Historic Crab Scrape

[SMARTINSEN]

Thanks for the comment, boattruck. If you ever make it back East, let me know. You can be the impetus for a seriously overdue for a Chesapeake EBS.

No doubt the big grown knees and the floor timber in the fore are the best parts of the old boat. The idea of starting new may be tempting. And your point about building these boats quick and dirty is duly noted, they are after all, really quite simple.

I spent a good part of the past couple of days trying to clean up and organize, and make some more space in the shop. And today, I rolled her in.


Right now, I am trying to come up with a plan....


In the mean time, here are a couple more sawmill photos.







They are tarring sleepers for a garden shed that they are building. The old timer is Earl, and he is a vigorous 80 years old. He said that in times past, when the farmers had a good white oak log, they would bring it down to the yacht builders in St Michaels or Oxford where they could sell it for better money. Most of those boat yards are gone now, though there several still.

[boattruck]

Smart, Love the saw mill shots, near where I grew up in SE Pa there were mills much like that, wish I had one nearby( Ca...), its like a trip back in history, to when the bad old days actually were, well, bad...
On to your current dilemma, the fact that she was built, for a price, to last for five or ten hard seasons, by a part time water-man, part time farmer etc, would likely lean me toward starting all over, basically resetting the clock all the way back to 0, rather than consume a bunch of time painstakingly trying to undo the ravages of time and the aging of substandard materials, do her as exactly as you can reconstruct she was done, it will be refreshingly easy, compared with the alternative, and her spirit will live on in her knees and other bits, as well as in your recording/coping her builders 'moves' for posterity, if there is actually such a thing. If she was simply a bag of bones, without all the subsequent repairs this approach would be easier, but I'll bet you can get her done...
As to visiting the warm muddy waters and feeding the mosquitoes their due, we have already missed two seasons, and it sure seems like this year is not in the cards either, life just starts to move too quickly sometimes. I would dearly love to settle in to the slow pace of life in/on the Bay for just a little while...our spot looks out to the west between the Sassafras and the Canal...a slice of heaven! Cheers, Hutch/BT

[Eddiebou]

What if you used a router with about a 3/4" mortising bit to remove the chines? I know you'll run into the side frames but it would remove the bulk of it pretty quick.

[SMARTINSEN]

What if you used a router with about a 3/4" mortising bit to remove the chines? I know you'll run into the side frames but it would remove the bulk of it pretty quick.

Hi Eddie:

Removing the chines is the least of my worries. Right now, I am in for a bit of supper (my wife makes extraordinary minestrone) and after that go back out and finish them up. I will put up a couple of photos later this evening.

[SMARTINSEN]

Or maybe first thing in the morning.

I got the trailer out from under the boat:



I had started on the chines outside, where the mess was not so much of a problem. But finished up inside. By the time I was finished, I had the method down pat, so if I ever have to do it again it would be a snap, but it is one of those things that you hope you don't have to.

First cut the bevel off the chines:



Then run the blade down along the seam between the plank and the chine. I hewed as close to the line as possible, and the blade tended to drift away, so it did not cut into the plank at all:



A couple of whacks with a chisel and they separated in big pieces. Then pare away what was left. It was actually quite easy to feel the seam between the soft cedar and the hard epoxy. Shown is an 1-1/4" chisel, which I find to be a generally the most very useful size, but after I whacked my knuckles a few times when the handle got too close to the plank, I switched to my biggest one, an old 2" framer:



I am now in the process of leveling, plumbing and measuring, and starting to make a strong back so that I can hold every thing together. I had thought to do this before I removed the chines, but it will be a lot easier now that they are out of the way:



I was too tired to clean up last night's mess, so right now, I am off to go out to do that, but think that I am starting to get an inkling of a plan...

[PaulT]

Steve: Thanks for bringing us this thread. This is a very cool project. It's really nice to see someone here again working to restore an old boat. No plans, just an eye, level, busted knuckles... Great project.

Regards:
PaulT

[SMARTINSEN]

It is time for a bit of an update, I suppose.

I have built a strongback to help support the boat and to preserve the shape while I work. This is pretty straightforward work, the only complicating factor is that there was a boat in my way the whole time!

