Mast-making -- Photos

[Dave Hadfield]

Here's how I spent Christmas afternoon. The spars from my grandfather's boat (1935 15ft catboat for those who missed the thread) are intact but old and probably brittle, so I thought I'd get a spar drying.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid97/pec91b6b010e3cbe74d600803463fc531/fa1236fb.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid97/pb9a7dae58c2b43a80c7621399bf17e91/fa1236f5.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid97/pf3133dd17510750883a1f8bfbcde3527/fa1236f0.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid97/pd3c36b6fcbe8be82d4ce6ed73d0c188c/fa1236ec.jpg

I noticed that existing one is cut from a tree, so I thought I'd do the same.

I swear it was dead straight, standing. When I cut it I guess I liberated some tensions so I stored it in the barn where its own weight should straighten it. If not, well, I can probably use the curve to help keep the mast straight under use, or cut another one. It's about 4ft longer than required.

Will it check? Yes it will, but so did the last one and it's still around....

[jwaldin]

If you cut another tree for a mast leave the bark on for a year while air drying it in a barn etc. This will reduce the checking.
Even if it has a curve rotate it 180 degrees after a month then 90 degree after a month and on and on. This way the wood will dry until it contains the same relative humidity as the air around it. The curve may remain but that's more about cutting down a straight tree than how it's dried. You won't remove the curve by trying to clamp it etc. Even drying is more important.

[whb]

Dave it looks like a lot of your curve is caused by a jog about 4' up from the butt. If the thing is 4' to long and you can take off the butt end it looks like you should do not too bad.

Howard

[Bruce Taylor]

Nice pics, Dave. Spruce?

[Dave Hadfield]

Yes Bruce, spruce. We planted these 25 years ago with the idea of transplanting them when they were 5ft tall or so, but never got around to it. Thus they grew tall and straight and with few large lower branches.

I don't know if it'll work or not -- the growth rings are a little large for the job -- but the price is right.

I'll cut another, leave the bark on and get it drying too. They need thinning anyway.

But it was lovely to work the drawknife and peel off long, long curls of bark on such a crisp, clear pleasant day.

[Aramas]

Good masts don't grow on trees, you know smile.gif

[PeterSibley]

Don't know if its useful info, but I cut a hoop pine or 2 ( I'm in Australia if you haven't heard of hoop pine !) a few years ago for spars.I debarked them with a draw kife as you did then ran a portable circular saw cut towards the heart of each one,probably around 2 1/2" deep. The result is that the cracking that would normally appear as they dried was contained to the saw cut.It opened up to about 1/2" on a 7" diameter pole.I'm plannind to clean the cuts out with a 1/2" router bit and glue in a 1/2" spline of matching timber.

[Bob Smalser]

Looks like fun, Dave...I sure like Peter's technique of kerfing it for drying and adding a spline later.

Problem with leaving the bark on is the bugs love it....OK to leave it on with cedar...a horrible idea in fir...dunno about your local spruce.

Doesn't look like a lot of trouble or expense for you to cut a couple more for selection and insurance as they dry.

[ 01-05-2004, 07:18 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[jwaldin]

Don't know about your type of spruce re bugs. The Sitka spruce we have here isn't bothered much by wood boarers after the tree dies. The tree actually dies quite quickly after its cut especially when the sap is down in the winter. The boarers don't go much for dead wood. Not enough nutrients for them.
If you keep the wood in a dry place molds and fungus won't be too much of a problem.

[J P]

Nice old barn - your grandfather build it? Was it added on to? I noticed the odd rafter spacing over your head in the photo and what appears to be a double post behind you but all the material seems to match so maybe it's all original. And what supports the rafters, is there a ridge beam up there? Just curious, it's what I do (timber frames). I enjoy looking at old timber buildings almost as much as looking at boats and other shapely curvy things. Almost.

Kerfing, as Peter mentioned, can be an effective way to control checking. It's done by some log and timber builders. Sometimes large diameter premium logs have a kerf taken out and wedges are kept in the kerf to encourage the rest of the round to stay in compression as it seasons.

Rustic spars. I like that.

