilding traditions, allowing Spanish plank-built techniques to dominate. But that theory appears unlikely. After all, Chapala did have a substantial indigenous population that used dugouts on the lake, and those seem to have been wholly replaced by plank-built canoas at some point. Perhaps the different construction techniques simply have more to do with the availability of large logs suitable for dugouts vs. sawn planks being available. Determining this would require some study of the lumber industry and environmental change in the colonial era.

 

A second question has to do with the origins of the Chapala/Yuriria-style Canoa (or Lancha), which I’ve identified as a distinctive vessel characterized by plank construction, a sharp raised bow, a flat stern, crossbeams in the fore half, and staggered half-frames. It’s tempting to look at the “canoa” in the Yuriria museum, shown above, as some sort of transitional phase between the plank-built, flat-ended trajineras (which were usually called “canoas”) that replaced indigenous dugout canoes in the lakes and canals of the central Mexican basin, and the Chapala Canoas. After all, the Yuriria museum “canoa” has some similarities with the trajinera: flat bottomed, flat-sided, low freeboard, flat bow. It also differs in apparently using thinner planks than are used for trajineras, having more of a vertical transom than the angled interchangeable bow/stern of the trajinera (instead being closer to that of a Chapala Canoa), and a bow that, if not coming to a sharp point, does notably taper. In this reading, design techniques from the central basin may have been brought to Yuriria and the Lerma River (which, notably, is only intermittently navigable at best), then adapted to use much thinner planks and perhaps were given sharp bows and flatter transoms to better suit local conditions. The frames could have been added to make up for the strength lost by using thinner planks, especially as the Canoas became larger. However, this sort of evolutionary progression can’t be sustained. It’s entirely unclear when they started using plank-built Canoas in Chapala and elsewhere, and it’s unclear whether the Yuriria museum canoa’s design predates that of the Chapala canoas, or if it’s just a simpler vessel. And that doesn’t say anything about the Cuitzeo vessels, which could also be offered as some sort of predecessor of the Chapala canoa but which also lacks the sources necessary to confirm this.

 

All of which is to say, I have more questions than I have answers, and it’s not clear to me how answerable these questions are. Further research into colonial-era sources would be necessary. However, colonial drawings are usually so simplified in their presentation of boats that I’m not sure it would be possible to pick out Chapala-style Canoas vs. dugouts and/or trajinera-style vessels. Moreover, many colonial-era sources (and later sources, as well) simply refer to boats by the generic term “canoa.” What I would need to find would be something discussing boat-building techniques for Chapala and/or Yuriria in some degree of detail, but I’m not sure if such a source exists.

 

What can be said, at the least, is that the lakes and rivers of Central/Central-West Mexico are home to a wide variety of wooden working boats. While the dugouts of Pátzcuaro have received scholarly attention, these diverse plank-built vessels are also deserving of study and could tell us something about the history of technology and cultural change in colonial (and post-independence) Mexico.

 

In any case, thank you for your patience as I speculate and share photos that are not directly related to the build.

[wefalck]

I like that kind of research and it’s quite surprising how many photographs there are of this ‚remote‘ area. I found it difficult to find similar pictures for certain European areas. Perhaps there were more travellers in Mexico?

 

For the bananas, you could look into seeds. I thought of caraway seeds, but they may be a bit small for 1/32 scale.

[JacquesCousteau]

12 hours ago, wefalck said:

I like that kind of research and it’s quite surprising how many photographs there are of this ‚remote‘ area. I found it difficult to find similar pictures for certain European areas. Perhaps there were more travellers in Mexico?

 

For the bananas, you could look into seeds. I thought of caraway seeds, but they may be a bit small for 1/32 scale.

Thanks for the suggestion! I was thinking grains of rice might work, but I'll have to look into seeds as well.

 

It's interesting that you mention the difficulty of finding photo records. I've only really had much success in finding photos from areas that saw extensive tourism, which makes sense given that most of these photos were intended for postcards. Lakes Yuririra and Cuitzeo were not tourist destinations for much of the 19th and 20th century, and the very few photos I've found from then focus on their churches, not on work on the lakes. So far practically all the photos I've found of vessels from these areas are of recent vintage. In contrast, I've found more photos of work boats on the Veracruz coast--an area that received a lot of foreign investment and some tourist interest, although it was too hot and prone to tropical diseases for many tourists to stay long. But the most extensive photo records of workboats by far are from 1) Mexico City/Xochimilco, 2) Lake Chapala, and 3) Lake Pátzcuaro. Mexico City was of course the capital and received a lot of attention, and Xochimilco was a popular site for recreation in the 1800s and, increasingly in the late 1800s and early 1900s, for tourism. Lake Chapala and Lake Pátzcuaro both became popular sites for tourism and for retreats for the wealthy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

