space is getting a little tight so Beowulf is of limited use now, but Mer Mer and the adze, newly christened as Shane, have been a great combination. both are small enough to swing inside the boat itself, as opposed to Beowulf who is way too big to be effective. the basic technique we are using is a two-step process.
first we go through with Beowulf or Mer Mer and chop down along the grain to loosen the wood up. we'll also crosshatch it occasionally if there is a particularly hard section like a knot. then we'll switch to using Shane and chop along the length of the Beast, taking out all the wood that was loosened by the two axes.
this method is extremely effective for removing wood from the bottom and middle of the boat. once we get that wood out, then we can chop in from the sides and even them out, keeping them flush and parallel with the gunnels.
it's hard to imagine because there aren't any pictures (damn internet), but if you can, when the wood in the middle is taken out, there is essentially a four or five inch wide channel running down the middle of the boat. the channel has straight sides and a flat bottom from Shane. the rest of the inside, then slopes down from the gunnels to the bottom, where it meets the channel cut by Shane. where the sides and the channel meet there is a sharp corner, perfect for chopping.
from end on, the shape then looks something like this:
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after chopping out the corner, the cross section looks something like:
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as the channel gets wider and wider, the angle of the corner decreases, making it more difficult to chop it out with Shane. at this point, Beowulf becomes the most effective tool again. we can chop straight down the side of the hull, going with the grain and the wood just shears off. we can then come through with Mer Mer or Shane and chop out all the loosened wood and flatten out the sides, bringing them in line with the bottom. the cross section after this step looks like this:
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we then just repeat this process several times to get the whole hull looking like this:
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wow that was a long post. we've been doing a lot of work and haven't been able to keep up with posting for a while. like i said, photos are coming, the internet is just acting up. hopefully, by the end of the weekend we'll be completely done with the inside and ready to move onto to the outside. mr. robinson has again graciously offered the use of his chainsaw should we need it, so stay tuned for that. the trouble with the outside is that there's a lot of wood to be taken off, but there's no easy way to stay consistent without a saw, but that's a discussion for another post.
take it easy.
"If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed."
-Christopher Johnson McCandless
well the attempt at making a cross section view more than failed. more like the engines on a plane at 30,000 feet blew up and the whole thing fell to the ground in a burning heap of metal. that's the kind of failure the cross sections went through. anyway, it just reinforces the fact that we need pictures up, and we can't do it because every time i do my internet basically shuts down.
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