S*%t just got real...

This is a picture of the wood I ordered for my backbone timbers, fresh off the sawmill track in Suriname, and ready to be packed into a container and shipped up to New England where Nat and Ross at the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway will hold onto it until Dad and I can drive up there and take delivery.

The wood itself is Angelique - a species of hardwood so robust, and so resistant to rot and shipworm attack that at times I wonder whether it was engineered by aliens as an ideal boatbuilding material. Here are a few choice passages about the species from the U.S. Forest Service Products Laboratory (emphasis mine):

Angelique occurs only in French Guiana and Surinam...[Its strength] is superior to teak and white oak, when either green or air dry, in all properties except tension perpendicular to the grain, in which it is surpassed by both.  In tests made at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, the angelique samples sustained such small amounts of decay by even the most active fungus that it can be unqualifiedly classified for general consideration as very resistant.  

After 10 months’ exposure at Harbor Island, N.C., small specimens showed no evidence of marine borer activity and after 15 months only moderate attack by teredo and pholads. This performance surpassed that of teak, and under the same conditions white oak specimens were heavily attacked within 6 months. Edmondson reports angelique as showing no infestation by teredo and limnoria after an exposure of 3 years in Hawaiian waters. 

Tests indicate that angelique is superior to teak and white oak in resisting abrasion. Service trials on the landing decks of aircraft carriers show that angelique wears at least as well as teak under these rigorous conditions. New York Naval Shipyard, found that angelique holds wood screws at withdrawal loads about one-third greater than those of teak and white oak.

Pretty amazing stuff, right?

Anyway, I've just been notified that the container has cleared customs in Massachusetts, and should be ready for pickup in the very near future. I've also seen the invoice for the first time. I always knew that these major structural timbers would be one of the largest single expenses of the construction, but still...WOW. Let's just say that if I wasn't committed to finishing this project before, I sure am now!

Sawrendipity

In order to continue making progress on -and eventually finish- this project, some time ago I made a deal with myself that I would accomplish one task on it every single day. The task could be as large or as small as my time constraints allowed, I reasoned; as long as it was some kind of progress, it would count. This weekend, I had planned to fill my quota by continuing to transfer the lofted outlines of the backbone timbers onto plywood patterns -I've finished one so far, and started on another- however events quickly forced a change in this plan.

My stepmother, who lives in Maryland, is a realtor, and is friends with a couple who recently built their own house in Montgomery county. Having finished with that project, it seems that these individuals recently found themselves with a surplus of woodworking equipment that they no longer needed. Eager to free up some space, I'm told that they offered it "free to a good home", and Brooke, who clearly knows me far too well, claimed it for me without a second thought. What a score; I owe her BIG for this one.

And so it was, that while I was at work on Thursday, my dad drove down from Maryland, up the driveway, and across my back yard in his big diesel pickup, unloading from the bed a large Craftsman radial arm saw and a very neat old bandsaw. On the latter, an engraved metal plate informs me that spare parts can be obtained from any retail location of Sears, Roebuck, and Company – a brand which according to Wikipedia has not existed since the 1970s.

I haven't started the bandsaw up yet, but it looks like it ought to work. If it doesn't, I
hope I'll be able to jury-rig something, as I'm unsure of the response I would get
if I were to haul it down to my local Sears.

Faced with this serendipitous delivery of substantial shop equipment, my original plans to work on patterns this past weekend (with hand tools - HA!) went right out the window. It was imperative that these babies -the radial arm saw in particular- have a proper place to live. As such, the past two days were spent knocking together a half-decent workbench out of whatever materials I had on hand - which turned out to be quite a bit! Those of you who have visited my house may recognize in its shape the ghost of the loft bed that I once believed would make a welcome and space-saving addition to the guest room. Belatedly, I stand corrected. Its destiny clearly lay elsewhere.

So enough preliminary steps! Let's get to work!