deck planking options

What about SAPELE. Has a brown color that fit very well with deck planking. And it isn't expensive.

Thanks Dem...I'm thinking maybe too much brown, with cherry hull and all..leaning towards boxwood..am a ways away yet..still have to fair her hull!

I have walnut and teak for deck planking to put on Agora USS Constitution (deck on Constitution is dark so I'm gonna try the walnut or teak). Area of concern for basswood - past experience have had splotchy results when I tried to stain it. When I am trying to decide what I want the deck to look like, I glue scrap pieces of wood to a 3 X 5 card just to see what it will look like. Also, after you make your choice, make sure you stain the wood BEFORE you glue the planks to the deck. Once you put glue of any kind of wood, it will prevent the wood from absorbing any stain. Fair winds and following seas!!!!!

manning16 said:

Hello all-
Building Winchelsea..cherry version.. I would like to plank deck in one of the following, ..swiss pear, boxwood, spruce, basswood ,holly..cherry is supplied.. My other builds use Bass..would like something different, but not over the top. Bulwarks will be red. Tung or satin poly for deck.. any preferences? Thanks in advance.

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I've started using yellow cedar, it has a tight linear grain so it emulates a plank very nicely. Similar colour to castelo boxwood.

Lov..I have a couple nice planks of teak, but grain might be a little large.ely Bob! JJ thanks for the info..yes, bass can be blotchy

Teak is nice for ship model cases but not for models. I “imported” a couple of 2”x4” pieces of teak from a business trip to Taiwan many years ago. It has an oily texture that probably accounts for its durability. This can interact with gues.

Roger

Yes agreed Roger..I use it for bases. SW FL is getting overrun.. Marco has a lot of issues now...

I had a teak-hulled yacht for many years and worked a lot of teak. Not only is teak oily, but it has a lot of silica in it. It will dull edged tools faster than any other wood known to man. Additionally, there's teak and there's teak. There's Burmese teak, which is the finest kind. It's reportedly embargoed due to a military coup in Myanmar. The same teak, tectona grandis, has for a few decades been farmed in Africa, South American, and other Southeast Asian nations, but the farmed teak, although the same species, isn't the same as the old, natural growth stuff from Burma/Myanmar. Additionally, like mahogany, there's a lot of "teak" that isn't teak at all being sold as "African teak" or "Brazilian teak" and so on. Teak has quite a color and figuring variation. Some could be suitable for modeling, but most will have excessive figuring for modeling purposes. The color can range from a dark cream color all the way to black in places.

In any event, anybody who has any reason to know anything about a particular wood species needs to have the Wood Database in their "favorites" list. Check it out: https://www.wood-database.com/teak/

Ahoy sailors,

what a discussion!!! Just great ... I'm really impressed by the expertise here! Just one question: isn't it normal for the upper decks to always be grey? Just through sun, wear and tear, deck cleaning. The wood tends to turn grey. Salt water alone plays a big part in the wood pigmentation changing from light brown, yellow etc. to light grey. Or is that not the case? I think it is not insignificant whether I want to depict a new ship in all its splendour or a used ship that is getting on in years. I would then choose my wood colour or my type of wood.

It depends on the wood used. Ships of sail had one cheap resource available at all times; labor. You give that labor holystone and your decks will never go gray. Seriously, no self respecting Captain would let his decks, or any other party of his ship, look shabby. Not when you had 3-400 sailors just sitting around.

Rob,
Even in the age of sail it depended on the ship that you’re modeling. You’re right, warships had huge crews so holystoning the deck could be a part of the day’s routine. Merchant ships were manned with the minimum sized crews to work the vessel, so scrubbing of the decks would be minimal. It also depended on the trade that the vessel sailed in. For British vessels coal was a primary and extremely dirty cargo. Whalers leaving port were often wished “greasy luck”. If successful, the decks of the ship would reflect this despite the crews best efforts. I suspect that the “crack” clippers that carried passengers would try to maintain a higher standard of appearance.

Roger

Manning16
Thanks for your questions. I have learned a lot from the responses.
Robert

Robert..me too! Roger..I had a Boston Whaler outrage with teak on the center console..did all the teak over..went through a lot of sandpaper and saw blades..turned out nice though..Whaler Central helped me a lot. GIG yes I agree.. ..depends on the ship Queen Caroline would have flipped in her grave if I greyed the deck on the Royal Caroline!