Steve: Thanks for bringing us this thread. This is a very cool project. It's really nice to see someone here again working to restore an old boat. No plans, just an eye, level, busted knuckles... Great project.

Regards:
PaulT

Thank you for the kind words.

Busted knuckles, well, I am kind of used to that. But the thing about working without a set of plans, is that without some definite guidance, I spend a lot of time scratching my head. You try one thing then another, and eventually something will work. Here is an example of that iterative process. This is my first attempt at trying to find a way to support the plank, to be able to take it off and then put it back on in the same place after it has been fixed:



The upright has the plank bevels in the cross-sectional and plan views, and the very thin batten tucked in back of the plank gives the height of the chine log.

Here it is a bit more refined:



I can now record the deadrise angle, as well as the top and bottom of the plank and the ltemporary spacer provides some additional support to the plank and can be removed when it is time to bend on the chine log. The red markings show plumb (though it does not look it due to the camera lens) and equal distances on both sides off of the centerline. You can see in the right side of the photo that I am not too far off the mark at this particular station.

Repeat this for both sides of the boat at 4 stations, and then you are ready to remove the plank.

Smart, Love the saw mill shots, near where I grew up in SE Pa there were mills much like that...
...On to your current dilemma, the fact that she was built, for a price, to last for five or ten hard seasons, by a part time water-man, part time farmer etc, would likely lean me toward starting all over, basically resetting the clock all the way back to 0, rather than consume a bunch of time painstakingly trying to undo the ravages of time and the aging of substandard materials, do her as exactly as you can reconstruct she was done, it will be refreshingly easy, compared with the alternative, and her spirit will live on in her knees and other bits, as well as in your recording/coping her builders 'moves' for posterity, if there is actually such a thing. If she was simply a bag of bones, without all the subsequent repairs this approach would be easier, but I'll bet you can get her done...
As to visiting the warm muddy waters and feeding the mosquitoes their due, we have already missed two seasons, and it sure seems like this year is not in the cards either, life just starts to move too quickly sometimes. I would dearly love to settle in to the slow pace of life in/on the Bay for just a little while...our spot looks out to the west between the Sassafras and the Canal...a slice of heaven! Cheers, Hutch/BT

Stay tuned for more sawmill pictures...

As far as how this old boat was built and who built it, that is forever lost. But the man that I got her from tells me that from what he had found out from previous previous owners is that she was professionally built. I do not know about that, but the builder was a very skillful carpenter at the least. Just for example, the stem is built with a rabbet to hold the planks. Most of the Chesapeake boats of the era were built with a false stem and a cutwater. And while the finish of the boat overall is not fine, everything that I can see that is original fits together very well. As for starting over, I am trying to approach this whole thing by being able to keep all of my options open, and it may well come to all new after all is said and done. If indeed that is the case, I will have to build a strongback anyway...

I felt a bit uneasy cutting through the rabbet in the stem to be able to remove the plank; so much for posterity:-)



Now it is silly, I know, but for some reason, I feel that sawzalls and boats do not mix very amicably. But I have no recourse, and my one with the long tail is 600 miles away up to camp, so I bought myself a present:



And I really like it, and now can get on with liberating the keel/keelson from the transom and the transom from the planks:



You can see how much the planks sprang back once they are released from the crooked keelson that was holding them askew. Now all I have to do is run a saw cut between the top of the plank and the covering board, and I can remove it with the frames attached and coming along for the ride.

But I think that right now, I am up against my photo limit, and really, I just wanted to use the word iterative in a sentence...

[timo4352]

Now it is silly, I know, but for some reason, I feel that sawzalls and boats do not mix very amicably.

Way better than the chainsaw ---It's good to see you're putting her back together. Best of luck. And thanks for posting.
Tim

[boattruck]

Smart, Good to see her coming along, keep sending the shots! Cheers, Steve

[SMARTINSEN]

Way better than the chainsaw ---It's good to see you're putting her back together. Best of luck. And thanks for posting.
Tim

Thanks, timo, for the good luck wishes. And this is a fun thing to do, so it is all my pleasure.

