Fun Preview

A couple of rigging students are making a video about "How to Make a Grommet" so I made movie trailer for this upcoming movie, just for fun.
Patti Irish

More Worming, Parceling, Serving and Oars

Grommet Group:
We met as a big group today and we all listened to Patti. She told us about how its important to check and respond to the emails she sends us usually 1 day after the class and about doing our homework. Will reminded us of the safety we need to take in class, and getting our own tools out before class and putting them away after class. My group continued our rope work on worming, serving and parceling. We do this to make the rope waterproof that way we don't have to replace a rotted rope in a few years. For worming, we fill in all the open areas between the layers of the rope. After that we put double sided sticky black tape over the worming and rope. Then we take another strong middle sized rope and use that to wrap really tightly over the tape to make it even stronger then it is. I first thought that I was going to be miserable in this class and bored but once I got into it I was really excited I chose to do rope work over wood working because I wasn't confident with my measuring and cutting out. Rope work seemed like it would be easy but it's really not. It's fun and sometimes confusing learning how to make all the different knots and learning the names. I really like the class and would recommend it for people if they like to learn olden day boat building. If you are interested in boats you should take this class it's really fun you can work on building the oars or on making the grommets.
Student Shipwright
Shelby Martel

Oar Group:
Today the wood working group was laying out another set of oars. This involves a lot of measuring, marking, checking and of course erasing. We lay out two oars on each plank and then glue two planks together. Once this is done they must be cut as close to the line as possible. It doesn’t have to be exact because we can always use a plane to shave them down right to the line.
This has been a great course so far. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot about the Popham Colony. History in itself, is good to know but it becomes more interesting when it has happened in your area.
Student Shipwright
Wesley Mellor

Have a fabulous week off!!

Many Projects in a Shortened Class

Today we reviewed safety. One tip is to never have anything hanging from your neck when using power tools. We were told to always use safety glasses to keep dust out of your eyes. We learned about worming, serving, and parceling, which all has to do ropes for rigging. Things are starting to get better day by day. We are starting to get more comfortable with every thing.
Student Shipwright
Dusan Martinovic

We did a safety review today. We put two oars and glued then together and we put clamps on them so they would stay together.
Student Shipwright,
Koty Elwell

Today was a shortened class, which I personally hate because it goes way too fast. As I looked around today, the students were all busy on many projects from beginning a movie "How to Make a Grommet", grommet making and worming, to oar making. The students and staff are feeling more comfortable with the work to be done and getting it accomplished.

Responsibility is such a huge piece when working on a team project such as this. Everyone needs to take responsibility for getting their part of the project completed and all parts need to be very high quality.

Congrats to Jon and Dusan for getting their knot homework completed.
Patti Irish
Media Specialist

Worming, Parceling and Serving

Happy Valentine's Day,

Worming, Parceling and Serving:
Today our class talked about safety, and the proper use of the equipment in the shop. We learned how to use the band-saw. and we are also learning how to splice, and make grommets for the boat’s rigging. We are also learning how to do worming (which is putting thin line into the groves of the rope), parcel, and serving. Parceling is wrapping the rope in pine tar soaked canvas (friction tape). and serving is wrapping it in tarred marlin. So far the class has been going pretty well, the rope working is pretty fun but its gets pretty confusing.
Student Shipwright,
Jared Gilliam

Band saw and Oars:
Today our class learned about safety and how to be safe working with equipment. Then we heard some stories about cutting yourself and going straight to one of the teachers and they will help you from there. The basic things you need to know on the band-saw is that the turn on button is on the side and it will say start. To start it obviously and to turn it off it will say off. Today, we have been working with the band-saw. We have just been cutting little chunks of our oars to get a precise piece of our oars. I like working on stuff in this class and when I am done I feel good about myself.
Student Shipwright,
Colby Dauphin

Below are some samples of the homework, which was to make a key chain from the left over rope from the making of the grommet making. Great job Seamus, Dylan, Kelsey, Kate, Jeremy, Will and Patti

Splicing and Gluing

Gluing Oars:
Today our class continued laying out the oars for the shallop. We had to draw the oar with all of the right measurements on the plank of wood we are planning to use for the oars. After we laid out the oars we started gluing them together. We needed to sand them down first so the the glue would hold better to the wood. After we sanded down the boards we put the glue down, then spread out the glue all over the board from corner to corner. After that, we finished up with clamping the two boards together so that the profile of the oar was on the top because later we cut it out with the band saw.
This class has been a lot of fun. I like coming to school knowing that I have this to do first thing in the morning. It is a really nice way to get going in the morning. I love getting to do all the hands on work. It keeps me interested in what I am doing and keeps me wanting to do more of this every time I come to class.
Dylan Crowell,
Student Shipwright

Grommets and Splicing:
Today we almost finished our grommets. We started splicing the rope together to make a circle. We cut off the long end so it was the same length as the shorter one, about six inches. We split the rope strand into 3 pieces and numbered each one. One side were 1's and the other were 2's. Then we spliced these pieces back into the grommet. Our home work assignment is that all of our extra rope from the rigging crew is going to be turned in to a rope key chain made of different knots.
Jon Brooks,
Student Shipwright

Finish Laying out Oar Boards and Grommet Handles

Rigging Group:
Today we worked on grommets. All of us, as a group went over how to make a grommet. I started to take some video to begin a movie called, "How to Make a 17th Century Grommet". We went step by step on how to make them. It made a lot more sense today than it did last week. Even today, the second day, the grommets look a lot better.
Kelsey,
Student Shipbuilder

Oar Group:
How to Cut Out an Oar
First, you have to measure out where the six inches is on each end of the board, so that you can make two oars out of one piece of wood. Then you have to start making the general look of the oar such as where it tapers down and back up and where the handle is.
Seamus
Student Shipbuilder

Making grommets and oars

Today in shipbuilding we did some work on laying out the oars and ropework. The class split into two groups and started working on these two tasks. In the oar group we started drawing on some center lines and figuring out how we are going to fit the oars on the boards. We ran into some problems with trying to fit the oars on the wood because we are trying to fit two oars onto one board but it seems to be a little difficult to do so. In the other group you had people learning how to work with ropes. They learned how to make 17th century grommets with rope.
Regards,
Kate
Student Shipbuilder