Go buy candles and kerosene lamps

[spacesailor]

IT,S NOT THE SKILL.

BUT

The CERTIFICATION  

I Can fly, l Can rebuild my engines, l Can wire a light switch, even Wipe a lead pipe joint. 

BUT 

I have no certification, 

SO

It,s all illegal for me , & my tools are obsolete.

I sat & passed a 'marine ' radio test !

But l, m not allowed to use an ' aviation ' handheld radio.

It,s just Buraecracy & money grabbing.

spacesailor

 

[rgmwa]

Speaking of tools and craftsmanship, this guy and a few of his mates are re-building/building a 1910 fishing schooner called `Tally-Ho'. He puts out regular videos showing their progress. They've been at it now for quite a while now, but are nearing the finishing stages. They started by literally felling trees and milling the timber. Their craftsmanship is superb - everything fits!  Granted they're using a lot of modern tools, but so much is still done with hand-planes, chisels and handsaws and sandpaper. I've been following their videos on and off for a while. I like boats anyway, and am in awe of the effort these guys are putting in and the quality of the results. This is their latest video:

 

 

[rgmwa]

..... a few episodes back they’re fitting the deck framing and deck planks. All the framing has dovetailed joints. Worth a look if you’ve got some time.

[willedoo]

Looks interesting; I wouldn't mind watching the whole series. Just one pedantic point, it's not a schooner. It's single masted and by the look of the black and white photo, I'd call it a gaff cutter.

[willedoo]

I remember once reading about the building of the Endeavor replica in W.A.  The knees used to support the deck structure were grown knees carved out of solid pieces of Jarrah. A lot of work went into that ship.

[rgmwa]

Thanks for the correction. I think there’s about 140 episodes so you’ll need more than a bit of spare time. I remember when the Endeavour replica was being built, and also saw the Duyfken under construction in front of the old maritime museum in Fremantle. Hard to imagine how many forests have been cut down over the centuries to build ships. 

[facthunter]

I had to make a secret dovetailed mitre Joint during my training as a wood work teacher. There used to be a magazine called Wooden Boat.. Real craftmanship. Unless ply is used they end up pretty heavy..  Newcastle had many boat builders at the  end of the war. My Aunt bought one from TYSON"S of Waratah. Clinker built 14 footer row boat. My father cast the rowlocks in stainless steel.. Nev

[willedoo]

I was mad keen on wooden boats quite a few years ago, until aeroplanes bumped them down the priority list. Still have some very nice traditional timber boat building books. One mate bought an old ex lifeboat from a ship; it was 20' clinker built (spotted gum, from memory). He fitted it out with a brass prop driven via a gearbox and electric motor from a golf buggy. He had a tiller to steer it and had an open canopy lined with solar panels on top to charge the battery bank. He used it as a business for a while, taking tourists on river trips. It did close to seven knots when flat out.

 

I've always thought spotted gum would be a good boat building material for clinker or carvel construction. It's one of the hardwoods that steam bends readily and has an excellent grain as well. One of Australia's best all round timbers in my view. Also strong like hickory for axe and tool handles. It's been used to build prawn trawlers up this way. But like all hardwoods, finding quality and size these days is harder.

 

The boats that have always appealed to me most for looks are the American schooners. They have some nice designs in schooner configuration, even down to the 30 foot size.

 

 

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

 

The boats that have always appealed to me most for looks are the American schooners.

A Toohey's schooner never loses its appeal on a hot day.

[facthunter]

Spotted gum is good for ribs and frame but a bit cranky grained for planks other than Caulked  decking. I think some used mountain ash. All pretty heavy.. I've always been a bit of a secret boat nut. Sailed a few VJ's and some Catamarans and a few Surf Boats the Surf clubs used. One of my mate's had a father who was a Tugmaster in Port of Newcastle and I loved to get on his boat when it was working.  Nev.

[onetrack]

We've got a replica Paddle Steamer here in Perth - the Decoy - it's a replica of an 1878 Scottish-built (B Henderson & Co in Renfrew) paddle steamer that initially plied the Murray, but which then travelled to W.A. during the early 1900's, and which worked here for several years before returning to the Murray - where it still operates.

 

Our major local shipbuilder, ASI, built the replica Decoy in 1986 - cheating a bit, by utilising a steel hull. But the interior is constructed with beaut Jarrah and Ironbark timbers - and the engine is a fully rebuilt, genuine 1905 Ransome Sims & Jefferies twin cylinder steam engine, that was formerly a portable steam engine used in the sawmilling regions of the S.W. of W.A.

 

The interesting part of the Decoy is the steam is generated by 8 solar water heaters mounted on the roof of the vessel, and a bit of oil is used to facilitate the steam-generation process, thus eliminating any undesirable smoke emissions around the city waters.

 

https://www.psdecoy.com.au/about/

[willedoo]

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

Spotted gum is good for ribs and frame but a bit cranky grained for planks other than Caulked  decking. I think some used mountain ash. All pretty heavy.. I've always been a bit of a secret boat nut. Sailed a few VJ's and some Catamarans and a few Surf Boats the Surf clubs used. One of my mate's had a father who was a Tugmaster in Port of Newcastle and I loved to get on his boat when it was working.  Nev.

