Clamping revisited

I’ve posted before about clamping because, in wooden boat work, you’re always trying to clamp things that aren’t straight, flat, or square.  This week’s clamping challenge was a garboard plank on the 12 1/2 I’m restoring.  The first plank was easy because it’s twin, on the other side, wasn’t installed yet and I could get a conventional clamp in that space.  With this plank I just had to use some props to get most of the plank in place.  The front of the plank, however, is nearly vertical and somewhat delicate, so I had to use a different method

There has been a laminated tiller blank bouncing around the shop for years.  I think a previous employee left it maybe.  Anyway, it was just the right shape to push on the plank and have clearance for the boat.  All I needed was a rope or ratchet strap to pull the makeshift lever against the plank and push it into place.  Worked a treat!

Here’s another homemade tool for show and tell.  This is basically a curved draw knife originally made for carving Windsor chair seats (another career that never took off), but it really is a great tool for roughing out any kind of concave shape on a boat.  I made it from an old dull file.  Old files are a great source of good steel.  I annealed the metal in the woodstove which softened it so that I could shape and bend it.  Then I hardened it in the same woodstove by getting it to the proper temperature, and then quenching it in cool water.  I turned the handles on a homemade foot powered lathe from some maple I had laying around.  I’m actually kind of proud of this tool.  It let me get in touch with my 1800’s self.