 

Moreover, the vessels of each respective area--the trajinera, the canoa, and the icháruta--became important subjects for photographers because they seemed to encapsulate an idea of an authentic indigenous tradition. This was appealing both for nineteenth-century tourists and, after the Revolution especially, also for political authorities. The process has been best described by Jennifer Jolly in her book Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico: Art, Tourism, and Nation Building under Lázaro Cárdenas (University of Texas Press, 2018), who emphasizes how 1930s nationalist artists and officials built on nineteenth-century precedent to find in Pátzcuaro--and its fishermen--a readily available indigenous past that could be used to promote an idea of Mexico as a nation built on ancient traditions. That the lake was picturesque and commercializable undoubtedly helped. Something similar happened in Xochimilco and in Chapala. In the process, though, the more complex local history, including the histories of transfers and adaptations that led to the replacement of dugouts by plank-built vessels in Xochimilco and Chapala, was effaced. Photographs for the tourist market present these vessels as timeless, but they definitely weren't--they developed in a time and place. (Here it's worth noting that the Pátzcuaro icháruta dugout has the best claim to be "timeless," or at least pre-Hispanic, but I do think it would be worth asking whether its design changed at all over time. After all, as Jolly notes, Pátzcuaro was located on a major trade route and was cosmopolitan in the colonial era. Apparently they just recently discovered a preserved tepari cargo dugout on the Pátzcuaro lakebed, and I hope they are able to do a detailed study of its design.)

 

All of which is to say that, I wonder if something similar was at play in Europe. Perhaps ordinary working boats were mostly ignored (at least in areas where they weren't seen as central to regional or national identities--the UK seems to have pretty extensive workboat records), unless they were in highly touristy areas? I ask because I came across this book the other day in the library, which contains a ton of images and drawings of various types of vessels on Lake Como, a major tourist destination.

Edited June 24 by JacquesCousteau
Corrected typos

[wefalck]

Indeed, I thought that many of the photographs may have been taken by (international) travellers. The Baltic coast, in which I am currently interested in, didn't quite attract so much international tourism. For the local summer vacationers, these maritime things were not attractive enough I suppose. In addition, due to WW2 there have tremendous archival losses.

 

It's also a question of attitude towards the maritime history. The UK has much closer links with the sea than most other countries. There is a lot of information also in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Italy, and to some extent Spain and Portugal. France has caught on in more recent decades, but Germany is a developing country in comparison.

 

Edited June 25 by wefalck

[JacquesCousteau]

12 hours ago, wefalck said:

It's also a question of attitude towards the maritime history.

Definitely! In Latin America, I've noticed some serious differences between countries and regions. Chile, for instance, not only is nearly entirely coastal, but its maritime history has been regularly drawn on for nationalist purposes. Practically every city there seems to have something named after Captain Prat, hero of the War of the Pacific, for instance, and more prosaically, the Pinochet dictatorship seems to have promoted reconstructions of the schooner Ancud, as well as a regatta of "traditional" sailing craft from the south (possibly, I need to do further research on this) to help reinforce national claims to disputed territory in Tierra del Fuego. This seems to have fueled the creation of a sizeable body of literature on Chilean maritime history. Meanwhile in Brazil, from what I've seen (which is just scratching the surface) there doesn't seem to be much in the way of national promotion of traditional vessels. However, the saveiros of Bahia have received a great deal of attention, in part as a symbol of local/regional identity strongly connected with Northeastern identity, and something similar could be said about the jangadas further north. In Mexico, in contrast, there is very little written about modern "traditional" vessels like the Chapala Canoa, with most scholarly attention instead focused on pre-Hispanic dugouts. It's very interesting to consider how and why we have the sources that we have through which we can understand the histories of these vessels.

[wefalck]

I am teaching a course of which one element is the interaction between science and society. One thing I tell my students is that it is sometimes (more) interesting to look at what is not subject to research and why. There is the myth of 'independent' science and research. In reality, much of the science is driven by what politics think is 'relevant' and, hence, makes research grant money available. 

One of those effects could be that pre-Hispanic culture is favoured over the 'colonial' culture. Similarly, there is a lot of money for research on societal/social issues, but little on the material culture of the respective societies. This overlooks the fact that these are usually closely interwoven.

