Latest lunacy - coxcombing

[Vince Brennan]

St. Mary's wrap: three lines doing continuous halfhitches each going over the two previous to form a rope precessing around the rail.

1-1/2" nom. OD rails, mirrored wraps.

#45 (5/64" or damn close) cotton 4-strand left-hand-laid line.


http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa295/frayedknots/fancywork/100_0916-A.jpg

I now HATE stairs!

And to hell with Ashley and his sneers at coxcombing...

Three flights of stairs, thirteen days of at least 8 hours each. My arms look like Popeye's (The Segar Popeye, not ours!)

[Bill R]

Wow!

Where is it, and uh, why?

[mmd]

I sailed on a ship that had all the interior railings coxcombed. The Bo's'un had applied hundreds and hundreds of feet of ropework on the companionway and corridor railings, with increasing complexity in the knotting as one progressed upwards from deck to deck. And yes, the Bo's'un looked a lot like Popeye the Sailorman...

[Hughman]

Vince, you're nuts. I'm buying the drinks.

[Russ Manheimer]

I'm gobsmacked. Bravo Vince.

[Iceboy]

Looks nice Vince. Is that a Navy building or reserve center or something?

[John Turpin]

Beautiful. Any chance of posting a close-up photo?

[Paul Pless]

Damn Dude!

Yeah, where is that at?

[Hal Forsen]

Yikes :eek:
I can totally relate to your pain Vince. Yargh!
Bravo Zulu! :D

[nedL]

Beautiful!!

[Wayne Jeffers]

Wow!

Where is it, and uh, why?

Wow, indeed! Well-done, Vince!

I hope it's a maritime museum or some such.

Wayne

[Jay Greer]

Bravo Vince! Guess what I did to our submarine when I was in the Navy?
Jay

[Figment]

That'll be a top the "Lunacy" list for a while.

[Vince Brennan]

OK: This is going to be the "Quarterdeck Ladder" for the Joint Strike Fighter command (the F-35 program).

Ignore the comments on the close-up picture below: they're for a tutorial I'm making on doing this.

http://www.frayedknotarts.com/images/Tutorials/coxgen/smary/toprailLG.jpg

Ah: Yes, that is fairly tight. About 3 - 3/8" from point to point on the turns and 27 hitches per turn. I lost count after a while.

[Thorne]

Some old stuff on the stair rails in the old control tower here at Ames. I'll try to get photos of it sometime soon.

[Iceboy]

Vince, that is some awesome work. I am however somewhat disappointed that they couldn't find an old bosun to do this. I guess that in the Navy that this is fast becoming a lost art if it is not already. I was always impressed with the rope work on some of the older bases and on some of the older ships. Again I appreciate your work and your holding up a tradition. Thanks for your contributions to the forum. It is always a joy to see your work. Jim...

[Vince Brennan]

Jim (and others who have voiced the same disappointment in the modern Navy's seeming-dismissal of traditional ropework), there's a good reason for the disappearance of this art aboard Navy ships.

As late as the Viet Nam era (when I was in) the Navy still operated on the principle of "many hands make light labour". A fairly small ship (perhaps a DDE) might have, say, ten sailors in "First Division" to handle lines, chip paint, stand watches and handle cargo, and an equal number in "Second Division".

Most of those sailors were non-rated (no particular specialty) and were carried aboard as "skulls", just to do ship's work. Ropework was a way of filling their time at sea or during working hours at a pier. No-where else but at sea is the adage so well proved that "Idle hands are the Devil's Workshop", so keeping everyone busy was a necessity.

Today's Navy carries far fewer personnel aboard a given ship and they are mostly all specialists at at least one job, if not at two and all take turns at watchstanding, maintenance and cooking. The needs of the ship are served and budgetary restrictions are observed, so far fewer "free" hours for learning traditional crafts.

