Swift 1805 by verbal329 - Artesania Latina - First Build

[themadchemist]

That's a problem I completely avoided by changing all the wood in my build.

I've heard others talk about some kits being more generous with the wood and other giving barely enough. If worst came to worst I still have the wood from my kit, although it would probably never match due to the age difference.

The dark wood looks good against the light bulwarks.

[Gabek]

Just discovered your build log and I empathize with the curves this kit throws at you (no pun really intended

[verbal329]

So I have a hull sanding dilemma. I started sanding the hull (sapelia planks) with 220 grit last night, and it's nice and smooth. This is good. In process I obviously created a lot of sanding dust, that has crept in to both the large-ish pores in the sapelia planks, as well as the numerous micron-sized gaps between the planks. Should I try to blow this dust out (using canned air, or an air compressor, etc) before I apply tung oil, or should I just go over the hull with a cloth, wiping off the 'top layer' of sanding dust from the sapelia but leaving the dust that's made it's way into the cracks, which might have the double effect of hiding some of the planking gaps, while also suppressing whatever grain features might otherwise be seen in the sapelia. Any thoughts?

[verbal329]

...so I took both a shop vac and an air compressor to it, and I think it's fine. Next quandary: since my stern and stern-post pieces are too thin compared to the planked-out hull, I'm in the process of fabbing a new, monolithic piece out of African walnut that I picked up at an AZ wood store. An antique treadle lathe (and more importantly, scroll saw attachment) came with our house, so I used that to cut out the rough shape of the piece, using the kit pieces as a template (kind of cool, I thought). I'm now using a grizzly oscillating sander (great tool) to shape the bow curve of the keel to fit the bow shape of the hull. My conundrum, then, is how to blend the 'point' of the planked out bow hull, to the 'flat' of the inner curve of the blow keel. The mismatch should be evident in a picture I'll attach below. Do I try to notch the bow portion of the keel so that it 'fits' over the peaked bow planks? Do I flatten the bow portion of the hull, where currently the planks from each of the two halves (port and starboard) come together at an acute angle? Also, I'm wondering whether I'm going to run into other issues by using a wider-than-provided keel piece...but I guess I'll find out.

[verbal329]

..plus here are pics of the treadle lathe and oscillating sander (both are cool, albeit for totally different reasons).

[themadchemist]

You've just got to love a treadle lathe, why now that's high tech compared to a spring pole lathe though...
BTW have you seen Buck's whale boat build where he makes his drum sander into a thickness sander by using a fence.
Nice toys.
 
...and nice fret work. On the thickness of the keel, it does look a bit chubby (but not bad), but I wonder if you tapered it a bit to the outer edge if that would help make it look or appear slimmer. By slimming that outer edge it could fool the eye into seeing a thinner keel/stem.
The bearding line - where the plank hits the keel/stem, That should look as thought the planks fit into a rabbet cut into the keel. I achieved this by fitting the keel/stem before second planking. I also sanded a flat interface for the keel/stem to sit flush against.
 
Since your second planking is in place already, I'm not sure how best to progress. If you try shaping the inner edge of the keel/stem to fit the hull, that is going to be a big chore. Maybe not so much at the stern where its flat, but at the stem where the hull peaks.
 
I would probably attempt flatting the hull to match the stem/keel (more so at the stem, which shows up in that last picture from above) the issue I see with that is sanding to the correct width without going too wide in spots, which would make the first planking show though along the bearding line.
I would focus on the matching of the stem, because it interface more planks (at their bow ends) - where the keel interacts mainly with just the garboard plank. By focusing on fitting the stem you may have the area around the stem/keel scarf joint where the hull sands too wide where the keel interfaces. which could mean removing the garboard second planking and fitting new strakes. This I noticed happed on my build when I flattened the keel to hull interface. To make the scarf joint fit correctly and have the keel lay flat I had to remove a lot of the 1st planking's garboard toward the stem end of the keel interface. I sanded flat, then put the keel on it centered and marked it with a pencil. I then scraped down outside of the lines to make the smooth bearding line between hull and keel. Here is a picture of the sanded and pencil marked area in that region on my build. Hopefully the wider keel will help in this situation. 


 
I not sure if you could follow all that, sometime my ramblings make sense to me, but are hard to put into words.

 

On being nervous about maybe having to remove nice 2nd planking..
I also found I had an asymmetry in the ramin striping of my DSotM build and had to remove and redo some second planking and found it came off relatively easily, assuming you glued with PVA, just by a good brushing down with hot water. Since its so thin the glue softens easily and can be scraped off with a chisel or exacto. Hopefully you have 2 stripes of the second planking left for that type of fix, that is if you even need to replace the garboards.
 
Oh, one last comment, On the African Walnut... IIRC Ferit's Berlin is planked with it and I love it's softer and lighter cocoa colour compared with American (Black) walnut and Peruvian, which is even darker. The African Walnut also seems to have a tighter grain. Anyway, That is a nice piece of wood. BTW I'm not familiar with AZ, do they sell online? I'm always looking for wood sources.
 
Oh and the treadle really Rock and Rolls... Literally

 

I can't wait to se how you approach this task, It the tough stuff that makes this hobby fun for me.

[themadchemist]

Oh one other after-thought.

The stem top is the bowsprits support and I used a round diamond file to notch a groove in its top for the bowsprit to lay before glue up. Its much easier to do this before gluing as the boats not in the way.

 

Relooking at the wood combination, with the keel change... I really like the contrasting colours.

 

I was also thinking about your comment of how this effects down the road. The only issue I see is the rudder which you will need to make from the Walnut to match. Also tapering the keel stem and stern post will let the rudder be thinner. Thinning the stem and stern post will be the 2 pieces seen most readily and tapering them should make the thick keel unnoticeable. You could probably thin the keel less or not at all even. That way it fits pedestals which aren't typically tapered, unless you make a custom mounting. This may be a good time also to consider that topic, how you plan to mount and display her.

[verbal329]

Thanks Keith....I'm going to need to read and re-read this to try and visualize what you're suggesting (plus my boat nomenclature is very weak); I can't decide if I'm happy with the wide keel or not. I'm using title bond II wood glue for just about everything, so I suspect those planks are there to stay...

[verbal329]

In looking up the terms you present here, I've discovered 'Simple Hull Planking Techniques for Beginners'....I wish I'd seen that before. Still trying to determine what tack to take going forward.

[themadchemist]

I think that's normal, I know I put things off until I have a solid foundation of thought on exactly how to approach the issue/problem. The studying part of this hobby, for me, can be as fun as the actually building.