Week 3 Day 3

I have been led to understand that there is an article in the United Nations Human Rights Charter that expressly forbids 'cruel and unusual punishments', however nowhere does it specify the Bevelled Dovetail Joint, a serious omission!

This particular fiendish joint is one that demands that you think in several dimensions at once and contains a number of bevels, none of which appear to make any sense until it is assembled.  A number of us had lost the will to live before we had even got the thing onto the drawing board and once again the guinea pig bedding mountain has been growing rapidly around my bench. (I have also found that the wood burner in the accommodation is useful for disposing of the evidence of ones more criminal attempts).

However, progress has been made in other directions and my knowledge of boat structure and the various formulae that go into calculating draft, tilting moment, and speed through the water, to name but three, has increased exponentially. (As has my experience of carpentry I should add and we have another 5 weeks to go of this phase!)

We have also been learning about Gymnosperm Conifarae, and Angiosperms Dicotelydons, soft and hard woods to you and I.  Today's item of trivia Balsa wood is technically a hard wood...

This friday see's decision time on what boats are going to be built and I am still hopeful that I will be building a traditional clinker Beer Beach Boat, modified slightly to meet my own particular requirements.

Week Two

Well we have reached the end of week 2 still in possession of all my fingers.

The pace with which we are progressing is fast and this week I have been 'mastering', I use the term loosely, the art of dovetails.  Large quantities of glue remain a major component of my joints, although I am definitely getting the knack of planning... I have a little way to go with the chiselling but there is steady improvement.  This improvement has been achieved through the patience and hard work of our tutor Mike who really does have the patience and perseverance of a saint.

However, back to joints, this week we have learnt about and constructed through-dovetails, lap-dovetails, and water-stop dovetails, though I have to admit the tails on some of mine would probably be more aptly called swallow tails, and given there shape probably swallows that fly in circles!

We have also been introduced to the intricacies of a multi-plane, which is a great bit of kit and if set up correctly takes much of the pain out of cutting slots.

Alongside the practical elements we have also been touching on the joys of H&S as it applies to the Boatbuilding Industry and also looking at aspects of the selection and use of timber.  Once again we have learnt that not only does every tool in the workshop have it in for us if we have a momentary lapse of concentration, but also even some types of wood can mess with your head. (Literally, machining some timbers causes them to emit toxic fumes that can in some circumstances cause damage to ones nervous system over time). Just when we thought it was safe to go out again!

Having received our lecture on Risk Assessment we were let loose in the Boatbuilding Shed to carry one out as an exercise in observation... most of us forgot the vital condition, to paraphrase, that states one should apply the 'that which is reasonable' test; sadly we forgot this when we declared one student's hair a Risk to good taste.

It is Lent and I have been off, cake, biscuits, chocolate, and alcohol, I have dropped from 12st 13lbs to 12st 2lb in a fortnight.  Which has absolutely nothing to do with Boatbuilding but I thought I would mention!

Today I has been mostly fettling...

So plain scarph with hook is now behind me.  In the end it didn't come out too badly following the application of a lot of glue and three large clamps.  I am however learning that you need to try and minimise the pencil lines as they are difficult to remove once everything is assembled.

Now we are onto dovetails, which strangely enough I have found to be simpler, that doesn't necessarily mean I am any better at them, I can just make a mess of them faster!  Seriously while I know it is only day two of week two it is amazing how fast you begin to pick things up when you are doing it 6 hours a day.

Todays painful lesson has been to check the sides of chisels before using them, it is not only the blade which can be v. sharp as I found to my cost, to paraphrase from Captain and Commander, there is now enough of my blood in the dovetail to class it as a relation.

Fettling is indeed an actual process and, yes, it is possible to 'fettle your futtocks' in certain circumstances...

End of the week...

Well, I have reached the end of the week still intact, I can now hone a plane or chisel to a razor's edge, get a fairly close approximation of square on the sides of a piece of timber and have succeeded in constructing both feathered and plain scarph joints, (the coming week is the big one, plain scarph with hook!)  Up until now there has been the latitude to 'adjust' these joints, this however has to fit first time or it is back to another piece of timber;  it could be a long week!  (I appear to be producing an awful lot of guinea pig bedding at the moment, but practice makes perfect.)

