21
The
Bosun’s Mate
Every month in “The Bosun’s Mate” we’ll bring you technical tips about boat building and maintenance, rope work, rigging, sails, and everything related to the subject from professional boat
builders, chandlers, shipwrights, designers and wood workers. This month regular contributor Mike
Field owner of specialist chandler’s Wooden Boat Supplies of Australia, brings us instructions on
how to fit and remove plugs the right way...i.e. NO BODGING! and NO EPOXY!
Mark Aplin, boatbuilder from Overwater Boats here in the UK brings tech tips on marking our
curved pan el edges, shaping curved panels and cutting a centre board or dagger board slot
Tools
Building or maintaining your boat requires some work. It’s a hell of a lot easier if you have the right tools for the job.
Wood is a joy to work with the right tools, with the wrong tools it is a nightmare and can cause damage. Finding tools
can be an expensive business especially if you are buying quality woodworking tools. A professional plane can cost you
upwards of £500 ($800).
However, second hand tools especially vintage or antique can be a cheaper and better alternative. Car boot and lawn
sales are good places to find quality tools for not a lot of money. I picked up a lovely set of carving chisels last summer
for under £10 at a car boot sale. Antique fairs can also be a gold mine. eBay is OK but the years of finding bargains on
eBay are past, especially in the and especially in a field like vintage tools. Another source can be to put out a request to
family and friends, it’s amazing what people have got stuffed in the attic or the shed. Often tools like this will need a bit
of TLC, a bit of emry paper, a sharpen on an oil stone and perhaps a new handle is all they will often require.
Then there are companies who specialise in selling antique and reconditioned tools.
The Best Things Corp. of Virginia, USA are specialists in quality tools and vintage wood working tools.
Although not a boatbuilder’s tool specialist, they
stock many of the chisels, planes, saws, rasps etc that
boat builders use as often as any other wood worker.
You can find them at:
www.thebestthings.com
BARNACLE BILL’S TECH TIP!
Got a screw that has snapped off when you’ve
tried to remove it? Simple - get a spring pin of
a larger diameter than the screw, cut a couple
of notches in it with a hack saw or a Dremel in
the bevelled end of the pin. Then fit it into a
drill and use it as a cutting tool to remove the
screw and surrounding wood as a whole. plug
and fill as usual.
Lee Richmond, one of the founders
of The Best Things Corp. has been
dealing in tools since shortly after he
graduated from Swarthmore College in 1985. In 1997 he joined with
another entrepreneur to found The
Best Things Corp. While continuing
to grow the traditional woodworking
business that Lee founded, The Best
Things also sells products in other
categories, but always with the same
goal of only offering the best. Today
Lee is one of the country’s leading
experts on antique cabinetmaking
tools. Some of you will have seen Lee
on the popular PBS series, The Antiques Roadshow, appraising antique
tools as an expert on the show.