Pintle straps and what they are made of when fitting copper plates to the hull?

[DaveBaxt]

I had assumed these were made from iron and hence the brass etched pintle straps are blacked using various blacking solution (Brass black being my preference) I then started wondering as to the effect of electroloisis between copper plates and iron pintlle staps, especially in salt water.perhaps there is something placed between the straps and the copper plates to reduceelectrolisis, or perhaps the pintle straps are made of copper too. I am asking this question due to finding a model wiith the brass etched pintle straps being painted with copper paint or perhaps the straps could be made from copper imstead of brass and allowed to weather naturally. Personally I rather prefer to have the pintle starps to be Iron as I like the contrast between the copper and iron but wonder what others think of copper pintle starps, when copper plates are fitted to the hull and how accurate this is in reality ?Thank you.

[Blue Ensign]

You are correct Dave in your  thoughts about  copper and iron.

 

The rudder straps, pintles and gudgeons were all made of a cuprous alloy, to avoid the chemical reaction of mixing iron and copper.

 

B.E.

[flyer]

Brian Lavery in 'The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War' also writes of using cuprous alloys. He doesn't say what kind of alloy exactly but he writes about the problems with the strength of bolts made from pure copper and the search for a suitable alloy almost as strong as iron.

Comparing different copper alloys I think the solution probably was some bronze - copper and tin - as it is the strongest. What the cost of such fittings was, is another question but losing a ship because  of the decay of iron bolts was certainly costlier.

Peter

[DaveBaxt]

Thanks for confirming that for me. I wonder what this alloy looked like, probably looked more like bronze than Iron so would also look like virdigris green when exposed to air perhaps ? 

[Blue Ensign]

When I built Pegasus which was the last model I coppered, I coloured them a slightly darker bronze colour as a contrast.

 

B.E.

[DaveBaxt]

54 minutes ago, Blue Ensign said:

When I built Pegasus which was the last model I coppered, I coloured them a slightly darker bronze colour as a contrast.

 

B.E.

I think I will give that a go. Thank you