Bob Easton

Chocolate powered woodworking

Boatbuilding

Warmer Shop – Resawing

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A February warm spell has warmed the shop the past few days.  The temperature is just about ideal for resawing lumber. My previous post about resawing was all about getting it figured out. Since then, I’ve replaced the blade in the frame saw with a blade cut from an old Disston rip saw. Along the way, I learned saw sharpening enough to make this particular blade a wicked sharp saw. It has now been tuned enough to make straight cutting easy and accurate.

I’m working my way through a stack of 4/4 live edge white cedar. The first full board was 8 inches wide 14 feet long. The current board is 10.5 inches wide and 16 feet long. With the current stack of lumber, it will be resaw, resaw, resaw, for quite  a while.

Rolling Along – Bottom Bevels

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It was moderately warmer in the shop yesterday, making for a good day to work on the bottom bevels. We left off with a big bottom board attached to the stems, the mid-frame, and the bulkheads. It stands proud of all of those and needs to have its edges beveled so that the planks can fit neatly. The bottom bevel is a continuously “rolling” bevel. Near the stems it is very steep, something near 60 degrees. At the mid-frame, the bevel is very shallow, near 25 degrees. There are several simple challenges for making this bevel, each easily accomplished.

reach around marking gaugeFirst, we need to know the boundaries of the bevel. One part is easy, the existing top edge. The other a bit more difficult. Find the point where the straight line extension of a frame, bulkhead, or stem intersects the bottom surface. The overhanging board prevents the simple use of a straightedge. The trick is “Greg’s (pat. pending) Reach Around Marking Gauge.” Not only does the gauge reach around the edge, I reached around the gauge when making the picture, to make it easier for you to see how the gauge is used.

batten and lofting whalesConnecting only a few marks into a smooth curve is the next step. I have a number of flexible battens that curve easily. They are about 3/8 inch square and 15 feet long. Something is needed to hold the battens to the marks while marking the line. There are nifty tools for this task called drafting ducks, spline weights, or lofting whales. They are basically hunks of metal with a metal rod extended from one end. They are  traditionally shaped like ducks or whales, leading to the various names. Find a picture at the WoodenBoat Store. These little goodies are available for a mere $22 to $40 each, and a serious boat builder might need a couple dozen of the things. Being a stingy ole galoot, I found that 3 pound barbell plates with a piece of metal rod drilled and epoxied into them could be made for about $4 each. Not as pretty, but certainly functional. They held the battens still enough to make a fair line.

rolling bottom bevelWith the lines struck, the rest is simple. Use the ancient Stanley low-angle block plane to remove all the material between the board’s edge and the line, rolling the plane as the angle changes. Keeping the surface of the bevel flat is a bit of fussiness, not difficult, but essential to ensuring a good watertight join. Yes, it felt good to be shaping wood again!

Boatbuilding or Artwork?

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The boat builders up in Maine declare winter as building time. They either have better heated shops than mine, or own more layers of clothes. The past couple of weeks have been colder than in recent years, leaving the boat to sit lonely in the cold shop.

In the meantime, I’ve been doing a little bit of artwork.  A brief encounter with a group of people in an online workshop reminded me of an experience at the Wooden Boat School last summer. The reminder came as people in the workshop introduced themselves, one being from Maine’s Mt. Desert Island, home of Bar Harbor.

Greg's weekend mapOn a Friday morning Greg Rössell, our Wooden Boat School instructor, produced a hand drawn map of the area’s weekend attractions. (Click on the image to the right for a larger view.)  He had color coded the map with museums, old tool sellers, forts and lighthouses, walks and cheap thrills, etc.

Two places on the map were marked with skull and crossbones markings. One was at “Bah Hahbah,” and the other at Camden. Both were warnings about the “artsy fudge and scented candle crowds.”

Salty ole boat builders apparently have low tolerance for art, at least the touristy kind.  Here, I appreciate both activities … but don’t have any kitsch or scented candles.