Today, we had to cross over the bridge to go to Annapolis so that SWMBO could get some supplies for her dandelion wine. And as long as we went that far (there is some kind of psychological barrier to crossing over the water at Kent Narrows and going over to the other side) it was a good day to take a ride a little further down south along the Western Shore:



Though it was a cool and gray day, we had a good time walking around looking at some of the old work boats, and talking to some of the volunteers there that comprise the museum's Patunxet Small Craft Guild. I like the lettering on this one, a simple working man's adornment:



One of the best parts of the museum was their models; they have an extensive modelling shop:





Here are a couple for Draketail, these are the real thing:



Too bad that Penguin is sitting high and dry in the barn. I could not get a good long shot, she is really a very pretty boat and she deserves to be in the water. Here is one that is wet, extensively rebuilt, and running today. She was built in 1936 at Broomes Island, actively fishing for oysters, crabs, eels and fish up until 1988:



The museum also has an extensive section devoted to the men who built these working craft of the Chesapeake, focusing on southern Maryland, especially in Calvert and adjacent St. Mary's counties. The Chesapeake was one of the last bastions of wooden workboat construction, these men building their boats well into the latter part of the 20th century long after most all others had converted to fi******ss. They are mostly gone now.

I will get some more pictures of a bit of further progress for my own special project in a bit...


Edit to add, thanks boattruck for bumping this up while I was putting this latest together.

[Eddiebou]

SMART,

Thanks for posting these pics. Funny, I went to Solomans last year and don't recall any of these boats. Like you, I was doing a little homework for my particular build interest at the time. I didn't find anything specific to my project, but did relate to 2 boats there, the rail skiff, and the Sm Isl crab skiff. I swear, I could switch mine for those at the museum and no one would notice the difference!
I hadn't seen a draketail for years untill I went to the CBMM a few years ago. Some used to come around in oyster season. The picture of the stern in the water reminded me of when I was a kid. One of the best places to look for a buster or a softcrab was on the squat boards of a workboat. They'd get up there where it was shady and safe..... Safe that is untill a sharp-eyed kid like me came along.

[SMARTINSEN]

Here is just one more with some stripes, for you, Ed:

[Eddiebou]

I remember we left the camera home that day. Surely you'll have some stripes on yours. Does she have a name?

[SMARTINSEN]

...Surely you'll have some stripes on yours. Does she have a name?

For a while I was taken by the racous colors of the Novi and Newfoundland workboats, but since coming down south to the Chesapeake, they are starting to grow on me, so yes I think that I will paint some stripes. But I am a long way away from that.

As far as the name, like the watermen, I will name her after my favorite girl, Miss Pam.

Before I took anything apart, I recorded some critical bevels:



There was surprisingly little difference from side to side-- negligible even--when you take into account the cupping of the 15" wide planks. Overall, the boat is remarkably rigid, and has held its shape pretty well considering the age, state of neglect, and state of the previously attempted repairs. And I do not think that it is a coincidence that the worst of the bevels being off was at the only frame on the entire boat that was significantly cracked. I simply split the difference when I built the strong back "plank holders".

And the first plank is off:



A heat gun and a dull chisel as a scraper got most of the badly applied epoxy and even the old paint right down to the read lead, but I did not hesitate to go heavy duty:



This is what I have to contend with, and what you are seeing here is far from the worst of it:



I have to seriously assess whether or not the planks are salvageable. There is a double row of iron sickness where the plank was nailed to to chine log. May be I can rip off that lower 3 or 4 inches or so and scarf in some new wood along the entire length. I think otherwise I would end up with too many dutchmen. It is slightly better on the top, but still full of nails on the edge, all significantly rusted, and impossible to remove.

I got the frames off, it was easy enough to slip in the sawzall blade and cut off the 3 or 4 rusty nails holding them on. I thought that perhaps they could be reused, the taller ones trimmed down to replace the shorter ones, and only have to make a few new ones, but they are full of rusty nails that are--again--impossible to remove.

Unless someone can fill me in on a way to do it.

I will get more pictures up in a tomorrow, and ask the collective wisdom of the Forum about what might be the best approach to take regarding the reuse, repair or rejection of the planking.

And there will be more too, because we have made a return trip to the sawmill:



...