 

For these reasons, research into boats as such in many parts of Europe finds little interest on the side of public funders and museums neglect this aspect often.

[JacquesCousteau]

On 6/26/2024 at 1:05 PM, wefalck said:

I am teaching a course of which one element is the interaction between science and society. One thing I tell my students is that it is sometimes (more) interesting to look at what is not subject to research and why. There is the myth of 'independent' science and research. In reality, much of the science is driven by what politics think is 'relevant' and, hence, makes research grant money available. 

One of those effects could be that pre-Hispanic culture is favoured over the 'colonial' culture. Similarly, there is a lot of money for research on societal/social issues, but little on the material culture of the respective societies. This overlooks the fact that these are usually closely interwoven.

 

For these reasons, research into boats as such in many parts of Europe finds little interest on the side of public funders and museums neglect this aspect often.

Yes, it's definitely very interesting to ask why certain topics get researched and others don't. In this case, I suspect it's mostly a general lack of study of workboats in Mexico, with anthropology's focus on indigenous societies leading to some studies of dugouts. The lack of study of colonial workboats is a bit odd, though, as other aspects of colonial-era material culture have been very well-studied and have received a lot of attention.

 

In any case, as part of my upcoming move back to Mexico, the Canoa has been packed and sent off, arriving safely. I'll get back to work on it in September.

[JacquesCousteau]

Although the Canoa itself is on hold for now, I thought I might make some of the gear and accoutrements that will bring the finished model to life. I decided to make a barrel, which might go into the Canoa or into a different model that I haven't started yet.

 

I saw that Chuck Passaro sells deluxe barrel mini-kits (Syren Deluxe Barrels) that are made of Alaskan Yellow Cedar. I ordered a couple alongside rope and fittings for another build being planned. I've heard a lot about how nice Alaskan Yellow Cedar is to work with, but also that it can cause allergic reactions in some people, and I thought a tiny barrel kit would be just the thing to test whether or not I'm allergic to it. I also haven't seen many mentions of these on the site, so I thought a mini build log might be interesting for anyone considering them as an option.

 

The mini kit is quite nice--you get two small sheets with laser-cut parts, and a sheet of laserboard for the hoops. The laser cutting is very precise, with no charring on the side that will be visible.

 

The interlocking framework is quite simple to put together. Do make sure to line up the dots on the parts, otherwise the 14-sided edge won't match up. The instructions say the framework can just be held in place with friction, but I found it more secure to add a drop of glue to each joint.

 

I then glued on the end caps and began work on the staves. These were tricky. They don't have to take that much of a curve, but they're just an inch long, making it hard to bend them properly. The instructions say just to use superglue and hold them in place while it cures, but no matter how long I held them, the ends popped off. The instructions say that trying to pre-bend the staves will just break them, but I decided to give it a try anyway, using scrap to make a simple jig, soaking the staves, and letting them dry overnight.

 

None of the staves broke, but this also didn't work--the curve was too gentle, and the ends still wanted to pop off.

 

Instead, what I found worked was to superglue one end of the stave firmly in place, wait for it to cure, and then bend it and glue on the other end. For whatever reason, this worked far better than trying to hold both ends in place at once. You can see an example in the middle of this process below.

 

It took some time, and some glued fingers--I really do dislike super glue--but eventually all the staves were added and I smoothed the outside and ends.

 

Next was to add the hoops. I did a very poor job of keeping these even, but I think it's not so noticeable if the barrel is stowed in a hold.

 

 

As can be seen, the superglue stained the wood, leaving the barrel very blotchy. I ended up simply spreading a bit of super glue over the whole barrel to give an even color. It did in fact bring out some of the richness of the wood, although it's a bit glossy.

 

As can be seen, the barrel is pretty small.

 

At 1:32 scale, this is a fairly small barrel, 2 ft 8 in tall. For now, I'm just stowing it in the bow of the Peapod (where it's basically a tiny cask) while I decide whether it will eventually go in the Canoa or one of two coastal traders I'll be building next.

 

Overall I'm pleased with the barrel kit and would recommend it to anyone who is curious. Just keep in mind that curving the staves is a bit tricky, and be careful not to get superglue everywhere.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that it seems I am not allergic to Alaskan Yellow Cedar, which is great news although I'm not sure when I will ever work with it--at the moment, I have a decent supply of cherry, alder, and basswood for my upcoming builds and won't be buying wood for a while. I also should note that, with the extra pieces included in the kit, once I build the other barrel I should have enough spare parts to make a nice little bucket as well.

