Tricks of the trade

[Zzyzx01]

Reading his post, the glue is probably PVA as he cleans the glue brushes in water.

 

[Albert Mary]

Hi Paul,

For the anchor the following are from Lees Masting and Rigging page 188.
Sheet, best bower and bower anchor cable circumference is 0.62 X the diameter of the main mast.
Kedge anchor cable is 0.6 the size of the sheet anchor cable.
The spare cables were an inch or so smaller in circumference.
Other anchor rigging
cable messenger 0.75X main stay
Cat falls and cat head stopper 0.33X the main stay
Shank painter tail 0.4 X the main stay
fish pendant 0.5 X the main stay
fish pendant tackle 0.25 X the main stay

There are several other ropes concerning anchor handling related items as well.
Hope this is helpful.
Allan

Thanks Allan. That's exactly what I was looking for!

 

[Bob Cleek]

MAST HOOPS, RETAINING RINGS AND WOOLDINGS
The most common methods of making these seems to be thick cardboard such as poster board or card stock, brass, and wood. I have used all three methods depending on the scale and situation. Poster board is easy enough and metal rings, when appropriate, can be made from sheet or by slicing off rings from a brass tube if the diameter is correct for the mast,

Wood was the material used for wooldings and sail hoops and can be made with basic hand tools including a hobby knife and fit to any size needed.

Hoops for sails
To be clear, the following photo show the hoops I am referring to.
View attachment 486905
To make these I use a piece of dowel that is about 5% to 10% larger in diameter than the mast. The wood I like best is holly as it is tight grained and easy to shape. Basswood is a good choice as well and poplar is not a bad substitute as it is easy to find.

I first start by cutting strips to size. These strips can be cut using a saw or cut from sheet stock using a hobby knife if a saw is not available. The thickness varied but 1.25" to 1.5 inches for mast hoops and 1" to 1.25" is accurate.

Once the strips are made I soak them in water for an hour or so to make them pliable and so they will not split when bent.

Cut strip
View attachment 486907
Soaked strip
View attachment 486908

Wet strip wrapped around dowel rod
View attachment 486910
Hoops dried with hot air gun or hair drier
View attachment 486911
Dried and ready to cut into rings
View attachment 486912

Mast hoops
View attachment 486909

Woolding rings
For some unknown reason some kits neglect to show the wooden rings in their drawings and instructions. I do not recall ever seeing contemporary plans or models that have rope wooldings without the wooden rings. If there are cheeks or fish, the wooden rings and rope go over them. When metal rings came into use these went under the fish and cheeks. The rope was nailed in place, but to protect against wear and to help keep them in place, the wooden rings were nailed above and below to protect the rope winding. The size of the wooldings themselves was 0.2 X the main stay in all cases according to Lees in The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War. I am guessing they would be similar for other nationalities. There were typically twelve wraps of woolding rope. I cannot find anything regarding the sizes of the wooden rings on top and under the rope of the wooldings but estimate these based on contemporary drawings and drawings in Lees.
If the wooden rings are too thick, chuck the mast in a drill or lathe and sand the rings so the thickness is similar to the diameter of the rope.
View attachment 486936


Rope in place. Note that I made these as a sample for this post. In reality there should be about 12 wraps of rope.
View attachment 486937

If anyone has more information on wooldings and rings in general, please add to the information above, or if I got anything wrong, please feel free to point this out.
Allan

I use a similar method of making wooden rings for mast hoops and the like. I'd encourage you to give it a try the next time you need some and see if you like my method better. It's primary advantage is the strength of the resulting hoops and the ease of making them.

I take a mandrel of doweling, tubing, or whatever of the desired hoop diameter and wrap some waxed paper, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil around it, securing the ends with rubber bands. I then set a plane to take a thin shaving and I plane long, continuous shavings from the edge of a clear plank edge with no grain runout. (The thicker the plank, the wider the shaving. The wider the shaving, the better.) I then wrap the shavings around the mandrel with each turn evenly laid upon one the previous turn as it's wrapped around the mandrel while applying a coating of thinned PVA adhesive to the face of the shaving as it's wrapped. When the thickness of the shaving laminations reaches the desired thickness, the shaving wrapping is secured with a rubber band or masking tape. When the PVA is cured, the mandrel is chucked in the lathe and sections of the laminated shavings are marked at the desired widths and parted with a razor knife. The resulting rings are slid off the mandrel and any adhesive adhering to the inside scraped off with a razor knife. (Which shouldn't be much if you are careful applying the adhesive.) The end of the lap on the face of the hoop is sanded fair to the rest of the hoop and the corners of the hoops rounded off, if desired. The hoops are then stained and they're good to go. These laminated hoops, made in the same manner as the full-scale hoops without any joint, are surprisingly strong, as well.

 

[Short John Bronze]

Miscellaneous Bodges
In what I take to be the spirit of this thread have summarised some minor tips that I have posted in more detail in other posts. In Picture Order:
1) Using thin plywood strips to hold planking until glue sets. Fixed at one end; clipped or pinned at the other
2) Making small blocks by bashing a strip of wood through a draw plate. Drill from end or side then cut off.
3) Forming deck coils by winding glued thread between two sheets of perspex
4) Assembling shrouds and deadeyes with a dummy, break-off upper "chain plate"
5) Tying ratlines top down so that loops of thread hang down out of the way. shroud access progressively improves.
6) Fixing staysails after stays fitted using looped length of wire subsequently closed and trimmed. Easier then fiddly small rings.
7) Using old vape bottles for dispensing liquids (glue, varnish, paint) extracted from larger tins.
8) Sliding a clove hitch (or other loop) down a drinking straw placed over an installed belaying pin. (off ship demo picture)
9) (no picture) It is often easier to fit a length of running rigging by starting at the belaying pin.