[timo4352]

Hard to say without seeing it first hand, but maybe you could remove the rusty nails by cutting out the surrounding wood with a plug cutter. Then glue in a proper size plug or dowel to fill the hole. Maybe?
Tim

[Eddiebou]

I hear every word you're saying, Smart. That is exactly why I decided to build a new boat instead of trying to repair the old one. I figured there wouldn't be an original board left, and if it was it would be more trouble to "fix" than to make a new one. I mean it's a lot easier to make a new side frame than to plug holes and remove rusty nails. It was nice to have the old boat sitting there just to help me check this or that during the build.

Miss Pam.....nice!

[wollybugger]

There are some pretty trees in the pile

[SMARTINSEN]

Hard to say without seeing it first hand, but maybe you could remove the rusty nails by cutting out the surrounding wood with a plug cutter. Then glue in a proper size plug or dowel to fill the hole. Maybe?
Tim

Here is what I was referring to, Timo, the nails set into the edges of the planks.



Even if I can get a good bite on the nails with the nippers, they are just corroded into place and I cannot get them out. I think that if I core into the edge, the result, even with a sound epoxy-plugged repair would create a weak spot where the long grain of the wood is severed. I can deal with the holes on the face of the boards.

Here are a few of the frames, they are oak, and they are stout, 2" x 2". The wood is sound, and I had hoped to be able to re-use them, but they are so full of nails that it does not seem likely to me that that it would work out very well.



As a side note, the rest of boat, too, is very stoutly constructed. The original keel was 6" x 7" and up to 14" at the tallest part in the rear of the boat, the stem nominally 6" x 6", the planking sides and bottom a full 1-1/4", and the wash boards a full 1".

There is some considerable checking in this plank (none on the other, that is one good thing at least), as well as a bit of cupping:



But I can deal with that too. Here is an experiment to see what will work:







It is a sound and tight repair. You can also see some of the screw holes that I have already plugged, but, notwithstanding a total of 90 (!!!) in this plank alone, I believe that I can get it restored to be a completely serviceable plank.

But..

I hear every word you're saying, Smart. That is exactly why I decided to build a new boat instead of trying to repair the old one. I figured there wouldn't be an original board left, and if it was it would be more trouble to "fix" than to make a new one. I mean it's a lot easier to make a new side frame than to plug holes and remove rusty nails. It was nice to have the old boat sitting there just to help me check this or that during the build.

Miss Pam.....nice!

(Thanks for the compliment on Miss Pam, I will relay it to her, she is my sweetheart.)

...I still have to decide whether it is worthwhile to to. Fortunately, I can defer that decision for a while yet, because...

There are some pretty trees in the pile

...

...now I have a timber for a keel, and we are going to get to that in the next post...

[SMARTINSEN]

Clambering through the pile to find the best one.



A keel in the rough:



Getting trimmed up:



I had originally thought to use white oak, which is abundant here on the Eastern Shore. In talking with the Tuckahoe Sawmill, the sawyer asked why not use pine?

So I thought about that and researched a bit. Richard Schofield, the director of the shipyard at CBMM said that they used loblolly pine to build a skipjack 12 years ago, and no problems so far. His caveats were to look for tight ring growth, oozing with lots of pitch, and to coat all faying surfaces with red led.



This qualifies on the first two counts.

Here is Paula Johnson, in a footnote (page 97) in "The Workboats of Smith Island (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, no longer in print, alas):

"Attempts to determine the exact species of pine proved surprisingly difficult. Historically, longeaf yellow pine, (pinus palustris) was preferred, but such wood is no longer available locally. [...] Leon Marsh simply calls the wood he uses "Eastern Shore" yellow pine and knows of no other term for the wood. The most likely species is loblolly (pinus taeda) which grows well in the southern Eastern shore counties of Maryland and Virginia."

Chappel also mentioned that the watermen used loblolly. So if it is good enough for the old-time traditional boats, it is good enough for me.



I have a stick that is almost 24' long, 8" thick and 15" tall. There are a just a few small tight knots mostly in the wood that will get cut away, and I will end up with only one knot, about 5" up from the bottom in the rabbet at the bearding line. The grain has a nice swoop at the butt end that I will take advantage to cut the curve in the after end. Almost perfect.

With Miss Pam and Miss Marlee, all stacked and stickered:



After this photo, the ends got a heavy coat of some leftover latex paint, and the pile has been well covered to keep it out of the sun. I have an assortment of 8/4, 6/4, 5/4, for the boat, and some additional 4/4 for another (terra-based) project that is coming up this summer. It was just a case of incredibly good timing and good luck.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to move it, it is heavy.

