I loved reading this Janice. Traditional boat restoration shares all the romance, insanity, adventure and hard labour of sailing. The audience is here, worry not.
Great descent into the mysterious abyss of legacy, connection and personal commitment …..taking on projects for which there are no instruction books, roadmaps or engineering schools. Making a huge contribution to the future while relying on the past, joining a long list of adventurers/craftspeople-of-circumstance, but really a short and hallowed list indeed…..
"Is this interesting to you, my readers?" ... in a word, "Yes." When the new "Wooden Boat" arrives the first article I turn to is Richard Jagels' "Wood Technology". But, for other reasons, too.
I finished and installed the mantle that rests above our fire place. I searched for and found a very large piece of treated fir at Ballard Reuse in Seattle. It had probably been used in landscaping/terracing. From there I went straight to O.B. Williams on a Friday afternoon as the week was winding down. A sawyer and miller named Mario went to work first cutting, then planing off the layer of treated wood until we got to the pure Douglas Fir and were able to assess what we were really working with. He cut blocks off each end, trimmed some checked wood from one side, and continued planing it to size. He then ran it through a huge industrial sander to finish it, perfectly square. Then, using my templates as a guide, the "artist" in Mario went to work using the cutoffs from the ends to make the corbels with an industrial bandsaw and a drum sander. It is hard to put into words the joy I felt watching this castaway piece of lumber being transformed into a piece of furniture that would adorn our home. I don't know where this tree started it's life, but I know intimately where it started it's second life.
The boat that I sail now is a stitch-and-glue, plywood dory. The. gunwales and trim are made from sapele I picked up from the used lumber stacks at Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend. Part of me wanted to save using reused lumber and part of me just wanted some wood from Edensaw in my boat. In their previous life they had been baseboards, and having growing up in Washington, in my mind's eye, I could easily see these baseboards in the house I grew up in. I ripped them, planed them, scarfed them, finished them, and now, these trees enjoy a second life as part of my boat.
I'm enjoying Jeff and Elizabeth's thread below, and I guess the only thing I would add is ... save that stem and that knee. Find the treasure within and find a place for it to continuing living in your boat. Maybe as a handhold that'll you'll reach for in rough seas or a piece of varnished trim that you'll enjoy over your morning coffee ... or both. Cheers!
My dear Janice, Today's work from your head and heart has fixed me! Thank you so much for recovering from that creep and his van and how he hurt your spirit. Will call you soon since I think I can talk to you without blubbering now. Today you are my sunshine! Love, Donna
Dendrochronology is the science of determining the age of trees and shrubs. They sometimes use narrow, very long, hollow drill bits to remove samples of the growth rings. The can also determine the age of nearby fallen trees by correlating the width of growth rings with a living tree. Its all very interesting. When my son and i cut a dead tree for firewood, we always like to count the rings. A few years ago, we counted the rings on a Ponderosa pine stump we cut, and before we got to tiny rings in the center that were to tiny to count, we dated our tree to 1804, the year Lewis and Clark came through the area and also the year Haiti became independent.
Aha! Like the ice core testing?? Gotcha. Thanks!. When I lived in Western Colorado we harvested both ancient, almost dead cedar and what we called Pitch Pine, which is often a lightning struck Ponderosa stump, ancient indeed. Burned incredibly hot and smelled wonderful. I am a ring counter, too. Love to imagine what those trees have seen!! In some instances they may be horrified. Louis and Clark. Love that one.
We are trying to figure out the age of our Purpleheart but don't have quite the right cuts....the grain is tight!! It's all fascinating to me.
After one of our many recent wildfires, I found a large Ponderosa tree that had a cat face (logger lingo for a patch of missing bark near to the ground). They tend to ooze pitch and this one caught on fire without the fire burning up the tree, but through it so that the green tree fell over and the fire smoldered, probably for month during winter, down through the stump and out into the roots. It was a perfectly empty hole shaped exactly like the underground part of the tree.
Thanks, Janice. I have no immediate plans for a follow-up, but it seems I can't rest on certain topics, so perhaps something more will burble up in the future. I've been encouraged to receive good feedback in comments on the same piece posted to the Talbot Spy. Hope springs eternal.
Thank you for sharing your thoughtful pursuit of the materials to rebuild STEADFAST's bow. Your beautifully written post today hit on something that I wish the top 1% of the world's consumers (most of us living a modern life, by the way) could somehow directly experience, and that is the relationship between the goods we consume, and the "invisible" human and other natural costs of that consumption.
