Re: Chines and keel

Posted by Howard on Dec 4, 2005

you haven't gone too far. this is where aesthetic choice and workmanship comes in.

generally, the more you round, the more layers of the mahogony are going to show. these layers typically look fine if they are unfiorm. however, as you expose more layers it can be challenging to keep them straight. so i suppose the moral is, if you want a bright hull and well rounded chines, you got to pay more attention to your work in order to make it look good.

that being said, if the wood that you are using, if it is from a kit or genuine marine grade mahogony, is built to quite a tight tolerance, so if you round it uniformly, you should get pretty much unifrom lines. to get uniform lines it is important to works with sanding blocks and/or long boards. by giving firm support behind the paper for longer lenghths it makes it easier to shape a uniform radius.

the longboard type of sanding block can be made from two or three layers of 4 mm okoume sandwiched together or any other wood of suitable length/flexibility. it has to have enough flex in it to be able to match the curve of the hull. long slow draws along the direction of the chine should help you get a nice uniform radius along the the hull.

do note the objective is to get uniform exposure of the layers of the plywood....you will epose the most plys where the keel/chine angle is higher and it will taper down to no exposure of mahogony layers towards the ends.

i am sure at the end of the day it should look fine.

kindest regards,

howard

In Response to: Chines and keel by Chris J. on Dec 4, 2005

Replies:

• Re: Chines and keel by Chris J. on Dec 4, 2005
  • Re: Chines and keel by LeeG on Dec 4, 2005
  • Re: Chines and keel by Howard on Dec 5, 2005