The days of having to worry about "idle hands" have pretty much disappeared... everyone aboard has a sufficiency of tasks on their plates to stay busy for most of the day, and so traditional ropework is no longer passed down from "The Old Salts" to the "Polliwogs" as it was in the past.

In fifty years I would not be at all surprised to see there being perhaps a hundred men total who can do the work. When that happens, it'll be called "Art" and things like the rail set will cost someone $50,000 to have done.

But, then, the Mayan's (whatever-its-gonna-be) is coming in 2012, innit? So, why worry?


But: You lament "they should have found some old Bosun" to do the work? Eigh, lad.... they did!


.................


All others: I would L O V E to have pictures of this sort of ropework on ships, at shore establishments, wherever.... tillers, companionway rails on small vessels, anything!

[Iceboy]

"But: You lament "they should have found some old Bosun" to do the work? Eigh, lad.... they did!"

I for one am damn glad they did. Thanks for the reasoned reply. Carry on sailor. Jim...

[Lew Barrett]

Reminds me of a junior high school hallway; just a bit cleaner than the one I taught in. That was a grim place. Your work has done about as much as is possible to brighten up this particular hall. Well done, Vince. I'm buying after Hugh gets his round.

[Vince Brennan]

Last shots of this nonsense for a while... got all the turksheads applied over the weekend... http://www.frayedknotarts.com/images/coxcomb/pax/016S.jpg (http://www.frayedknotarts.com/images/coxcomb/pax/016L.jpg)

(Click on picture for a larger verzion)

Mirrored turksheads and a faux-continuous wrap layout.

Job to be painted and urethaned by others.

[J. Dillon]

Vince, I always thought that was called "French Curl":confused: Coxcombing involved three or more lines. Which is which ? I haven't got Ashley book.

JD

[S B]

Idle hands are the Devil's workshop.:D

[Pitsligo]

MIRRORED Turks Heads!! Fantastic! Now that's attention to detail.

Alex

[Figment]

Job to be painted and urethaned by others.

oh thank god!!

My first thought upon reading this thread was that it seemed such a shame to have all of that work get mucked up by a zillion grubby hands!

[JC 72]

Vince...I'm tongue tied. John

[Vince Brennan]

Thanks, all!

Jack: the coxcomb with one line in a continuous precessive set of hitches is the "French" or "Simple" coxcomb... this one ("St. Mary's) (http://www.frayedknotarts.com/tutorials/coxcombing/smary.html)involves three lines all hitched over one another and you get that distinctive look of having a separate rope spiralling around the rail.

[D Happ]

It looks great until it get dirty, then it's looks terrible.

[Matt J.]

Stunning work, Vince.

[Vince Brennan]

It looks great until it get dirty, then it's looks terrible. That, my friend, is why you hit it with two coats of orange shellac and varnish to suit.

[Vince Brennan]

http://www.frayedknotarts.com/images/coxcomb/pax/019L.jpg

Or you can just saran-wrap the damn thing...

[J. Dillon]

Vince , you look like you could use a beer.;):D

JD

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

Thanks, all!

Jack: the coxcomb with one line in a continuous precessive set of hitches is the "French" or "Simple" coxcomb... this one ("St. Mary's) (http://www.frayedknotarts.com/tutorials/coxcombing/smary.html)involves three lines all hitched over one another and you get that distinctive look of having a separate rope spiralling around the rail.

Ah, you answered my question as well. I have only seen the simple coxcomb on masts below decks and such.

[The Bigfella]

Wow. Absolutely fabulous Vince.

[Vince Brennan]

Jack: Beer, hell! Went out and had a considerable portion of the contents of a bottle of Gosling's as well as putting a dent in the supply of Barrit's in my garage.

Bob: True: belowdecks you don't have the "room to swing a cat" usually, so a single line is much easier to control, and the line used is usually larger (1/4"-3/8") which gives a much better "bumper" effect to the coxcombing.

Bigfella: Ta', Mate!