[wollybugger]

That is some really nice looking wood, and Miss Pam and Miss Marlee sure look like they're enjoying the project ... it is a plus that they are happy!

Check out one of Draketails rigs for moving wood ... http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...ight=draketail

It looks pretty cool. I made one with 10" wheels, and quickly through it in the trash as it was too low.

I also rigged up a Harbor Freight chain fall on a homemade hoisting fram for moving my heavy stuff http://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-chain-hoist-996.html. It has been working pretty good.

And used a small boat trailer as the dolly (hooked to the Chevy).

[Peerie Maa]

Here are a few of the frames, they are oak, and they are stout, 2" x 2". The wood is sound, and I had hoped to be able to re-use them, but they are so full of nails that it does not seem likely to me that that it would work out very well.



.

I would not worry about those nails. I'd see if I could drive them deeper and epoxy over them, but if they won't move leave them alone and make sure that your new nails are staggered well away from them.

[SMARTINSEN]

Thanks, wollybugger, I had just happened to re-read through the entire Draketail story last night.

And, thanks, Nick. I will try to do as you suggest. To me a part of the attraction of this, and one of my goals, is to try to save whatever is possible of the old stuff and still come with a sound repair to achieve a wholesome boat. Hopefully I can make it last for another 100 years.

Do you have any thoughts about whether or not I should attempt to save the planks? Or should I go with all new?

[Peerie Maa]

Here is what I was referring to, Timo, the nails set into the edges of the planks.



Even if I can get a good bite on the nails with the nippers, they are just corroded into place and I cannot get them out. I think that if I core into the edge, the result, even with a sound epoxy-plugged repair would create a weak spot where the long grain of the wood is severed. I can deal with the holes on the face of the boards.

There are a couple of things that I would try with those, if they are surrounded with as much rust as that. One is to heat them with a big soldering iron, the other is to smack them hard with a punch. Both intended to break up the rust and free the iron.
One of these may then be able to grab and pull.
http://www.google.co.uk/products/cat...d=0CJIBEPICMAE

[Wayne Jeffers]

I'm not sure how I missed this thread for a month (aside from visiting the forum infrequently and mostly hanging out in the Designs & Plans forum,) but after finding it this morning, I am green with envy.

I've always had a soft spot for boats of the Chesapeake, and crab scrapes are a type that I have found especially alluring.

I will be following this thread with great interest.

Wayne

[Hal Forsen]

I'm not sure how I missed this thread for a month (aside from visiting the forum infrequently and mostly hanging out in the Designs & Plans forum,) but after finding it this morning, I am green with envy.

I've always had a soft spot for boats of the Chesapeake, and crab scrapes are a type that I have found especially alluring.

I will be following this thread with great interest.

Wayne

Took the words right off of my keyboard!

GREAT THREAD!

People who rebuild beautiful old boats should be awarded medals and showered with praise.

[SMARTINSEN]

Thanks, Wayne and Hal, truth be told, there is not much more than this that I would rather be doing. It is great fun.

And thanks, Nick, I had not considered trying heat on those rusty old nails. I will give it a try. (Though I had briefly considered it in a very much larger context if you know what I mean)

I am just in for lunch, but I have a few more pictures, and I will get them up this evening...

[Draketail]

The commercial version of the timber cart for moving large timbers is available from the Timber Framers Guild. Go see:

http://tfguild.stores.yahoo.net/logtimbercart.html

Once you learn to make leverage work for you, it's amazing what one person can shift aroud. Moving a 500 lb timber by yourself is entirely possible with smarts, thought, and patience.

[Rick_NJ]

Steve,

I am enjoying the build and glad you stayed the saw. I was thinking the old rudder would make great wall art or sell it to an antique shop to boost the boatbuilding coffers.

Rick

[boattruck]

Smart, Your photo of the corroded fastening illustrates how galvanized fastening work so well, they expand and dig in like nobodies business. Heat will not help much with these, but the rust ball is vulnerable to impact, if you can get the remains of the fastener moving back and forth, in and out, and you don't get too rambunctious, and damage the part you are trying to save, you can sometimes get 'em out. The time involved is the problem, and the condition of the original stock, if you do prevail and get them out, is your worry. Great to see your progress so far, I have a little bit of wood-pile envy! Cheers, Steve/BT

[Bob Cleek]

Smart, Love the saw mill shots, near where I grew up in SE Pa there were mills much like that, wish I had one nearby( Ca...), its like a trip back in history, to when the bad old days actually were, well, bad...