Edited July 20 by JacquesCousteau
Added info

[wefalck]

Fixing one end (with hoops) and then the other is indeed full-scale practice in barrel-making.

[Glen McGuire]

nice job on a very tricky little piece!

[JacquesCousteau]

I was able to make more progress today, this time on something that's been concerning me for a while--blackening metal parts. Thanks to the advice contained on this forum, I was able to get results I'm actually pretty happy with, from a process I'd never done before that had been giving me anxiety.

 

As mentioned in some earlier posts, I needed to find some way of dealing with several metal parts. The numerous parts of the rudder hinges, of course, but also I had bought a chain and a grapnel anchor. I won't be able to take the birchwood casey brass blackening solution when I move in a month, so I decided it was now or never. I also decided to blacken some Billings-brand turnbuckles that I bought for another project (the build log of which will have to wait until after the move). This would also be a bit of an experiment in blackening different types of metal. The rudder hinges and turnbuckles are brass, the chain copper, and the anchor some kind of white metal.

 

Following the advice contained in a number of build logs and other posts, I first set out to thoroughly clean all parts. (No photos  of the cleaning, unfortunately.) The hinges, especially, were looking pretty grimy after having been repeatedly heated, reshaped, and handled bare-handed. I dunked all parts in a mix of distilled water and dish soap and gave them a good scrub with steel wool while holding them with a hemostat. This was a bit tricky as most of the parts are quite small--well, not that small compared with what some of you work with--and the steel wool tended to snag. In the future, I would like to try with a metal bristled brush instead. I then rinsed the parts off in distilled water. At this point, the rudder hinges looked notably better than before, but still not as shiny as the turnbuckles. I should note that I was wearing rubber gloves for all of this.

 

The next step in cleaning was to give all the parts a soak for 10 minutes or so in isopropyl alcohol. While acetone seems to be usually recommended, I don't have any and didn't want to buy extra stuff before my move, and I had read some things saying isopropyl alcohol can work too. I then placed all the parts on a paper towel to air dry.

 

Next up was the blackening itself. I set up on my balcony so that I would have good ventilation, and I used a small glass jar (previously full of curry paste, but well cleaned) to hold tye blackening solution. I had read that the blackening solution works best with a long soak in a mixture of around 6:1 water:blackening solution. However, as I don't have medicine droppers and was pouring directly from the containers, I accidentally ended up with something closer to 3:1 or 2:1. I considered diluting with more distilled water, but decided against it, given that you're supposed to only add acids to water and never water to acids. I dropped in one of the turnbuckles. It was amazing to see how quickly it turned black, and I fished it out with the hemostats after about 10 seconds (clearly my solution was not as distilled as it should have been), dunked it in an old yogurt tub of distilled water, and put it on a paper towel to dry. Below, my first blackened metal piece, left, and a little plastic container holding the parts to be blackened, right.

 

I continued, giving all the parts a soak of 10-20 seconds. Below, I just had a single turnbuckle to go.

 

The rudder hinges and chain seemed to blacken pretty well, as well, as can be seen below. The anchor, in contrast, did not blacken at all, even with a fairly long soak (in fact, it's sitting in the solution in the photo below). I had read that white metal didn't necessarily blacken, so I wasn't totally surprised. Interestingly, as can be seen, the color of the solution seemed to darken, especially after the copper chain (which blackened well). This does make me wonder whether a fresh solution would have blackened the anchor.

 

All the blackened parts were, as can be seen above, very dark black in color, but this was actually a fine powder that needed to be removed (selenium, if I remember correctly, which is toxic--the gloves stayed on all through this process). I used another paper towel to buff all the parts. Given how small they were, and how tricky it was to have fine motor control with the gloves, I ended up just rubbing them between two paper towels flat on the table. (I then sealed the paper towels in a plastic bag to throw out, as a precaution.) As can be seen, the parts except for the anchor turned out a sort of gunmetal gray, which I think is quite nice.

 

Looking more closely, I can see a few issues to improve upon in the future. The interior of the holes in the turnbuckles didn't consistently blacken because they usually trapped air bubbles when I dunked them in the solution, and even agitating them didn't always get the bubbles out. This shouldn't be too visible, though, once rope is tied to the turnbuckles. There's also some unevenness in coloration, due either to my having cleaned the parts poorly or to my solution being too strong and not being able to do a long, slow soak. That said, this issue isn't really visible unless you look at the parts from very close up (for size, the turnbuckles are 11/16 of an inch in length). So, while there are things I could do better, overall I'm pleased with how these parts turned out. I will definitely feel more confident next time I blacken metal parts (whenever that may be). 

