The Hog and Stem.

Sounds like a pub on the Thames somewhere, in fact it probably is.

Time for some more technical stuff.

We shaped and glued the Deadwood, as you all should know having read my previous post. Next step was the shaping and gluing of the stem, followed by the outer hog. For those who haven't built a boat before, which includes Chris and I, the outer stem is the bit at the front and the outer hog is the bit at the bottom.

That wasn't hard now was it?

Having decided to paint the hull, we decided that we could save ourselves the painful process of shaping the outer stem and mold the stem out of bits of off-cut ply. The trick being to build up the shape by laminating the strips of ply until we had enough depth.

Gluey Mess

Here's the first few strips of off-cut ply, it's pretty messy isn't it. The next picture is a bit of a close up of the mess, it serves to show that we are now confident we can make a bloody big mess and still get it looking good again.  By the way, we stuck about the same number of strips of ply to double the width.

Close up mess.

We set to the planks with our second hand planes, having established that Brendan's electric plane was far too dangerous - we risked "shaping" the boat through to the inner stem, otherwise known as creating an "hole in the boat" (Sorry for using all these technical nautical terms). I agonised over an upgrade to my $25 Stanley No 4 plane. They do this natty 170 mm plane that fits snugly into the palm of your hand. It also removes $120 from the palm of your hand. It would have been perfect, but having spent a whole blog renovating my plane, I was determined that we could do it. We also used Chris's wooden block plane, that I suspect was stolen from the early settlers museum.

Anyway, plane we did, and sand, and plane, and sand. You get the message. I have the results on another photo. But I am thinking I might go and see if my home brew has matured sufficiently for me to drink without nausea.

Piccies tomorrow.

Deadwood

One of my favorite TV shows, with Ian "Lovejoy" McShane swearing like the proverbial trooper.

Also, the bit at the bottom of the boat at the stern that forms a seamless joint between t'ransom to the outer hog. We have moved on from planking to a bit of woodwork. If you thought the planking was slowgoing and hard work,  prepare for some long gaps between blogs. This is the bit that moves from fitting kit prepared planks to a jig, to a more freehand approach to boat building.

Here is a picture of our first bit of real woodwork.

Having decided to paint the hull, the glue blobs will disappear.  And we'll give it a bit more of a rub with the sandpaper.

All the concerns we had about it looking a bit bulbous around the stern have been allayed by this little block of wood. This really makes the difference. Unfortunately, Chris won't let me glue one to his head, so he still looks a tad bulbous.

Looks good though, doesn't it.

Radio Silence

It is almost a month since we posted. Progress has been slow, thanks to the distractions of work and the fact that my boys, like the Queen, seem to have two birthdays each.
However, what we have done has been good and very satisfying - having emerged from the repetitive routine of the planking, it now feels as if each bit we add is a big step towards completion. Joe is preparing some pictures of what we've done - watch this space...

One of the most frequent debates we are having is whether to paint the hull or to apply a more natural wood-and-varnish finish. The scarph joints are pretty good, but do they add character, or serve as a slightly embarrassing chronological record of our progression up the learning curve?

I have always been reluctant to paint, but Joe came across this picture of the Badger's little brother, the Mole, which has gone a considerable way to convince me that a painted finish doesn't have to look like Tupperware.






What do you think, dear blog reader?