The Academy breakfast is a dieticians nightmare, consisting of fried bacon, fried mushrooms, fried sausages, and a fried egg, packaged between two slices of thick buttered bread; the real aficionados' dip the bread into the frying pan.  I have resisted the temptation so far and bought myself some shreddies and dried fruit.

Lyme Regis is an attractive town, but not a lot happens other than in the Pubs which given that it is Lent means I am drinking a lot of lemonade.  Hopefully once we get the Academy boat in the water we will be able to go fishing evenings, we have an inexhaustible supply of good oak sawdust and so the plan is to build a smoker and smoke our own mackerel.

Next adventure is to start nosing around second hand shops for tools, apparently there are lots of bargains to be had once you know what you are looking for. (I can now bore for Britain on makes of plane!)

The accommodation is great, about the size of single bedroom and furnished with ex-married quarters furniture, it is just like being in a wardroom. The hot water tap screams like a banshee when you open it and then hammers like a demented Steel Drum Band as you turn it off.  Given the thickness of the walls it is 'one up all up'.  The compensation is that I look out over the boat park and towards the cliffs, so a very pleasant location 25 metres from the beach and 15 metres and 2 flights of stairs from the workshop.

Apparently it can be spelt scarf or scarph...

Correction...

SCARPH - not scarf (I was tired!)

Day 3

So we progress, we have now learnt a bit about hull types, methods of construction, had the idiots guide to boat parts, including such wonderful terms as 'grown knees', 'carlins', and 'futtocks', and all before coffee.

The past two days have been spent tackling the technicalities of scarf joints and notched scarf joints, glueing, and fastening with copper nails and roves (hence the expression 'rove up tight', I jest not). I succeeded on my second attempt in achieving a passable notched scarf and more importantly then glued it without attaching myself to either the work or the bench. (The joint is meant to be a hairline fit, mine resembles the Grand Canyon, however as our tutor pointed out, it is day 3 and I might like to cut myself some slack... that I pointed out was the problem with the joint. It got a laugh!)

We all enjoyed nailing, between us we produced a considerable quantity of bent nails and split timber, copper nails require tender loving care, not a whack with a large hammer, and I won't even mention the problems we had with dollies.

Tomorrow's challenge is a double notched scarf joint.

I appear however to have mastered the sharpening of planes and chisels, you test the edge by shaving a few hairs off your arm, I have a growing bald patch on my left forearm as evidence of my improving skills with a grinding wheel and diamond block.

Today we had an initial discussion on what boats, if any, we wished to construct during the building phase of the course which will start in June.  We have 18 on our course and 13 people want to build boats which is presenting some difficulties.

I am learning patience... which some that know me may say is somewhat belated.

More to follow...

Day 1

OK I know I said this would be a weekly event, but I thought first day would be a good way to start.

Day started with a Health and Safety brief and tour of the workshop, at the finish of which we were huddled in a corner trying to avoid anything and everything, the entire contents of the workshop clearly has our dismemberment as its sole intent.  We have all taken out Season Tickets at the local A&E.

So to Tool sharpening, what could possibly go wrong, it was all going so well until I succeeded in bring my thumb into contact with the grinding wheel; nothing plastic surgery can't sort out.

Then the first 'exercise'; well how difficult can it be to plane a piece of sawn timber so all the sides are flat and at right angles to each other... Now a poor workman never blames his tools, however I swear that piece of timber was sniggering, it is called knotty pine for a very good reason.

This is serious immersion teaching and is going to be great fun... more to follow.

Prologue (or should that be problog?)

This blog is going to be about a journey of discovery... I am about to discover whether I have the aptitude to learn the skills of a boatbuilder!  My desire to gain boatbuilding skills is a totally selfish one, call it a belated gap year, although I never went to University so that is probably not accurate.  I have however worked since leaving school at 15 and after 45 years have decided that I am entitled to pursue an interest for pleasure.  There is also a longer term desire to use the skills and contacts that I gain to help ex-Service personnel who have landed themselves in the dwang, but more of that later.

It will be the intention to publish photographs of my 'progress' and it is also the intention to update the Blog on a weekly basis.

So this coming monday I will appear at the Boat Building Academy at Lyme Regis clutching a notebook and pencil...