Deformed wood strips

I

Ironrod60

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May 14, 2021
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I am building the African Queen. I have built 2 small ships previously. Both were solid hull and neither used wood strips. This model requires decking be glued over a false deck. I have "Ship Modeling Simplified" by Frank Mastini and "Ship Models from Kits" by Colin Riches. I can't find any reference to the issue I'm having.
My problem is that all the planking provided, have in varying severity, what are called "crook" and "twist" deformities. Some of the deformities are so severe that there isn't even a 3" length which I could salvage. I have seen this in other tall ship models which leads me to believe it is common.

Is this a defect in the kit and I need to contact billing for replacement??

Or am I supposed to reform the strip by soaking in water and then pin them in a straight jig or similar method?

I considered recutting into straight strips. But that would make much narrower strips and it would be difficult producing a uniformed width on all strips.

I could cut off the deformities on the least severely deformed strips, but that is a lot of wasted wood. I'm not confident I would have enough left to finish.

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm attaching a photo of the strips. I added a straight edge for reference.
 

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i see that type of twisting all the time and there are a few causes. One is a change in temperature and humidity when i cut strips in the winter and bring them into the house which is 45 degrees warmer than the barn the strips will twist and bend. same with humidity i will cut wood in Ohio in the spring where it is very damp and cool and send them to the west coast where it is hot and dry, the wood will distort.
In your pictures it looks like the strips were cut from a board where the grain curves around a knot or the wood was still a little green and unstable. Also some woods are prone to warpage much more than others.

I have tried using such wood with success by using a wood glue that is watery i can pin the strip in place on the hull or deck and when the glue dries the wood will stay in place. Sometimes in kits the planking is really thin and will break before it bends.
 
Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
i see that type of twisting all the time and there are a few causes. One is a change in temperature and humidity when i cut strips in the winter and bring them into the house which is 45 degrees warmer than the barn the strips will twist and bend. same with humidity i will cut wood in Ohio in the spring where it is very damp and cool and send them to the west coast where it is hot and dry, the wood will distort.
In your pictures it looks like the strips were cut from a board where the grain curves around a knot or the wood was still a little green and unstable. Also some woods are prone to warpage much more than others.

I have tried using such wood with success by using a wood glue that is watery i can pin the strip in place on the hull or deck and when the glue dries the wood will stay in place. Sometimes in kits the planking is really thin and will break before it bends.
Click to expand...
The problem you are having is caused by differential stresses within the wood strips themselves. The simple fact is - the wood itself is not straight grained and is useless for building model ships. If you would look at the grain structure of the wood, you would see that it twists, curls and meanders around in endless random directions. This happens to be a very desirable characteristic of wood used in furniture. Curly maple is a prime example. But, we are not talking about furniture here, so what do you do? THROW ALL OF THIS "SHOESTRING" WOOD AWAY. Now what do you do? In my case, I buy some straight grained suitable wood billets from www.gilmerwood.com and cut some new planks on my Byrnes saw, www.byrnes.com. The problem you are having is one of the reasons people give up building kits and become scratch builders. In your case, you might buy a saw and start cutting wood yourself. The other option is to buy wood strips from someone else.
 
Hi Ironrod60!

You will have a hard time getting these wood strips straight.

SANY1229.JPG
15 years old walnut strips, straight as after sawing. The right strip is pear and 2 years old and bent and only use for special working.

I think you bought a kit and want to lay a straight deck and for that you need straight strips. Either buy new strips or complain to the manufacturer. (Just as an aside: wood moisture, storage, etc. . . is a very extensive topic and necessarily employs many modelers).

Best regards
Thomas
 
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