Newbie needs advice on Gunwales

[WCM]

I'm about ready to rubbing strakes and inwales on the hull of my first ply/epoxy lapstrake boat. The gunwales are supposed to be rounded off per the plans.

My question is how best to do this for someone with very limited woodworking skills so that the rounding is consistent along about a 16' length for each inwale and rubbing strake. I could try to just eyeball things but am a little concerned with the result of that approach. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

P.S. I have mostly hand tools. No router, lathe or such.

[Michael Beckman]

I also have next to no woodworking skills. My approach would be to mark off lines along the length of the gunwales, and plane down to them. Take down to a near round in that way, then finish with sandpaper. However, I'm sure someone more experienced has a faster/easier method..

[donald branscom]

Your method would work but wow what a lot of work.
The best way is to use a router with a roundover bit the right size.
Have someone show you what that is.

[Yeadon]

If it's a one-shot deal, it's probably not that big of deal for a guy with a bit of time on their hands to do this by hand.

But I'm with donald branscom. Routers are good, noisy, effective fun and would turn this task into a seven minute job, including setup. You'll need a bullnose bit, too.

What type of wood are you using for the rails?

[Michael Beckman]

I'm just not really a fan of power tools at this point. I suppose I'm just young with a lot of free time, and a lack of money.

[Tom Lathrop]

If you don't have or can't borrow a router, Michael's answer is the time honored way to round over a plank edge. On the other hand, a router is a good investment that will pay you back many times.

[Bruce Hooke]

Expanding on Michael's description a bit (this assumes you want a round-over with about a 1/4" radius):

1. Mark off lines that are 1/8" from the edge that you want to round over. If you really want to be precise, also mark off lines that are 1/4" back from the edge.

2. Plane down to the 1/8" lines, thus making a 45 degree chamfer along the edge.

3. Now by eye plane off the corners to chamfer the chamfer. This will probably only take a few passes of the plane.

4. Now, with the plane set to take very thin shavings you can take off what little corners there are left, working back to the 1/4" lines. Or you can just go to sandpaper at this point to round it off.

The nice thing with a roundover is that you have to be off by quite a bit for it to be noticeably irregular because there is no clear line for the eye to follow.

Try this on a sample piece and I bet you'll find that it is not very hard to do a nice looking job.

If you want to get fancy you could do something no router can do, which is to taper (reduce the radius) of the roundover a bit as you get close the ends of the boat, where you are also likely tapering the width of the gunwale if you are trying to do a fancy job.

[Ron Williamson]

It's also pretty easy to lay out if you pinch a pencil between your thumb and forefinger and slide your middle fingertip along the edge of the workpiece as a distance gauge.
If it's a small roundover,elapsed time will be about the same unless you have a table mounted router already set up.
R

[WCM]

Thank you all all for the very good advice. I'll try the line marking/hand planning approach using either either oak or walnut and see how it goes. I am pretty much maxed out on my power tool budget and have never used a router. I do have a good Lie-Nielsen block plane and assorted other average quality hand tools.

[JimConlin]

If you had one, a laminate trimmer or router would be a much faster way to do the job, but you can do the job well with a block plane and have a more pleasant time, to boot. It might be a good idea to round off the inwales before fitting them to the boat.
Finish off with sandpaper, starting with 80 grit.

[Dave Gray]

For the amount of wood you need to round over your block plane and sand paper, possibly a rasp too, will be more than adequate. As Jim says, you will find it more satisfactory unless you like the loud whine of power tools and the adrenaline rush of holding a fast spinning router bit close to your body.

[htom]

The "nonperfection" of hand rounding vs. a router feels and looks better, IMAO.

[veets]

My project is put up for the winter, but coming spring I will be facing the same task as you. I have a router and the right bits, but I prefer when possible to use non-powered hand tools. They seem better suited to the boat building aesthetic. I recently purchased a set of something called "cornering tools" that, while not as traditional as a plane, seem well-suited to the job. I haven't tried them on the boat -- they arrived too late in the season -- but I did test them and they seem well-suited to the job. I purchased them from Lee Valley.

[Bruce Hooke]

To me one advantage of doing the job with a plane rather than with a "cornering tool" is that the longer base of the plane means you are less likely to create small dips and rises, by digging in a little too much in one place and not enough in another. I also suspect that on difficult grain a well-sharpened plane would do better than the "cornering tool" because the plane has a chip-breaker, which reduces the chances of a long sliver breaking out and going deeper than you want to. However, I have never used the "cornering tool"...