Acorn to Arabella - Journey of a Wooden Boat - Episode 97: Finishing the Grown Oak Knees

Gathering the grown knees has ended up being quite the adventure. But in this episode, Steve tackles the biggest stump of them all. This one yielded quite a few good specimens that will be perfect in Arabella.

Once all the knees were freed and once side was planed flat we needed to thickness them all and bring them to a fairly uniform size before oiling them and putting them away to season and dry until they are ready to be installed. Lucky for us Kathy and Paul, who also donated the Bridgeport and metal lathe to us, loaned us an alaskan chainsaw mill to get the job done. It was the perfect tool for this application and buzzed through all of the knees in short order. One task that went easier than expected! Not something that happens very often here.

With this done, the plan was to get back to hanging planks so that we can get the last two oak planks on Arabella before leaving for Costa Rica next month. However, we were recently visited by the new building inspector in town who has voiced concerns about our plastic covering of the boathouse. In short, it sounds like we need to figure out a different more fire retardant option for the roof and we are going to replace the trusses with bow shed trusses to aid in shedding the winter snow as well as be able to handle the weight of the heavier membrane which will make up the new roof. With this massive undertaking, we are concerned about starting on a plank before we get the O.K. to do the roof so that we are not pausing the process mid hanging and chance the plank warping on us. So, the next few weeks will have to be played by ear…

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Acorn to Arabella is a boat building project taking place in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve and Alix started as amateur boat builders building their own 38′ wooden boat in their backyard: designer William Atkin’s Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel’s gaff rig. These videos follow the journey from tree felling, to lumber milling, to lofting, to the lead keel pour and beyond—sharing details of the woodworking, carpentry, metal smithing, tool building, and tool maintenance that wooden boats command. This ultimate DIY project will continue well past launch, when they will travel and learn to cruise aboard the boat that they’ve built. Just kidding about all that, this channel is about a Siberian Laika named Akiva.

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