A couple years ago I took a break from desk jockey work and apprenticed as a cabinetmaker. One of those days began with a trip to the lumberyard to purchase a special piece of rift sawn white oak for a project. I remember hoping the homeowners for whom this board would soon become part of their home might appreciate this functional thing of beauty and consider for a moment the decades to grow the mighty oak, the effort to fell its sturdy trunk, then process it into lumber for us to build into furniture. I asked myself, what would it be like if everything we touched could somehow tell the story of all the steps it took to get to us? Would we actually buy less stuff, or just rationalize the true costs of our consumption?
In other words, you want a cheeseburger? OK, then you should see how much water is used to grow alfalfa for feed, visit the CAFO where the animals lived, meet the workers in the slaughterhouse, spend a day with the folks in the trucking industry, etc. Do you still want the burger?
Jeff, I must say this is just as thoughtfully and eloquently written. So many of us have much more than we need and keep buying...unsustainable on so many levels. Thank you for being thoughtful, and each week, for your time here, SPARRING on so many levels. J
Thank you for your kind words, Janice. You’re doing the hard work of restoring a beautiful home soon to be back on the water, while sharing your experience with the rest of us. She’s worth it.
You make great points, Jeff, and I frequently have similar thoughts. Though certainly not 100% successful--not by a long shot--or the past some-odd years, my husband (a career furniture maker, coincidentally) and I have applied ourselves to the ideal of not buying new goods whenever possible and avoiding plastic in particular. Our consumer-driven economy does not make that an easy choice, and I don't want to misrepresent our commitment to it, either. But, the awareness in and of itself is sobering.
Are you familiar with Annie Leonard's work? The "Story of Stuff" was released in 2007, and there have been many subsequent films, but I'll link the original in case it's something you've not seen.
Thanks for that link Elizabeth, will take it in. I'm a Goodwill girl myself and find it surprising how many items are donated that have never even been used! Boat living automatically and helpfully limits what we 'need.'
Isn’t it wonderful how the internet can introduce like minded individuals! Thank you, Elizabeth, for the recommendation to read more about others who’ve done work to reduce the impacts of consumerism.
I loved reading this Janice. Traditional boat restoration shares all the romance, insanity, adventure and hard labour of sailing. The audience is here, worry not.
Wonderful words to.read and they brought a smile. Crazy indeed.
Great descent into the mysterious abyss of legacy, connection and personal commitment …..taking on projects for which there are no instruction books, roadmaps or engineering schools. Making a huge contribution to the future while relying on the past, joining a long list of adventurers/craftspeople-of-circumstance, but really a short and hallowed list indeed…..
Warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye….
Thank you Mr Lebow!
"Is this interesting to you, my readers?" ... in a word, "Yes." When the new "Wooden Boat" arrives the first article I turn to is Richard Jagels' "Wood Technology". But, for other reasons, too.
I finished and installed the mantle that rests above our fire place. I searched for and found a very large piece of treated fir at Ballard Reuse in Seattle. It had probably been used in landscaping/terracing. From there I went straight to O.B. Williams on a Friday afternoon as the week was winding down. A sawyer and miller named Mario went to work first cutting, then planing off the layer of treated wood until we got to the pure Douglas Fir and were able to assess what we were really working with. He cut blocks off each end, trimmed some checked wood from one side, and continued planing it to size. He then ran it through a huge industrial sander to finish it, perfectly square. Then, using my templates as a guide, the "artist" in Mario went to work using the cutoffs from the ends to make the corbels with an industrial bandsaw and a drum sander. It is hard to put into words the joy I felt watching this castaway piece of lumber being transformed into a piece of furniture that would adorn our home. I don't know where this tree started it's life, but I know intimately where it started it's second life.
The boat that I sail now is a stitch-and-glue, plywood dory. The. gunwales and trim are made from sapele I picked up from the used lumber stacks at Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend. Part of me wanted to save using reused lumber and part of me just wanted some wood from Edensaw in my boat. In their previous life they had been baseboards, and having growing up in Washington, in my mind's eye, I could easily see these baseboards in the house I grew up in. I ripped them, planed them, scarfed them, finished them, and now, these trees enjoy a second life as part of my boat.
I'm enjoying Jeff and Elizabeth's thread below, and I guess the only thing I would add is ... save that stem and that knee. Find the treasure within and find a place for it to continuing living in your boat. Maybe as a handhold that'll you'll reach for in rough seas or a piece of varnished trim that you'll enjoy over your morning coffee ... or both. Cheers!