Hey, Boattruck, we DO! Sturgeon's Mill just outside of Sebastopol in Sonoma Co.

http://www.sturgeonsmill.com/

It's been operating since around 1880, sawing redwood and Douglas fir and is now operated as a "living museum." They'll cut boat building wood to order. They make a few bucks to support the museum organization by selling what they saw. Their prices are so reasonable it will blow your mind. (The owner told me to just give them a call and let them know the dimensions and cut and they'd pick a good log and rip it up to order.) They have open houses four or six weekends of the year and you can watch the mill operating full tilt boogie.





And to make it all more amazing, the whole mill is powered by an 1850's vintage steam engine. Waaaay cool!




If you are into wood and anywhere in the Bay Area, taking a run some weekend day when they are open to the public is a treat not to be missed. (No admission fee, but donations are welcome.)

[SMARTINSEN]

The commercial version of the timber cart for moving large timbers is available from the Timber Framers Guild. Go see:

http://tfguild.stores.yahoo.net/logtimbercart.html

Once you learn to make leverage work for you, it's amazing what one person can shift aroud. Moving a 500 lb timber by yourself is entirely possible with smarts, thought, and patience.

Moving that big old timber was not all that hard:



All I had to do was supervise!

I previously noted that I had read through your thread, start to finish, and I used a minor adaptation of your idea and your nice little rig. You have to work with what you have on hand:



The heavy duty handtruck was positioned a few inches away from the balancing point, with only just a very little weight on the little blue one in the foreground, and it worked like a charm. One good thing, at least about working on a concrete floor. The only big problem is that in our excitement, we brought it in bassackwards:



Oh, well, I am going to work doing some preliminary shaping before I move it again, that will eliminate close to half of the weight.

Your boat is awesome, BTW, you must be getting ready to flip it over. And you must be counting the days till school gets out.

Steve,

I am enjoying the build and glad you stayed the saw. I was thinking the old rudder would make great wall art or sell it to an antique shop to boost the boatbuilding coffers.

Rick

I like the idea of hanging it on the wall, thanks. And I am looking forward to see some pictures of your punt.

Smart, Your photo of the corroded fastening illustrates how galvanized fastening work so well, they expand and dig in like nobodies business. Heat will not help much with these, but the rust ball is vulnerable to impact, if you can get the remains of the fastener moving back and forth, in and out, and you don't get too rambunctious, and damage the part you are trying to save, you can sometimes get 'em out. The time involved is the problem, and the condition of the original stock, if you do prevail and get them out, is your worry. Great to see your progress so far, I have a little bit of wood-pile envy! Cheers, Steve/BT

Thanks, boattruck, I keep coming back to what you said a while ago: that it may be better to start new. I have had some email chat with Erster, and he is of the same opinion. So I am going to keep that in mind. But my plan is to work on getting the keel timber shaped up a bit; the planking is a bit further down the road.

Hey, Boattruck, we DO! Sturgeon's Mill just outside of Sebastopol in Sonoma Co.

http://www.sturgeonsmill.com/

It's been operating since around 1880, sawing redwood and Douglas fir and is now operated as a "living museum." They'll cut boat building wood to order. They make a few bucks to support the museum organization by selling what they saw. (The owner told me to just give them a call and let them know the dimensions and cut and they'd pick a good log and rip it up to order.) They have open houses four or six weekends of the year and you can watch the mill operating full tilt boogie.



And to make it all more amazing, the whole mill is powered by an 1850's vintage steam engine. Waaaay cool!

If you are into wood and anywhere in the Bay Area, taking a run some weekend day when they are open to the public is a treat not to be missed. (No admission fee, but donations are welcome.)

I am a sucker for all that sawmill stuff, Bob. "Their prices are so reasonable it will blow your mind." I would be almost embarrassed to tell you the b.f. price, but it was extraordinarily reasonable.

Here are a couple more:







I have a few more showing the removal of the old keel, and I will get to them in the next post...

