CRAFTSMANSHIP Traditional Tool
were guided by comfort with the iron pitched at 17 degrees. The stock slopes gently aft for a better grip.
Having split out a suitable quarter of wood and roughly smoothed by axe, my first handsaw cuts established a cuboid. I then placed the piece with its tough sheets of medullary ray perpendicular to the sole, which I planed flat. Sides were then planed square to the sole before using the bevel gauge to mark the angle of the bed. This was a tricky cut, tapering to nothing at the leading edge, which was vulnerable until the iron was installed. I then put in some time with the block plane to flatten the bed, before marking a shallow wedge for the cap needed to secure the iron. The cap was planed flat. The next step was to settle on a way to tightening the cap-iron- stock sandwich. A couple of 1 ¼in No. 8 bronze screws did the job, boring clearance holes through the cap and pilot holes in the stock. Now, the iron could move back and forth and be clamped solidly in one place. All that remained was to relieve the sharp edges with chamfers, then apply tung oil to seal the wood and bring out its beauty. Oh, and practice. The secret is meticulous setting of the iron and firm pressure on the heel of the plane.
Lancashire hacksaw BY ROBIN GATES
built to common practice, they meant that a full-class yacht was built to the highest standards with individual supervision. This assured a far better second-hand value because a buyer could be certain of the best quality. The Rules applied only to the hull
construction and had no influence on its form, rig or power. However, to students of yacht design and boatbuilders alike, a copy of the Rules will prove invaluable and well worth trawling the net for. The 1966 edition Volume 1 Wood
and Composite Yachts is the one best suited to the classic boat man as being much revised on the 1957 edition. We found a copy on www.
amazon.co.uk for £24 – Ed.
From the land of hotpot and nobbies came the shapeliest metal-cutting saw to have graced a shipwright’s tool chest: the Lancashire hacksaw. Its solid, wrought-iron frame with turned rosewood handle captures an artistic side to toolmaking lost in today’s cast-aluminium and plastic versions. There’s barely a straight line in it. The blacksmith has forged a subtle forward swell in the bow of the frame and a slotted curlicue to house the blade. This is a regional mid 18th century design that survived into the 1930s, when the adjustable hacksaw accommodating several blade sizes proved cheaper. Before that, Lancashire hacksaw frames came in 1in (25mm) increments from 3-19 inches! In the boatshed the hacksaw cuts nails, bolts, sheet metal and some non-
metals, but using it requires a different technique to sawing wood. The work must be held rigidly – if it moves, the blade will probably snap. The original blade for this saw was of a more forgiving carbon steel that could be resharpened with a file, and suitable for cutting soft metals like brass and copper. Today’s more brittle blades are of the much harder, high-speed steel (HSS). They cut harder metals but will break if twisted, so tension the blade well and clamp the work in a vice. Use a hand on the handle and one on the far end of the frame for control. The number of teeth per inch (tpi) varies from 14 for large sections of soft metal up to 32 for thin material, and teeth are usually set in a wave like the edge of a scallop shell. Use light pressure and long strokes. If you prefer cutting on the pull stroke Japanese style, just reverse the blade, as shown here.
Top: Lancashire hacksaw with its elegant curves, and a copper bolt gripped by the vice
Right: Blade tensioning device Far right: The blade slots into a shapely curlicue
CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2012 89
ROBIN GATES
ROBIN GATES
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