Visitors

What a fantastic day we had. We have many visitors come through our shop each year and we are always thankful for the wonderful people we have met while building Lena Blanche.
Today we had the Antique Tool Collectors Association come to visit.Some are not only tool collectors but boat enthusiasts as well, much to our surprise. It was a great afternoon with us showing and describing how this vessel is going together as well as a visit through the foundry and through our workshop basement where we rebuilt the engines for the Lena Blanche and built  our little skiff boat as a winter project.  These fellows (and one lady) showed themselves to be people of great knowledge and experience in so many different areas.
We demonstrated some trunnel making and then got a couple of guys to work driving them in the planking.
They surprised us with a present. They presented us with a slick that is over 100 years old. They had a leather sheath made for it and I can guarantee that the blade is razor sharp. A slick is a large chisel that is used by just pushing it through the wood, there is no mallet involved.
The weather agreed with us today and it was sunny and warm so we even got a chance to stand around outside and have a chat after the tour.I always love hearing about the grandfathers who were boat builders and about the different trades and hobbies that people pursue. It was a great opportunity to reminisce about our maritime history and different trades that you don't see very often nowadays and to hear stories that keep them alive in our memories. We also got to talk about the crafts and woodworking skills that so many of these men keep active with in their daily life.
Much thanks to them for their visit and for the slick. It will hold a place of honour in our boat shed and in our hearts.

Coupla New Pics

Since last week we have put on the gunwales, breasthook, and quarter knees. Next come rising,thwarts, after seat and forward cuddy.
We also got a plank fastened on Lena Blanche and will be  adding another today. Stay tuned for more pics in the next few days.

A Little Update

Welcome back. Come on spring!It's been a cold winter and we haven't spent a lot of time in the boat shed. We have missed Lena Blanche over the winter but we visit and give her a pat along the hull and let her know that spring IS coming. We have shimmed out a couple of her frames along the stern and will be planing them out to receive the new planks in the coming weeks. Over the weekend it was warm (?) enough to get in and carve out and place a new plank and the one for the other side is ready to go in place too- after we get this next storm over with. Our goal is to have the exterior planking finished by July and have the stanchion posts in too.

 We have not been idle though. We built a 16' lapstrake skiff in the basement during late Feb and early March. We are now waiting for a wood sealer for the hull so we can place the ribs in this little beauty. She is all pine planked with the stem, stern, transom and keel all oak. This type of skiff is excellent to row and takes a motor as well. They can also be adapted to sail.

 We have also been making knees for Lena Blanche and for the little skiff. Knees are angled wood with a continuous grain- no cross grain. They are used for bracing deck beams, gunwales, floors etc as a gusset. A natural grown knee would be the root of a tree and the wood as it turns up the trunk- usually of hackmatack or spruce. The laminated knees are steamed wood bent in a jig. They are equally as strong. The ones we laminated are of 3"oak. The knees pictured are for the Lena Blanche. The grown one next to it are some we purchased and are typically used in dory building.

So that's what we've been up to. We are looking forward to the warmer weather and being back to great days down in the shop.Thank you to all of you who have visited or called or emailed over the winter to find out about the progress on the vessel. We hope to hear from you in the near future.

Deadeyes

We've been waiting for things to set in the boat shed over the last few days and so while we've been waiting we decided to get a head start on the deadeyes for Lena Blanche. And you guessed it stripes are in fashion. You can't imagine the strange looks you get when you tell people you're making deadeyes but the rigging wouldn't be the same without them and we thought we'd make them spectacular. This is where we started with them but you'll have to wait for the finished product. They are made of black locust and angelique. Thank you, once again, to our friends from Atlantic Arbourists Ltd. for the gorgeous black locust- we are making use of every splinter.

 Glued up in long strips.

 Cut into blocks and then coarse cut in rounds and teardrop shapes.

 A closer look at an eye in the rough.

 Shaping to the line.

