Marking out the stations on the keelson with enthusiasm.
Using a router and jig to try to get nicely matching edges to glue up for the transom.
Transom laid out ready to glue...my first attempt at spline joints.
A rather oversized blank for the stem ready for glue....
The keelson, stem, and transom is all African Mahogany. It is a nice hard wood, but is very hard to work and shape because of the grain characteristics. I didn't realize that until after buying it for the backbone of this boat. I used a bandsaw to get out the stem shape and then rough in the bevels. I can't seem to use any kind of hand tool like a plane or chisel effectively on this wood. I had to finish the bevel mostly with a hand-held belt-sander and then flatten it as much as possible with the spoke-shave, which works ok but still tears out grain even when set very shallow. In any case, the stem looks ok at this point. I can see that beveling the keelson will also be a pain with this wood.
Looking great! Looks like the inner stem matches the drawing perfectly. Fun to see the whole process and your enthusiastic helper/builder.
ReplyDeleteWhat species are you using? Att Brookin Boatyard we used a lot of Sipo and had good luck with it.
Keep up the good work.
John
Thanks John. I'll have to check on the species with the supplier (was just labeled "African Mahogany"). The piece for the stem seems to have the interlocking grain I've read about, so no matter which direction I run a plane over it, it tries to grab and can break out chunks of wood.
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