[SMARTINSEN]

...and I will get to them in the next post...

Or the post after this, perhaps; first we will make a little detour.

On my way back from one of my trips to the sawmill, I took the scenic route though nearby Denton, MD, on the banks of the Choptank River. The old river road is a bit off the beaten path, it seems like world away from all the traffic whizzing their way to between the greater metropolises and Ocean City.

Here lies a derelict old skipjack from days gone by:





Imagine how she might have looked:



She lies adjacent to this dock and landing:



Maryland, and the Eastern Shore in particular had Confederate sympathies during the Civil war. (Some of this resonates to this day, the attitudes and lifestyles of the Eastern Shore are more closely allied with the South than the North. We are world away from the busy and bustling culture of the urban Northeast or Mid-Atlantic.)



I have a few more from this same location, more boat stuff, the next post will group them all together...

[Draketail]

Steve,

First, looks like you got the heavy timber moving worked out just fine.

Second, you're wandering in familiar territory. My mother is from Queen Anne, Md. Been in and out of the area since 1954, and rember things from about 1958 on. We used to go to Denton for ice cream. Boy have things grown. Except for poor Queen Anne. The town is hanging on by its fingernails...

[SMARTINSEN]

Hi Grigg, we are just off the Matthewstown road on the east side of route 50, less than 10 miles from Queen Anne. If you are in the area , let's make arrangements to get together.

Here are a couple more from the banks of the Choptank: an old neglected push boat. I think these are pretty cool:











A big old v-8 engine sitting inside a tiny boat. The registration sticker says 1992, it is hard to imagine that was 20 years ago.

Now, if I were not a 100% happily married man, I would be sore tempted to find out a bit more about this, and perhaps try to bring her home for a future project...But I am fairly confident that Miss Pam would not approve.

======

O.K., done with sightseeing, I am getting ready to rough out the keel out of that big pine log. I get only one chance at it, and I am going to sleep on it before I commit. Maybe take tomorrow off, to take a ride down to St. Michaels to visit Rosie....

[Draketail]

Sounds like a plan...

[SMARTINSEN]

I have been working on shaping the keel:

I dressed the rough timber smooth and square:


I used the inner rabbet line on the old keel, made a template from 1/4" luan and traced the curve of the after end on the timber.



How to cut through 7-1/2" when the depth of cut of my skill saw is only 2/-3/4"?







I had considered renting one of those big Makita beam saws, but it was Easter Sunday morning (you can see that I still have my slippers on!) so I thought to give it a try the old fashioned way. It was a lot of work, and my arms were fatigued by the time I was done. I made a straight cut to relieve a trapezoidal section where the curve of the keel is. I can tell you that I have respect for the men that this kind of work before the advent of power tools, and I know why no one was fat back in those days either.

Then a bunch of saw cuts and some chisel work to rough in the curve:

[SMARTINSEN]

There was a flat spot on the old keel, so I took the opportunity to spring a good batten to create and lay out a fair curve:



Some template routing, I took the time to make a good pattern out of some #2 pine boards:



Square it around to mark to pattern on the other side--everything lined up well--and repeat. Then another go with saw kerfing, clean it up with a chisel and the planer, and here you are:



Now I am ready for the rabbet.

The bevels on the old keel are all over the place, and I am going to have to come up with something. It looks to me like the deadrise angle is constant amidships as shown in the photo below, and it is here that is also the most shallow.



From the Workboats of Smith Island, by Paula Johnson, page 17, courtesy of Draketail, on this thread by Jim Ledger:
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...ele-crab-skiff

The rabbet is 1-1/2" athwart-wise and a bit less in the vertical to accommodate the thickness of the planking, and straight excepting the swoop of the stern. I am thinking that I will cut the whole thing at this least angle, then when planking, working my way with a steeper bevel as I work towards the ends.

I have no clue as to how do the forefoot, but I do not have to cross that bridge yet.

[Draketail]

Steve,

I didn't cut my keel bevels until the keel and chine logs were all in the molds. Then I used a batten to connect the two, removing wood with a chisel until the bevel was defined for a length of about 2 inches. Do the same thing at every frame and then connect the dots. It's actually fairly easy to sight the bevel in from station to station wth a chisel and a slick and then finish up with a rabbet plane. I think I show the process somewhere in my draketail thread.

