deadeyes

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

I was thinking of making a new pair of deadeyes for my bristol channel cutter's forestay.

traditionally these seem to be turned from lignum vitae. I however don't have any thick enough, so am looking towards other woods.

I have 8/4 Paduak,teak, purpleheart, locust, longleaf, hondoran mahoghany, and white oak in my shop. I have heard of people using most of these as well as angelique, elm, and hickory for deadeyes.

What do you guys think? What is the best replacement wood for lignum vitae for dead eyes.

by the way, I plan to use Roblon for lanyards, as I replaced the rest of IVY's rigging with it, and it seems to work well.

[Ian McColgin]

I'd go locust for no superobvious reason. Just seems that of what yo've got it's the tighest grain, therefore nice on the line and not likely to split of check, and good and hard.

Reality is, a deadeye is surrounded by the eye of the stay and could probably be made of almost anything that's not actually fluid.

[Bayboat]

Ian's right about locust (that is, black locust) being the best substitute for lignum vitae deadeyes. Next would be close-grained white oak. The locust or oak will benefit by a long soaking (a week or two) in half & half linseed oil and turpentine.

[Sailing-Randy]

Okay, Bayboat, why do you specify black locust? I am not trying to be argumentative, but just that I read that honey locust has almost the same characteristics. Is that bad advice? If so, by how great a degree? I don't have a book with those facts and figures to refer to.

[Donn]

Black Locust is twice as durable and rot-resistant as Honey Locust, due to the much greater level of flavonoids in Black. Honey is considered moderately durable, while Black is extremely durable.

[wolfietuk]

Would you soak the wood in thelinseed oil mix before or after fabrication?

Rick

[Hughman]

After. And, in NJ, you can use the Osage Orange, and Persimmon that grow there. Deadeyes, heart blocks, lizards, and other wood rigging parts will be subjected to unusual internal stresses (point loading), and therefore need to be made with wood with an interlocking grain. The strops will only hold together the broken pieces of straight grained woods.

[Ian McColgin]

I'd not soak 'em till finished. Why gunk up your tools?