 

I should note, too, that my hemostats--which I thought were stainless steel--also ended up a bit discolored from this process.

 

For now, I'm going to think if I have any other metal parts to blacken. I'll let the blackening solution dry out, and then will carefully through out the residue. Also, I tried to superglue the anchor pieces together as a prelude to painting, but the glue didn't stick at all. Clearly I'll need a different glue, but that can wait until after the move.

[JacquesCousteau]

Having completed my move back to Mexico, I'm finally ready to return to work on the canoa!

 

Back in June, in post number 183, I documented my first attempt at making and serving (or seizing? I have to admit that I'm confused by the difference between these terms) an eye splice on the top of the backstay. It didn't turn out very well for a number of reasons--I couldn't get a false splice so I just glued the rope, I used thread that was much too thick and fuzzy for the serving, and the end result was bulky and lumpy.

 

Now that I'm more settled in, I decided to try again. This time, I was able to successfully do a false splice! I don't yet have a hypodermic needle, as Wefalck suggested, but I was able to separate the rope strands as follows. First, I placed the part of the rope that will form the loop in the clip of a helping hands. Then, holding the rope close to the clip, I rolled it to slightly unwind the strands in that spot only. Note: I'm using Ropes of Scale rope, which is treated to prevent unwinding--using an untreated rope could possibly lead to a catastrophic unwinding. I then passed the end through and re-rolled the rope. Success!

 

I then immediately screwed things up on the next step. After placing it around the mast to ensure it was the right size, I used a bit of superglue to secure the splice. In doing so, I committed two errors. First, as I read immediately afterward, superglue is not recommended for rigging as it can maje the lines fragile and lead to breakage later--diluted white glue is better. Given that I'll probably need to unrig this model for another move in a year or two (I may have chosen the wrong hobby for my career, or vice versa), I definitely don't want to make it fragile. Second, I didn't properly trim it tight up against the splice, but (based on what I've seen in cases like the Model Shipways Norwegian Sailing Pram) left it a bit long and glued up against the stay, as seen below, to be lashed later.

 

My error was especially clear when I double-checked photos. Although I don't have any photos that provide a very clear image of how they handled the loop at the top of the backstay on actual canoas, the splices or knots do appear to have been pretty compact, as seen in the image below--the ropes definitely aren't "doubled" as I did it. The perils of modeling before the coffee kicks in!

Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/un-velero-panorama-MX14561525002424

 

So, this morning was a good reminder to double-check what I'm doing before I do it! In any case, as I'm going to redo it, I decided to use this as a learning experience/testbed to try lashings and serving with different sizes and colors of fly-tying thread. For the lashings, which I used to practice clove hitches, I used 140 denier tan thread. As can be seen below, this practically disappeared against the rope. I used a darker brown 210 denier thread for the serving. I found it difficult to maintain even tension while serving. I really ought to get my old fly-tying equipment for it. In any case, as can be seen below by the contrast between the earlier attempt (above) and this try (below), the different materials and techniques made a big difference, and I think I should be able to do a better job on the final version.

Edited September 5 by JacquesCousteau
Added image

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Jacques, the seizing is looking good. Not sure if this is how you are doing it but in the past, using cotton thread, I have started with a clove hitch. Dab some diluted pva on it. Wrap the free ends around the back and tie an overhand knot on the front. Keep doing this until seizing is the desired length. Then apply diluted pva to the cotton thread and when dry snip the ends off. The overhand knots will keep the tension and you don’t end up with as much unraveling. You just have to make sure the overhand knots are butted tightly up against each other. It might be worth a try. Congratulations on your successful move!

[JacquesCousteau]

16 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Hi Jacques, the seizing is looking good. Not sure if this is how you are doing it but in the past, using cotton thread, I have started with a clove hitch. Dab some diluted pva on it. Wrap the free ends around the back and tie an overhand knot on the front. Keep doing this until seizing is the desired length. Then apply diluted pva to the cotton thread and when dry snip the ends off. The overhand knots will keep the tension and you don’t end up with as much unraveling. You just have to make sure the overhand knots are butted tightly up against each other. It might be worth a try. Congratulations on your successful move!