My dear Janice, Today's work from your head and heart has fixed me! Thank you so much for recovering from that creep and his van and how he hurt your spirit. Will call you soon since I think I can talk to you without blubbering now. Today you are my sunshine! Love, Donna
Dendrochronology is the science of determining the age of trees and shrubs. They sometimes use narrow, very long, hollow drill bits to remove samples of the growth rings. The can also determine the age of nearby fallen trees by correlating the width of growth rings with a living tree. Its all very interesting. When my son and i cut a dead tree for firewood, we always like to count the rings. A few years ago, we counted the rings on a Ponderosa pine stump we cut, and before we got to tiny rings in the center that were to tiny to count, we dated our tree to 1804, the year Lewis and Clark came through the area and also the year Haiti became independent.
Aha! Like the ice core testing?? Gotcha. Thanks!. When I lived in Western Colorado we harvested both ancient, almost dead cedar and what we called Pitch Pine, which is often a lightning struck Ponderosa stump, ancient indeed. Burned incredibly hot and smelled wonderful. I am a ring counter, too. Love to imagine what those trees have seen!! In some instances they may be horrified. Louis and Clark. Love that one.
We are trying to figure out the age of our Purpleheart but don't have quite the right cuts....the grain is tight!! It's all fascinating to me.
After one of our many recent wildfires, I found a large Ponderosa tree that had a cat face (logger lingo for a patch of missing bark near to the ground). They tend to ooze pitch and this one caught on fire without the fire burning up the tree, but through it so that the green tree fell over and the fire smoldered, probably for month during winter, down through the stump and out into the roots. It was a perfectly empty hole shaped exactly like the underground part of the tree.
We are following along with interest (and empathy) here, Janice!
So very much appreciated Elizabeth! Your last work was bold and stunning. I'm interested in the follow-up, if any...
J
Thanks, Janice. I have no immediate plans for a follow-up, but it seems I can't rest on certain topics, so perhaps something more will burble up in the future. I've been encouraged to receive good feedback in comments on the same piece posted to the Talbot Spy. Hope springs eternal.
Thank you for sharing your thoughtful pursuit of the materials to rebuild STEADFAST's bow. Your beautifully written post today hit on something that I wish the top 1% of the world's consumers (most of us living a modern life, by the way) could somehow directly experience, and that is the relationship between the goods we consume, and the "invisible" human and other natural costs of that consumption.
A couple years ago I took a break from desk jockey work and apprenticed as a cabinetmaker. One of those days began with a trip to the lumberyard to purchase a special piece of rift sawn white oak for a project. I remember hoping the homeowners for whom this board would soon become part of their home might appreciate this functional thing of beauty and consider for a moment the decades to grow the mighty oak, the effort to fell its sturdy trunk, then process it into lumber for us to build into furniture. I asked myself, what would it be like if everything we touched could somehow tell the story of all the steps it took to get to us? Would we actually buy less stuff, or just rationalize the true costs of our consumption?
In other words, you want a cheeseburger? OK, then you should see how much water is used to grow alfalfa for feed, visit the CAFO where the animals lived, meet the workers in the slaughterhouse, spend a day with the folks in the trucking industry, etc. Do you still want the burger?
Jeff, I must say this is just as thoughtfully and eloquently written. So many of us have much more than we need and keep buying...unsustainable on so many levels. Thank you for being thoughtful, and each week, for your time here, SPARRING on so many levels. J
Thank you for your kind words, Janice. You’re doing the hard work of restoring a beautiful home soon to be back on the water, while sharing your experience with the rest of us. She’s worth it.
Please send photo of mantle. !!
She is indeed.
You make great points, Jeff, and I frequently have similar thoughts. Though certainly not 100% successful--not by a long shot--or the past some-odd years, my husband (a career furniture maker, coincidentally) and I have applied ourselves to the ideal of not buying new goods whenever possible and avoiding plastic in particular. Our consumer-driven economy does not make that an easy choice, and I don't want to misrepresent our commitment to it, either. But, the awareness in and of itself is sobering.
Are you familiar with Annie Leonard's work? The "Story of Stuff" was released in 2007, and there have been many subsequent films, but I'll link the original in case it's something you've not seen.
https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/
Thanks for that link Elizabeth, will take it in. I'm a Goodwill girl myself and find it surprising how many items are donated that have never even been used! Boat living automatically and helpfully limits what we 'need.'
Isn’t it wonderful how the internet can introduce like minded individuals! Thank you, Elizabeth, for the recommendation to read more about others who’ve done work to reduce the impacts of consumerism.
Nice to "meet" you, Jeff. :)