Caulking for Small Seams

30 Jul 24:

Images of caulking a seam often include specialized mallets and large caulking tools called irons, used to push large strands of cotton or aokum into an open seam between planks. Small boats have small seams, hopefully tight fit, so the tools used to caulk a seam are smaller. As the seam width gets smaller, so does the thickness of the caulking iron. ANd to avoid damaging a thin plank, very little force is used to force cotton into a seam. In the case of this seam, it is the perfect width for us to us a seam roller to ease the cotton into the seam.  The iron used has a thickness of 1/16th inch, and the cotton strand is about 1/8th of a full strand. For any tighter of a seam we'll switch to cotton wicking, which is similar to a thick candle wick.