Thanks! I may have to try using overhand knots, it sounds like a useful solution to the tension problem. 

 

While I wait to pick up some pva, I turned my attention to the rudder hinges. As shown in earlier posts, I had already made them and blackened them, and had decided that making them out of several pieces would be easier than trying to bend a series of tight 90-degree angles into the brass strip. So, the first step was to drill small slots alongside the sternpost and slot in the central hinge parts (the gudgeons), as seen below:

 

Unfortunately, the top gudgeon has a small blotch portside that didn't properly blacken, which I didn't notice earlier. I'll need to do a bit of touch-up when I get more brass black, as my bottle didn't survive the move, but for now that side can go against the wall.

 

Next, I added the fake hinge "arms" coming off of the sides. I still haven't found my tweezers, which got packed.... somewhere, so this was a bit tricky to do. As can be seen, there was a little smearing of super glue which I'll cover once I've bought paints again (another victim of the move, I got rid of them as they were drying up anyway).

 

 

Although there's a bit of a visible line between the central hinge and the false arms, I don't think it's very noticeable and I'm mostly happy with how this part turned out.

 

Next, the rudder side of the equation. After measuring, I drilled a couple holes into the rudder's front end and added in a couple pieces of black wire bent at a 90-degree angle to form the pintle. The rudder straps were then glued around it. Getting everything just right was a challenge, and after getting everything in place, it turns out there was a small gap--the upper strap was just a hair too high. I decided that I can live with it, though. In any case, the rudder hangs and can swing freely.

 

 

Overall, I'm pleased with how the rudder turned out. I think the model looks much more balanced now:

 

 

 

There are a few things to note, though. Overall, I found metalwork for the hinges to be a serious challenge and an often frustrating experience, with some effects on the build/build experience. First, I didn't get the gudgeons as small or as close to the hull as I would have liked, so there's a bit more of a gap between hull and rudder than I would have liked. This is largely due to the difficulties I had with bending brass. If I do hinges like this again, I will try to do a simpler false gudgeon that will be tighter against the hull by just making a simple loop similar to what I did for the pintle straps. Second, while the brass blackening mostly went well, upon handling the parts, I realized that I hadn't fully cleaned them and there was a bit of black powder that got on my hands. This is a highly toxic selenium compound. While I was able to remove it with thorough hand-washing, and thoroughly cleaned my desk afterward, I really don't like the idea of risking selenium poisoning. It's one thing to have a bottle of something toxic, but it's another thing to have a toxic powder that can more easily spread to places it shouldn't be. So, while I quite like the gunmetal color that the blackening process produced, I'm considering just going with paint in the future. Given that I don't love metalworking, too, I also might give a look at Chuck Passaro's boxwood hinge kits for future hinges.

Edited September 6 by JacquesCousteau

[Paul Le Wol]

Chuck’s hinge kits are worth their weight in gold. Makes the job so much easier.

[wefalck]

When I serve splices etc. I start with either a clove-hitch or an overhand-knot and continue with half-hitches. The half-hitches make sure that the turns stay tight on the served area.

 

To secure knots, splices and servings I use a fast-drying varnish, similar to nail-varnish, but the old, solvent-based variety, not the modern acrylic ones. In this way, everything can be loosened, should the need arise.

[JacquesCousteau]

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions!

 

Following up on my earlier posts, I finished the loop at the top of the lone backstay. This took more tries than I anticipated. On my third attempt (after the two discussed earlier) I used just thinned white glue to join the false splice. But, it wasn't a strong joint and it came apart as soon as I tried to remove the stay from the mast. So, I decided that I would use super glue after all--if it leaves the rope fragile and it breaks down the line, it's not a particularly difficult rope to replace. However, my fourth attempt was accidentally too tight and couldn't be slipped off the mast tip. My fifth attempt went better, but despite snipping off the excess line close to the splice, the serving turned out weirdly lumpy there. Finally, my sixth attempt was acceptable--less lumpy than the fifth (although still not quite as smooth as I would have liked), loop the proper size, and strongly joined at the false splice.

 

Next up, the fishing nets (or at least one of them, I'd like to make several if all these tiny knots don't drive me insane first).