Fall in the boatshed. No, don't fall- Autumn

So, we've been questioned about new pics. The trouble with showing pics of the progress is that, well........ it never looks like as much in pics as it does when you see it in person. I tried to take pictures that show how high up the planks are now and they just look like pictures of planks. These planks are now above my head and let me tell you it is hard to swing a 5 lb hammer above your head to smack in a trunn'l. I have to, gulp, sometimes ask Warren to finish a trunn'l because I can't actually reach it with the hammer. There. That is my confession for the week. I am short! Who'd have thought, right?

 Here is a pic from way up high in the cutting room. The stern board  bottom is about 11 feet off the floor

 Warren reaching up. The green you see is the the rudder and rudder shaft.

 A view from the side of the rudder and the fittings and planks.

 A broader view. Can you count the trunn'ls? We have to take more harpens off to put the next strake of planks on.

 This is part of the forest of head bangers that we have every time we put a new plank on. Keep your eyes open and your head down. Notice the harpens above the clamps- they have to come off for the next plank but for now we are making use of them for hold downs to make sure that the planks are tight together.

This is looking aft from the bow on the starboard side. I can stand under the stem (or forefoot) that you see on the edge of this picture. The bottom of the keel will eventually have a cap on it (as a worm shield).
We are enjoying the visitors that we have- and there are many.Great to have so many people encouraging us on. We have even become a stopping site on people's vacations each year.

Busy Saturday

So between trunnelling, cutting, fitting and gluing new planks and turkey farming this has been a busy day here at the farm/ boat yard. I'll show a couple of up dated pics but first I found the video of the first plank being trunnelled. Warren used the wooden mallet to hammer the trunnel at first but since then we have switched to a 5 lb hammer. I believe the poor mallet would have suffered irreparably from such abuse.

I don't talk much about the activity around here but we get quite a few visitors to the shop. Often it's someone who was told by a friend who has been here. It's usually a great way to meet other boat enthusiasts and we have found that everyone has a good story to tell. This week we have had visitors from Maine, Maryland, Ontario, Nova Scotia (other parts of NS) and Warren's son, Adam, is visiting from Fort MacMurray. Between visiting family and friends and doing some things that he needs to do he's able to give us a couple of days help working on the boat- I see a boat building future for that fellow. Our son, Sheamus, also stopped by to give us a day's help with the boat. It's great when the kids, well, not really kids anymore, still want to be involved with what's going on.

As you can see we generally fasten a plank to one side of the vessel and then fit and glue one to the other side. We try to keep both sides symmetrical.It was a super day in the shop and a great day outside. Sunny, clear and 20 degrees C.

New photos

Wanted to update some photos and generally let everyone know what we've been up to. The rudder is now completely secure on the vessel, after a very long and tedious fitting process. We cast all of the rudder fittings here in our foundry and they're all shined up and looking good.The water box (rudder port) is fitted in nicely so water won't be pouring in from her stern- that's good. As far as we know she's water tight from the top of the rudder to where the deck will be. The rudder stock is 6" oak.From the pics you'll see that she's pentox green but she'll be a different colour when she's done.
We had to caulk beneath the rudder straps because it couldn't be done after the fact so I got my first lesson in the art of caulking. By the time it's done I'll probably be a great amateur at it.
We can now continue with the planking. Yeah!!! We measured for, cut and fitted the plank just above the tuck and it will be placed and fastened Sunday. We put a couple of pics of trunnels in before they're driven kind of as a before and after shot.
The king plank is all ready to go in. This plank goes directly between the rudder stock and transom. We're so excited to be at this juncture because you can see the progress more plainly as the planks go higher, and higher and higher. Gasp!
We've had many many visitors from all over. Thank you all for your interest and encouraging words. We are enjoying this journey so much and when the creative journey is over we'll enjoy the travelling too. We hope that some can make a journey with us. We've met so many interesting people with their own story to tell that it makes this all worth while.