Wee Knees (From Trees)

[Mandoliniment]

There's a piece of me that wants to use grown knees for my Penobscot 14. Do they come this small, maybe 10" on a side? Who would sell them? I haven't yet contacted Newmans Knees, but all they show are huge ones... I can't seem to locate any other sellers.

And since this in epoxy encapsulated construction, how long would I have to let them dry? Any other issues I should worry about? And so forth.

[Jeff Evans]

Hi Mandoliniment,

I am building a 16' swampscott dory and decided in the end to use grown knees. I bought them from Newman and am very pleased with both the knees themselves and with working with Newman.

I sent him tracings of the frame stations from the lofting with notes on the required finished dimensions and within a week or so a package arrived at the post office. The lumber he sent was air dried and ready to go. It's rough sawn and not perfectly even in thickness. In my case, this was ok, so I just sanded them smooth with a ramdom orbit sander and decided to live with the variable thickness - wich ranged from about 3/4" to maybe 11/8" or so. He cuts them on a woodmizer bandsaw mill.

I ordered 8 pieces, and he sent me an extra. Unfortunatley a couple of them came to me with bad checking that I couldn't work around and one even had some insect damage. A two minute call to Newman straightened this out and he sent three more the next day. so for the 8 I had asked for, I ended up with four extras that were completely or mostly useful. I also ended up getting my stem lumber and transom knee from him, and they are great looking!

My only advise is to makes sure that you ask for enough width on the knees, since some of mine were a little tight (2" wide where I'd hoped for 3). Feel free to ask any other questions.

Cheers,
Jeff

[TomRobb]

Vast numbers of shade trees get cut up for firewood. Maybe check w/ someone who does that work for suitable chunks?

[Jim Goodine]

I was over at Newman's on Monday and you should see how much stock he has. If he can't fill your order, nobody can. Best of luck on the project.

[formerlyknownasprince]

I get mine from felled trees. Just lifted a back-breaker out of my car this morning. I've cut three from old eucalyptus trees that had been bulldozed many years ago. The one I've got here now is 2' x 2'6" x about 5" (has yet to be trimmed).

Ian

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by Mandoliniment:
There's a piece of me that wants to use grown knees for my Penobscot 14. Do they come this small, maybe 10" on a side? Who would sell them?You live in Wisconsin. It shouldn't be hard to find grown knees.

Talk to orchard owners, tree surgeons and farmers who might be taking down a tree -- get them to set aside some crooks of appropriate size for you.

Figure out what would you want, too.

Apple is a traditional wood for small boat knees. Other fruitwoods would be good as well (cherry, pear, etc.) Oak (white, quercus alba) would work, too.

If you can find it, Osage Orange (hedge apple) is incredibly tough.

Once you have them, resaw them to approximate thickness and cut out the knees.

[dadadata]

Mulberry is in the same family as Osage and much easier to work.

Sassafras is a great wood for small knees.

Osage, which I dearly love for itself, is heavy, has interlocking grain which makes it almost impossible to plane, twists as it dries, and really has to be carved or rasped sort of like aluminum --chuckle--. Makes great cleats.

I was involved with the framing stages of the schooner Sultana and know how much wood they cut to get a 50-ft vessels' worth of frames; and also how cranky Osage was a treenail stock -- why in the world they did not decide on black locust for treenails, which is plentiful, traditional, and much easier to work -- is beyond me.