[JacquesCousteau]

With the model close to completion, I wrote out a list of everything that's left to do. I realized that I can't attach the backstay just yet because I still need to be able to insert all the fishing gear and accoutrements that will be under the thatched rancho (which I also therefore can't glue in place yet). So, I decided to work next on some of the fishing gear, which is very clearly described in Carlos Ortiz Segura's article "'Todo tiempo pasado fue mejor', o la pesca en el lago de Chapala antes de la desecación de su ciénaga," Gaceta de Antropología No. 17 (2001) (link: http://www.gazeta-antropologia.es/?p=3291#:~:text='Todo tiempo pasado fue mejor,la desecación de su ciénaga&text=CIESAS.,México.)

 

The first piece of fishing equipment I want to make is a net, specifically a chinchorro net. These were the largest in use on the lake, anywhere from 100 meters in length up to 300 meters, according to Ortiz Segura. The top lf the net is lined with floats, while the bottom is lined with stone weights. According to Ramón Rubin in his novel La canoa perdida, they were extremely effective nets, but so indiscriminate in what they caught that they were occasionally banned (ineffectively) in hopes of maintaining fish stocks. The chinchorro was used as follows. First, one end was tied to a stake which was driven into the relatively shallow lake bottom. A canoa was then poled or rowed out in a large semicircle, casting out the net behind it. Once the whole net was out, the canoa crew took the end back to the start of the net and the whole thing was pulled in. Here's a photo showing an example of this (although it may be with a smaller type of net used in the same way--notably, they're just wading in the shallows).

Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/pescadores-en-el-lago-de-chapala-1958-MX15186632784160/3

 

This use of the net, as opposed to seine netting or other net techniques, highlights why smaller, more manueverable canoas (which usually didn't have a rancho) were preferred for fishing. The larger canoas de rancho, especially the ones in the 40-60 ft range, were simply impractical for this sort of work. However, while most fishing was done from the smaller vessels, canoas de rancho were used as storeships and fish drying stations for the mobile fishing fleets that would set up camp for days or weeks at a time around the lake while pursuing the best catch. (The final chapters of La canoa perdida focus on one such camp). My canoa de rancho represents one of these storeships, and hence will be carrying a variety of fishing equipment and other supplies. (Although I will not be modeling any drying fish hung on the rigging--the charales that were prepared this way would be, at scale, barely 2mm long.)

 

At my scale, a full chinchorro net would measure about 10-30 feet long, so I will only be making a section, especially as the net will be folded up and stored in the hull. I'm after a representation rather than a fully accurate depiction. As part of simplifying it, I also won't be including the deeper "cup" in the center of the net that Ortiz Segura mentions, which would be invisible in any case once the net is folded. This photo of a fisherman inspecting nets drying on the shore is very useful for the details. It shows off the floats, as well as how the line for the floats was connected to the net itself just below.

Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/tipos-mexicanos-pescador-arreglando-las-redes-chap-MX15040598739914/4

 

I started with the floats. According to Ortiz Segura, they're made of sabino (aka ahuehuete, aka Moctezuma Cypress). Cherry seems like a close enough approximation of the color. I marked off a number of floats on a strip of 1/16‐inch-thick cherry and drilled out the center holes before cutting.

 

It took a while, but after some work and sanding the edges, I had 30 floats.

 

Next, the net itself. I cut a rectangle out of tulle. I then threaded a length of nylon jewelry tread along the outside rim to represent the rope around the edge of the net seen in the photo mentioned earlier. The corners gave me some trouble as the thread didn't take a 90-degree corner too well. First I tried adding a loop at each corner.

 

But this didn't work well. Instead, I found that I got a better corner with a knot. I also began threading the floats onto a length of .45mm-diameter rope from Ropes of Scale.

 

Next, I used thinned white glue to stick the floats onto the rope every 1/2 inch, which seems close enough to the proper length as seen in photos (especially given that this will be all folded up).

 

That's where things stand at the moment. The next step will be to tie the float rope to the net. Then, I'll need to figure out the weights hanging off the bottom--I'm thinking some small beads might work best. I also need to color the net.

 

Edited September 10 by JacquesCousteau
added images

[wefalck]

In case you are not happy with the way the net turns out, other materials to consider would be ladies' stocking or pantyhoses. You may need to look for 'patterned' ones for larger mesh sizes.

 

They can be staked out on a board to stretch the meshes and then ligthly sprayed with varnish to keep the meshes open, but not so much soaked as to make them too stiff. If your wife doesn't wear a suitable colour, the material can also by dyed.

 

I have used this method for a 'tanned' net, albeit at a much smaller scale (1/90):

 

[JacquesCousteau]

On 9/11/2024 at 1:55 AM, wefalck said:

In case you are not happy with the way the net turns out, other materials to consider would be ladies' stocking or pantyhoses. You may need to look for 'patterned' ones for larger mesh sizes.

