shipbuilding caulking irons
 

Hello all,

I'm thinking of forging up some caulking irons for some boatbuilding
friends. Any idea what type of steel they're made of? C. Drew made the
"talking irons," and they were/are the best. I would like to make them out
of the same stuff that C. Drew did.

Thanks,
Eide

Get some leaf springs from a wrecking yard. They will last forever with
a good hardening & tempering, I have rock chisels I made forty years
ago still in excellent condition. Oil harden & draw to light blue
spring temper. Any harder & the striking face could chip.
Bugs

Why bother? Ships haven't used riveted construction, needing upset
caulking, for many years. Old boilers, maybe.

Bob Swinney
"Bugs" wrote in message
oups.com...
Get some leaf springs from a wrecking yard. They will last forever with
a good hardening & tempering, I have rock chisels I made forty years
ago still in excellent condition. Oil harden & draw to light blue
spring temper. Any harder & the striking face could chip.
Bugs

Robert Swinney wrote:

Why bother? Ships haven't used riveted construction, needing upset
caulking, for many years. Old boilers, maybe.

Bob Swinney
"Bugs" wrote in message
oups.com...

Get some leaf springs from a wrecking yard. They will last forever with
a good hardening & tempering, I have rock chisels I made forty years
ago still in excellent condition. Oil harden & draw to light blue
spring temper. Any harder & the striking face could chip.
Bugs

Up here in Puget Sound there are still many many wooden fishing boats
which have to be brought into drydock periodically, scraped down, re-caulked
and repainted. They still use caulking irons to drive the oakum between the
boards as far as I know.

Maybe we're talking about two different things - terminology can be difficult
around marine issues.

GWE

"Robert Swinney" wrote

Why bother? Ships haven't used riveted construction, needing upset
caulking, for many years. Old boilers, maybe.

You are very wrong there. There are a fair number of masochist craftsmen
out there building carvel planked clasic hulls. Just like there are a
number of machinist who have not gone CNC. :-)

There is just something about the look, feel and sound of a well made wooden
boat that frozen snot just can't duplicate.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

Thanks Grant. I was re. to "caulking" chisels used to upset the edges of
lap-rivited joints used in ship and boiler construction. Also spelled,
"calk". Def. #3, from Webster's New World College Ed.: "to make (a joint
of overlapping plates) tight by hammering the edge of one plate into the
side of the other."

Bob Swinney
"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
Robert Swinney wrote:

Why bother? Ships haven't used riveted construction, needing upset
caulking, for many years. Old boilers, maybe.

Bob Swinney
"Bugs" wrote in message
oups.com...

Get some leaf springs from a wrecking yard. They will last forever with
a good hardening & tempering, I have rock chisels I made forty years
ago still in excellent condition. Oil harden & draw to light blue
spring temper. Any harder & the striking face could chip.
Bugs

Up here in Puget Sound there are still many many wooden fishing boats
which have to be brought into drydock periodically, scraped down,
re-caulked
and repainted. They still use caulking irons to drive the oakum between
the
boards as far as I know.

Maybe we're talking about two different things - terminology can be
difficult
around marine issues.

GWE

Eide wrote:
I'm thinking of forging up some caulking irons for some boatbuilding
friends. Any idea what type of steel they're made of?

I would make them from OCS (Old Chevy Spring). Actually, Chevy just
sounds good. Any car/truck springs work well. Choose coil or leaf
depending on the final shape you want.

After my mechanic son-in-law broke three of Snap-On's biggest and best
cold chisels, I forged, hardened and tempered him one from a piece of
truck coil spring. This was about ten years ago. I checked with him
recently and he thinks it will need sharpening "soon".

A piece of leaf spring TIG'd into a slot cut in the end of a piece of
pipe made a great chisel for knocking lumps (from knot-holes in the
forms) of concrete.

Ted

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 07:55:34 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:

Robert Swinney wrote:

Why bother? Ships haven't used riveted construction, needing upset
caulking, for many years. Old boilers, maybe.

Bob Swinney
"Bugs" wrote in message
oups.com...

Get some leaf springs from a wrecking yard. They will last forever with
a good hardening & tempering, I have rock chisels I made forty years
ago still in excellent condition. Oil harden & draw to light blue
spring temper. Any harder & the striking face could chip.
Bugs

Up here in Puget Sound there are still many many wooden fishing boats
which have to be brought into drydock periodically, scraped down, re-caulked
and repainted. They still use caulking irons to drive the oakum between the
boards as far as I know.

Yup, worked at Lake Union Drydock where we had four mine sweeps (that
were originally built there) that went through that process... and
then some. Quite th' art. They had all been sold to th' S. Koreans
and it was really strange trying to get any work done with a pack of
them looking over yer shoulder taking notes.

Snarl

Thanks all, but no one knows what they would have used? I plan on making a
few of them, setting up some spring swages and I'd like to get some round
stock to start with.

Eide

"Eide" wrote in message
news:7Jk4e.54472$Az.12391@lakeread02...
Hello all,

I'm thinking of forging up some caulking irons for some boatbuilding
friends. Any idea what type of steel they're made of? C. Drew made the
"talking irons," and they were/are the best. I would like to make them out
of the same stuff that C. Drew did.

Thanks,
Eide

wrote in message
...
Quite th' ... th' ...

Are you aware it is spelled with an E as well?

