Boat Building Tools

 01 Feb 21:

One of the fun parts of boat building has been looking for old tools and using them on our different restorations and builds. We have an antique auction house nearby and several items have traveled home with us from Miss Donna's. Sometimes the old tried and true methods and tools are the best, the quickest, the cheapest and the most fun. Our 100 foot cloth tape and the steel tape are marked in Feet - Inches - Eighths so they have measured a lot of boats, most recently the little Alcort Standard Sailfish WINNIE who measure out at 11-7-6. The small Tri Square and 3 inch pocket bevel take on big jobs while not taking up much room, and the small thumb plane is handy when it's time to tend to a small detail and contemplate what mistake will be made next. The marking gauge can be used not only to mark but to scribe small detail into a trim piece, one of the things that helps personalize a boat. The coffin plane is surprisingly easy on the hands and smooth on the work piece, due to its shape and wooden body. And a favorite is the spokeshave, it shaves more than spoke and takes off a lot of wood fast. One other note, all of those tools are quiet and create very little dust.

Not to be outdone by the old tools, the pile of new loud tools has grown as well. I read recently that all cutting tools were basically just small chisels. The smallest on the table is the Japanese Ryoba pull saw, it has a crosscut edge and a rip edge and will make fine cuts fast. The DeWALT tools are an oscillating multi tool, jig saw and left handed circular saw. Another Japanese tool is the two sided Shinto rasp, which also removes a lot of materials. One more file we found that was not designed with boat building in mind is the Kobalt ceramic tile file, it has both a rounded face and a flat face. Once we get done chiseling away bits of wood, we glue them all back together with THIXO thickened epoxy dispensed from a Newborn 18:1 High Thrust Caulk Gun. Workspace cleanup for small ares gets taken care of with the Porter Cable cordless Wet/Dry Vac, very useful when working in wet areas where no electrical cords are desired. A Shop Safety WARNING here, the most common severe hazard in boat building is electrocution, so we are mindful to not mix water with electricity. One mitigation for that hazard is to use a cordless tool, so we have been slowly switching over to DeWALT 20V Brushless or Kobalt 24V tools, along with Porter Cable. 

Grab a cup of coffee, here is the list of some of our other tools on our page Tuesday Tool Of The Week.

Lagniappe: A tool trolley is easy to build, a good starter project if you are getting into boat building.