John

[Dave Hadfield]

I thought about kerfing, but I wondered how strong it would be. You're glueing the quarter-sawn wedge into pure edge-grain. Will it hold? Has anyone done this often? Did it ever let go along the glue line? I simply don't know.

The barn was built around 1890. It isn't the main one, it was used to stable the draft horses and store their hay and straw in the loft, where the mast is. The rafter boards are indeed odd sizes and spacings. Many are pure slab-cut. Some of them, white pine, are nearly 2ft across. Yes there is a roof-beam with a vertical post at each end to take the load. And of course that beam I'm sitting on stops the whole thing from spreading apart -- its trunnels hold the building together. There is no hip-roof. The roof beam supports a hay fork rig, since bailing came along much later. The track for the carriage is suspended from it.

[Wild Dingo]

What a beautiful spot Dave! :cool: ...sheer beauty that top photo with the light coming down through the twin lines of trees into the distance the single mast layin cleaned up waiting to be moved into that old heavy timbered barn... sigh :cool:

yer are one lucky fella there mate! ;) Beautiful countryside beautiful sail boats beautiful sail grounds and well I reckon yer prety lucky you Canuks eh :cool: ...but then yer gets cold and that fluffy white stuff too eh?... ah well cant have everything eh?! tongue.gif

Take it easy
Shane :cool:

[Dave Hadfield]

Shane, the visibility this morning was half a kilometer in heavy snow and the temp was -8C. Sure it's nice cruising here, but it's a bit frantic trying to squeeze a year's sailing into 3 months.

My father's old place, where the barn is, is being engulfed by suburbs. The local town, Milton, finally got a pipeline up from Lake Ontario to provide enough water for expansion, and Developements are spreading like one of your bushfires. Our tree plantations, the 1846 farmhouse, the big old barns, the pond, will be gone in a dozen years or so, replace by the particularly horrible type of modern suburb that everyone builds these days, where the entire focus of life in indoors and there's no room to throw a ball with your kids. Oh well.... the place raised a lot of grain and a lot of kids.... Maybe somebody will make an Art Gallery out of it!

Your locale is all right! I was recently sent 3 CDs of John Williamson, an Aussie folk singer. I sure like his stuff. Wonderful songs about the land and the people.

[Wild Dingo]

yep I dont mind ol John meself... good Aussie vocals that fella ;)

-8???? Thats F right? ****e it dont matter if its F or C its Flamin Cold!! strewth Im gonna go sit in the freezer for a tic to get a feel for it... nah buggar that!!! gawd yer mad yer buggar livin in that!!! :eek:

3 months for a years sailing? strewth yer are nuts!!! ah we be truely blessed :D why today it was fine and warm just a wee tad over 29C and clear as a bell lovely zephur of a breeze cruised through this arvo... aahhh yes twer beautiful oh its gonna be the same again tomorra! an the next and the next then its plannin on getting a tad warmer up to 30 - 32C for the weegen!!! yeeeeflaminhaaa!!!

ooooh oops sorry mate got carried away I did :rolleyes:

Anyways cant you stop them coming through the property? I know down in Australind where Jos dad and mums place is on 7 acres the developers have been trying to tempt them out for years some real fine offers too... but the property is being willed to stay in the family for the kids cause soon there wont be much bush left down there... maybe your dads can be willed in perpetuity I think they call it? be a shame to see that beautiful spot disappear into the burbs of concrete and imported plants and flowers instead of the nature thats there be a real pity :(

But eck thats flamin cold mate!!!! :eek: gawd how do you get to do anything when its like that?? I mean Id be firmly snugged up under the dooners (yep plural!!!) for the duration become a flamin bear I would :D

[PeterSibley]

Dave,
like most of my ideas I stole this one about kerfing .I got it out of a ClassicBoat mag years ago.Some yard in Norway building fine looking double enders.It shouldn't be hard to get a grain match if you think its going to be a problem.

[Caledonia]

Regarding the issue of bugs getting under the bark in what I'm assuming is either white or red spruce(what we have here in the kingdom). Our experience is that there is a grub stage of some crawley that likes to give its location away by making a loud grinding sound. Track 'em down and pick 'em out, or don't worry about what usually doesn't amount to much more than a 1/4 inch wide tunnel 1/8 inch into sapwood.