There's spotted gum and there's spotted gum. Some is, as you say cranky grained, but when it's good, it's good. A lot depends on the quality. Where it grows is another factor. Spotted gum from one region might be very ordinary, but another region might have the premium stuff. A lot of timber trawlers in my region had spotted gum hull planking. I doubt these days it would be affordable, as the premium grained spotted gum is getting harder to find.

 

I have a mixed species timber floor, and you can see some spotted gum boards that would never be suitable for boat planking. On the same floor, some spotted gum boards have beautiful grain. The good stuff was always there to select from the poorer quality timber. It's just that these days a lot of the better timber is gone. Regional differences are a big factor. Brush box flooring is highly desirable (and high priced) and S.E. Queensland has plenty of it. It's not good quality though, and most of our brush box flooring timber is imported from NSW. Possibly it comes from a drier area and grows slower, producing better quality than our brush box which is usually found in the sub tropical areas.

[facthunter]

The spotted gum won't split like mountain ash  can.. Schools supplied Brush box for mallet heads, spotted gum for the Handles.. I've got a bench top of about 2''x 8'brush box planks 3 off on a workbench  I built and it's magic.. Faultless timber.. It will last for hundreds of years. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

I have an English Longbow, built for me from a local timber comparable with Yew.
 

Australia has some awesome timbers; whole generations of our forefathers developed a huge bank of knowledge and expertise on their uses. People like my grandfather (a timber administrator) developed a sustainable industry based on decades-long logging rotations. Despite claims from my greenie mates, that selective logging did little damage to local ecosystems. I grew up exploring these forests and saw how rapidly they recovered from chainsaws and bulldozers.
 

That industry is now on it’s knees because short-sighted governments have converted much of our State Forests into National Parks to win green votes. The environmental outcomes are not impressive: our NPs are full of feral animals and weeds. Some endangered animals actually do better in the shrinking woodlands being managed for timber.

Trucks now carry plantation logs enormous distances to keep the few surviving timber mills operating, while most of us buy timber stripped from the tropical forests of our poor neighbours

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

7 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

I have an English Longbow, built for me from a local timber comparable with Yew.

Jeepers.. I have more Yew than I can poke a longbow at.. Absolute pain.. Can't burn it in open fires because the fumes are exceedingly noxious, can lick it, the local tip doesn't like it. Only good thing it is for is making long bows, and no one uses them these days..

[Marty_d]

16 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

can lick it, 

In the words of Pauline... please explain?

Is it like those frogs with the hallucinogenic sweat?

[Old Koreelah]

More about humankind’s most useful resource: wood.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-13/wood-shaped-human-history-professor-ennos/101120244

 

 

[facthunter]

 Early 3 masted  ships and planes were made of it . Wheels of sulkies and  horse drawn ornate carriages.. Large wooden Bridges for railways. Oft called "Nature's Composite". & the DH "Mosquito" twin  Merlin engined bomber and high altitude Photo recce. plane. Nev

[spacesailor]

Wood !.

It Will be in short supply shortly.

Those ' brown pàper '  shopping  bags  don,t grow on Tree's,  do they.

More ' old growth ' forest will have the chop, for quick growth pine tree,s , going to the wood chipper. 

spacesailor

 

[facthunter]

Processed Bamboo could be part of the answer.. Prefabbed  rapid assembly Kit homes for real people who don't se the meaning of life in suburbs of braindead poker machine players enslaved to house payments for life. Nev

[onetrack]

I reckon I've seen more than a few people who still haven't left the trees, and who still drag their knuckles on the ground. They usually ride Harley Davidson motorcycles with open exhausts, to give as many people the shxxs as possible.

[facthunter]

Engine braking makes more noise.  EX factory they aren't noisy. You have to break the Law to have them noisy. Nev

[onetrack]

Nev, I'm referring to the 1% of society who disdain obeyance of any laws, and who reckon they're a law unto themselves.

[spacesailor]

onetrack.

You mean Polticians. 

To them if the law doesn't,  fit they change it to meet Their needs.

' no more stamp duty ' jp, just a bigger TAX , to replace it.

227 pollies, includes senaters.

spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

22 hours ago, facthunter said:

 Early 3 masted  ships and planes were made of it . Wheels of sulkies and  horse drawn ornate carriages.. Large wooden Bridges for railways. Oft called "Nature's Composite". & the DH "Mosquito" twin  Merlin engined bomber and high altitude Photo recce. plane. Nev

That’s not a ship…

This is a ship:  

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_treasure_ship

 

Wood is great, but, like every resource, it must be used sustainably. The material resources invested in China’s fleet of treasure ships almost broke their economy; the mandarins ordered the ships burned and stopped most foreign trade. China‘s advance stopped just in time for it to be overtaken by western Europe.

 

Another example of this was Spain, their forests have never recovered from being stripped to build the Armadas.