CRAFTSMANSHIP
Boatbuilder’s Notes ADVICE
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Bore from both sides
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BY ROBIN GATES A sharp centre bit is an excellent tool for boring a shallow large-diameter hole, with a point to locate the bit dead centre and a spur which neatly circumscribes the hole in advance of the cutting edge. However, special care is needed when a hole passes right through, if the bit is not to emerge like a bulldozer
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through a brick wall.
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One solution is to clamp the work to a sacrificial backing piece, to support surface fibres on the exit side, but this is not always convenient – if boring the hole for a pipe or wiring to pass through a bulkhead, for example, represented here by a 1in (25mm) hole in a 19mm board. Providing you can access both sides of the hole, bore from one side until the point of the bit is just ROBIN GATES
showing on the exit side. Then switch sides
1 Begin boring from one side 2 The point showing on the exit 3 Centre the bit on the second side 4 A crisp result
with the brace and bit, using the small exit hole to locate the point, and finish the job from the second side. Separated by the spur, the last of the wood is extracted on the point as smart as a button, leaving crisp edges all round.
Razee ‘ship’ plane This style of plane with the rear end cut
Razee and standard
away is a razee or ‘ship’ plane, named after
jack planes and (insert)
the practice of slicing off a warship’s
the EMIR trademark
elevated quarter-deck and forecastle to make a vaisseau rasé with less top weight and better sailing qualities. For the shipwright the benefit lies in lowering the rear handle so that thrust is applied closer to the timber and from more directly behind the blade. The cutaway also makes it lighter, so less tiring in the heavy work of planing timber down to rough dimensions. This 14in (35.5cm) razee jack plane from the Bermondsey, London, factory of Friedrich Emmerich, bears the EMIR trademark, which woodworkers of a certain the 1950s and 1960s EMIR tools and benches were standard issue for technical schools, where the razee jack was better known as the ‘technical’ or ‘sunk handle’ jack.
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CLASSIC BOAT NOVEMBER 2017
ROBIN GATES
age may recognise from their school days. In