The weekend had given me a lot of time to think up a list of jobs which could be delegated this morning but alas I was on my own for the first half hour thinking I would have to prioritise the bow stems. JP had sent his apologies and as he was expecting the shipment of glue to arrive at the post office today had sent me the details to pick it up if I had time. Welcome help arrived, Mark H came in and due to his recent experience with shaping the hog / Keelson I gave him my Japanese pull saw to cut the reference lines for the shape it needs to be to receive the first plank / garboard.
Mark also made up a gauge with a plywood off-cut to mark where in the top of the hog the saw cut should end. It picked up a problem with one of the moulds which was luckily paired with a frame that didn’t have the same defect.
Paul H had arrived and joined me sanding the laminates for the bow stems we will be glueing tomorrow. In order to do that the bolted on brackets on the jig have to be moved from the stern shape to the bow shape. Most of the bolts unscrewed easily but there were one or two obstinate ones that I had to get Paul to help me with. One was so stubborn we had to get the angle grinder out and cut it off.
Mark moved the hog to the work bench and attacked it with the electric plane taking it down nearly to the base of the saw cuts on one side and finishing it off with a hand plane. I then took over and did the other side as Mark and Paul said their farewells. Shavings were falling like a snow drift and when I finally decided that I had done enough I had a huge clean up job.
As I was cleaning up a chap stuck his head into the door and wanted to know if any of our members would be interested in buying his water craft which he couldn’t adequately describe. As he said that he only lived a few doors up I agreed to go and have a look at it. It turned out to be an old, heavy kayak with a skeg made of thick fibreglass. It wasn’t in bad condition but I didn’t think I could help him.
Back in at 9am tomorrow to glue up the bow stem laminates.
Cheers Dave