 

They can be staked out on a board to stretch the meshes and then ligthly sprayed with varnish to keep the meshes open, but not so much soaked as to make them too stiff. If your wife doesn't wear a suitable colour, the material can also by dyed.

 

I have used this method for a 'tanned' net, albeit at a much smaller scale (1/90):

 

Thanks, your net looks fantastic! (As does the rest of your build). The tulle I'm using has holes about 3/64-inch across, corresponding to 1.5 inches at full scale. This is definitely a bit oversized, but I don't think it will be very noticeable with the net all rolled up. I'll definitely consider the stockings for future nets, though.

 

It took more work than expected, but I connected the float line to the rest of the net. My first attempt was to try tying clove hitches in a zigzag, freehand, between the float line and the net line. This didn't work well, because it was very difficult to keep the lengths of the zigzag consistent.

 

(Sorry about the terrible photo lighting!)

 

So I undid it. For my second attempt, I thought I would just weave the float line directly through the net. So I removed the floats (which were not held in place very strongly, which just a dab of diluted white glue) and started. However, I soon realized that this method led to the floats being very covered up by the tulle--it looked terrible.

 

Once again, I undid it. For the third try, I decided to make a sort of jig to hold the float line and net steady, straight, and at a consistent distance. I also decided to only do clove hitches along the float line and ise a simple loop along the net, reducing the number of knots I would have to tie and allowing the line to equalize itself better between zigzags (if that makes sense--so if one bit was a little too short and the next too long, the line could be adjusted slightly).

 

To make my "jig" (if it can even be called that), I threaded a bit of brass rod through the net alongside the edge line to hold the net straight. I used clothespins at each end to hold the net in place, and to prop the net edge up off the table. I then used a set of helping hands set just above the net to hold the float line in place, and wove between the two lines. I didn't get a picture of the whole setup, but I sketched it out (with the "zigzag" line in green to make it clearer. As I worked, I just moved the helping hands down to the next section.

 

Here's the jig in action.

 

It's extremely simple, but it worked fairly well. The brass rod, especially, really helped keep the tulle in place. Once I finished the knots, I slid the brass rod out, and it was ready.

 

There are a few uneven parts, but  overall I'm happy with how it turned out. (The right half, which I did last, came out pretty even.) And here's how it looks rolled up, which makes the unevenness less noticeable, although I'll need to squish it down flatter once I actually roll it up at the end.

 

Next on the net, I just need to dye it and attach some weights to the bottom end, which will have to wait until I can find some beads or something. But maybe I'll do something that doesn't involve so much thread work first.

[wefalck]

That came out pretty neat 👍🏻

 

Do they drill holes through the stones(?) used as weights, or do they strap them on? For the latter option you could find some small stones and tie a thread around them as if you would tie up a parcel. The loose ends you then can knot into your net. Alternatively, you could try to get hold of some shredded cork. Not sure, whether in your part of the world there are any model-railway shops, but if so, they may sell shredded cork in different size grades. If not, you may need to empty a couple of bottles and shred the cork yourself. The cork-rocks can be easily drilled (if that is the method of attachment) and painted up to resemble rocks.

Edited September 12 by wefalck

[Glen McGuire]

Fantastic job on that net!  Very well done and your choice of material was spot on.

[Keith Black]

 Jacques, love your project. You could sew on a black heavier thread at the bottom of the net to represent a lead line or use rectangular beads to represent lead weights unless you want to use rocks going for a primitive look.

 

1.5 x 6mm

https://www.potomacbeads.com/brands/miyuki/miyuki-bugle-matte-black-6mm.html?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=21535371558&utm_adgroup=168367494649&utm_term=&utm_id=pla-294682000766&utm_medium=g&feeditemid=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAA-ChLIA4TI2G6Jx2vA-aDGxqNYTe_&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy7fqgZm-iAMVOzQIBR1YRgW9EAQYAiABEgIhO_D_BwE

 

1.5 x 3mm

https://www.potomacbeads.com/seed-beads/other-shapes/bugle-beads/miyuki-bugle-black-3mm.html?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=21535371558&utm_adgroup=168367494649&utm_term=&utm_id=pla-294682000766&utm_medium=g&feeditemid=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAA-ChLIA4TI2G6Jx2vA-aDGxqNYTe_&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy7fqgZm-iAMVOzQIBR1YRgW9EAQYCCABEgKe1_D_BwE