As for the forefoot... It only took me 2 years to sweat through that one. Remove everything that doesn't look like a boat. Which is another way of saying keep carving, carefully, until it looks right.

[Eddiebou]

Bump.......No posts here for over a month! But I hate for someone to wait for all those pics to download just to read this.

[SMARTINSEN]

Hi, Eddie thanks for the bump, I suppose an update is in order:

Progress has been slow, for a several of reasons. And with the summer coming up, it is about to get even slower, but I had planned for this to be my winter project in any event. We spend a good part of the summer at our camp in Downeast Maine, and we are headed there as soon as the traffic dies down after the Memorial Day weekend.

I had a hard time finding a suitable durable hardwood for the stem, and other bits. The stem is 6", sided and molded, but I do not want to laminate it. Similarly with the chine logs, I just have not been able to conjure up two strips of long straight and clear oak. But if things work out I will have that part solved in the next few days or so.

The other thing, is that Bob Smalser's and Erster's (he has given me some advice via email) comments about the durability of yellow pine have given me a bit of pause. I am concerned primarily with the keel/keelson, the planks would be easy enough to address should the need arise. I have a call into Culpepper Wood Preservers, to ask for some advice and to see if they are able to help me out. Their website indicates that they are willing to take on a special job and I am fortunate that one of their plants is only a few miles away in Federalsburg MD. I am hoping that they will be able to PT the keel at a not insanely expensive price. So we shall see about that. Stay tuned, I will let everyone know how it works out.

Too, I have been working a bit with the folks at the Richardson Maritime Museum. They have an ambitious building program, but not enough carpenters, and I have been trying to give them just a bit of a hand to help finish out their new boat-shed. Here it is:



Though I can take no credit for this work that has already been done.

But the real reason for things being a bit slow, is that I spend too much time in the Bilge, and bad habits are hard to break.

I will post an update as soon as I have something worthwhile, I promise, but in the meantime I hope that everyone enjoys their summer!

[Eddiebou]

OK. Well, just my 2 cts. I understand your concerns about the rot potential of yellow pine. And I would think that any pressure treating op would be glad to treat your piece for a reasonable price. But....The pursuit of perfection gets in the way of a lot of good work. Yellow pine has been used around here for this sort of thing for a long time. Just saturating in the salt water keeps it from rotting. I know plenty of boats whose YP kelsons are 50 yrs old.
The chines; Your boat isn't much different from my Katie-K-II. The chines in Katie-K were layed up from 3 different pieces of oak. 2 shorter pieces sawn to shape aft, and one longer piece bent to shape. No epoxy or glue was used in the joints, just and old iron nail down through the top of the joint. Of course in my effort to perfect the new chines, I sawed the aft section out of one piece and scarfed it to the longer fore section with epoxy. It was pretty wastefull of my stock to do this, and awkward to move around after glue-up. If I did it again, I'd do what the original builder did and make it out of 3 pieces.
As for your stem, the inner stem isn't that big is it? It's not hard to find a log big enough to split/rive a stem piece. There is an advantage to a built up cutwater/outer stem because you won't need to drill a 12" deep hole perfectly through for your equally long bolts. A 2 piece outer stem of pine rather than oak is better, in my opinion.
I realize you didn't solicit this advice. These are just my opinions formed from being around wooden boats and railways here on the bay for the last 40+yrs.

[SMARTINSEN]

The pursuit of perfection gets in the way of a lot of good work. Yellow pine has been used around here for this sort of thing for a long time. Just saturating in the salt water keeps it from rotting. I know plenty of boats whose YP kelsons are 50 yrs old.

Thanks, Eddie.

I am simply in the pursuit of adequate, so no worries there And I will come up with something, I am sure.

I am waiting to hear back from Culpepper I will give them a day or so, and follow up if they do not get back to me.. And I think that I have the rest of the wood problem worked out, it is just that the sawyer is busy, but he has saved a couple of nice pieces for me.

I will let you know how it all works out.

In the meantime, enjoy the nice weather. One of the things I intend to do is get out on the water a bit more, and if is at the expense of progress on the boat, well then....

[davebrown]

That's it? It's like the film broke halfway through the movie. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?