Tim

--
"California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes."
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

The irons I have seen are not all that hard. They are intended for pounding
oakum into wood seams so hardness is not all that important and in some
cases not desireable. Then you can touch up the end with a ******* file
occasionaly. A caulking malet has a wood face so mushrooming of the iron's
shank takes a lot of use. Above all it has to be light and easy to handle.

Normally you would start with about a 3/4" rod of hot rolled, upset one end
to about 1 1/2" by 3/8", leave about 3" of shank and spread another 3" down
to various thicknesses and widths for the working end. As for me, I would
start with 1 1/2" rod and turn down the shank before forming the working
end.

There are all sorts of shapes. Some even have an offset shank with the
working edge on one side and a driving surface on the other. The really
good ones with an edge wider than about 2" have a slightly conic or
parabolic curve to fit better in fair seams.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Eide" wrote in message news

Thanks all, but no one knows what they would have used? I plan on making
a
few of them, setting up some spring swages and I'd like to get some round
stock to start with.

They need to be harder than mild steel. The mallets are made out of Live
Oak, Lignum Vitae, or Black Mesquite - all very hard woods. And, when
caulking large boats the oakum needs to be set almost as hard as you can hit
it. The C. Drew irons were made to last a lifetime of caulking and I would
like to make the same.
I have some C. Drew irons, but I don't really want to do a grinding test on
them...

Eide

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:Ww05e.3814$NM.2282@lakeread04...
The irons I have seen are not all that hard. They are intended for
pounding
oakum into wood seams so hardness is not all that important and in some
cases not desireable. Then you can touch up the end with a ******* file
occasionaly. A caulking malet has a wood face so mushrooming of the
iron's
shank takes a lot of use. Above all it has to be light and easy to
handle.

Normally you would start with about a 3/4" rod of hot rolled, upset one
end
to about 1 1/2" by 3/8", leave about 3" of shank and spread another 3"
down
to various thicknesses and widths for the working end. As for me, I
would
start with 1 1/2" rod and turn down the shank before forming the working
end.

There are all sorts of shapes. Some even have an offset shank with the
working edge on one side and a driving surface on the other. The really
good ones with an edge wider than about 2" have a slightly conic or
parabolic curve to fit better in fair seams.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Eide" wrote in message news

Thanks all, but no one knows what they would have used? I plan on making
a
few of them, setting up some spring swages and I'd like to get some round
stock to start with.

On Wed, 6 Apr 2005 20:01:45 -0500, "Tim Williams"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
Quite th' ... th' ...

Are you aware it is spelled with an E as well?

Perhaps It would be prudent to go back and correct spelling errors on
your web site before belittling your elders Tim. Your "Who am I?"
link might be a good place to begin:
http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms/WhoAmI.html

Besides, I've never seen it spelled with an e... or an E.

Snarl... go pop a zit, eh.

wrote in message
...
Perhaps It would be prudent to go back and correct spelling errors on
your web site before belittling your elders Tim. Your "Who am I?"
link might be a good place to begin:
http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms/WhoAmI.html

I don't see any off the top. I'm very good at spelling FWIW, especially
considering I typed all 350kB of HTML files in notepad. But I digress.

I would be grateful however for any specific notices of misspellings.

Besides, I've never seen it spelled with an e... or an E.

I'm guessing you meant "it" (i.e., quoted), but since you didn't quote it,
that can't be. Thus, you must be referring to (as I was), "th'", which
interestingly enough....does not appear in the dictionary.

Snarl... go pop a zit, eh.

Well, if you want to take that tone, I suppose I could, but you'll note my
post was an observation.

Realistically though, it really, really makes it hard to read.

Tim

--
"California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes."
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 19:10:14 -0500, "Tim Williams"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
Perhaps It would be prudent to go back and correct spelling errors on
your web site before belittling your elders Tim. Your "Who am I?"
link might be a good place to begin:
http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms/WhoAmI.html

I don't see any off the top. I'm very good at spelling FWIW, especially
considering I typed all 350kB of HTML files in notepad. But I digress.

You can quit slapping yourself on th' back now. Or is that where th'
big zits are?

I would be grateful however for any specific notices of misspellings.

Last I looked "lemme" wasn't in th' dictionary.

And although not a spelling error: "Scholars.. so I'm lucky!" An
ellipses has three "..." no less, no more. Other symbols may be
substituted, however, it is always a combination of three.

And although these are in dictionary's: "Uh, gonna, yeah, and gotta",
so is "th'" g. As a young man looking to go places in this world,
your web site is indeed a reflection of who you are. If I was
involved in college administrations, or as a prospective employer,
your use of th' above words on your site would not impress me.

Conversely, I've raised seven kids, have seven Grandkids, lookin' at
retirement soon, and couldn't care less what th' hell folks I don't
know observe about my speeling.

Snarl... go pop a zit, eh.

Well, if you want to take that tone, I suppose I could, but you'll note my
post was an observation.

As was my response. My point is that spelling *observations* suck,
since more times than not, th' observer is guilty of said same. See
above. Nobody really gives a **** in ng's like this. These ain't
thesis papers we're tappin' out here.

Realistically though, it really, really makes it hard to read.

Ever heard of a kill file? I'm certainly not going to change my
writing style to accommodate you.

Uh, yeah, lemme know if your gonna need help with that, I gotta, uh,
yeah, gonna help ya with that. Lemme know.

Snarl