Simple Tool

Traditional plank on frame, smooth skin, boats usually have what we call “caulked seams”.  This means that where two planks meet, there is a small ‘V’ shaped groove that gets stuffed with strands of cotton to help ensure a water tight seal, a good thing to have when you’re offshore.  This cotton can also strengthen the hull of a boat by compressing the planks together, or you can close up open seams by filling tighter adjacent seams.  Anyway, it’s an important part of a traditional boat, so I’m removing the old caulking on this H 12 1/2 that I’m restoring so that I can put in new tight cotton.  To do this I’m using one of the simplest, yet elegantly functional, tools in the boatshop.  I don’t know what it is called, but it is just an old mill file with a sharpened bent over tip.  Here’s a couple pics to show you what I mean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This isn’t something I came up with, it’s something you’d see in any wooden boat shop worth their salt.  This is a deluxe version, though, due to the duct tape handle padding.  To use the tool, you just run the business end down the seam (which conforms to the aforementioned ‘V’ groove) and it removes the usually hardened seam compound that covers the cotton.  Very simple, but nothing works better for this job.  I half-heartedly collect old dull files for things like this because it’s usually pretty good tool steel.  Here’s a shot of most of the caulking cotton removed from the port side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boatshops are usually ripe with specialized shop made tools, and my shop is no different.  I’ll try and show some of them in future posts.  The bent file tool is the epitome of simple usefulness.  I’m not there yet, but I hope some day I will be thought of similarly.