The cooler weather means all those little projects that have been relegated to the "do-later" list finally get their chance in the queue. This is the last pair of oars that needed leathers and Turk's Head buttons -
Black Turk's Heads on black leathers doesn't photograph well, but they are done and the dog wasn't disturbed from her Winter nap in front of the wood stove.

As promised, here is the rest of the story about the deadeye assemblies.

Building the standing rigging for a small boat presents many opportunities to imitate the traditional rigging of the days of old and hone your needle and palm skills. Two pairs of gorgeous deadeyes, a length of synthetic manila rope, 1/16" tarred marline, electrician's friction tape, sharp scissors and a lighter or candle are the supplies necessary for this project.

Here is an informative picture of the square-rigger method of turning in the shroud -
In the example above the shroud is wormed, parceled and served with one large round seizing and two flat seizings securing the deadeye to the shroud.

After mocking up several options for the upper deadeye, an arrangement whereby one rope would secure both thimble and deadeye was devised and we set to work. The rope ends were seized with 1/16" tarred marline and singed to prevent fraying -
The rope used in this example is 8mm Leoflex-X from American Rope and Tar** which appears to wear very well and has the proper Bristol Color and Flavor. It has no stretch - a vital requirement for standing rigging.

The rope was then wrapped and seized around the thimble and deadeye to double check for size and hold the assembly together for further work -
All three strands were then tightly wrapped and additional seizing added at each end -
Here's a close-up of thimble and deadeye at this point -
The next step is to wind the triple rope very tightly with electrician's friction tape. Not exactly traditional, but it works very well as parceling, in place of the tarred canvas used in the square-rigger days. Hervey Garrett Smith recommends it for small size manila and wire rope because it is waterproof and adhesive and makes a good tight foundation for the serving -
The whole shebang is then tightly served* with the 1/16" tarred marline, a job that is not quickly finished, but very pretty when done -
Having a cat pushing your legs apart with all her strength is optional but does allow the heat to be set lower, saving electricity, if not your own energy.
Kitty resistance workout in progress...
The finished pigtails, neatly wrapped and now quite stiff -
Crossing seizings were made at the thimble and deadeye by passing the marline through the through the eye, between the two parts of the rope to the back, and around the riding turns three or four times, hauled as taut as possible and finished off with a rolling hitch to minimize movement in those areas, keeping the whole assembly straight and stiff under pressure when mounted to the shrouds. The final assembly hanging for contemplation in the living room -
The lower deadeye will have a flat bronze strap to attach it to the chainplate, similar to this -
The traditional application looks like this -

Or like this if you prefer Real Life examples -

Worming proved to be unnecessary in this case, but would have created a nice, perfectly round pigtail - add it if you desire the practice. The traditional service of rope looks like this (from right to left) -
Worming between the strands (with the lay,) canvas parceling in an overlapping layer (also with the lay,) followed by a serving of marline (wound against the lay of the rope.) "Worm and parcel with the lay, turn and serve the other way," HGS reminds us.

* Do be careful when pulling on the marline - you can quickly wear a blister into your fingers that will take days to heal. A judicial application of band-aids or tape will prevent injury and make you feel smart for having thought of it. Several days later I'm still feeling pretty stupid for forgetting (once again) how quickly the marline can cut through skin.

** My apologies for that link - the site has the same URL no matter what page you're visiting, so you'll have to do a bit of clicking around to read more about the rope.

Doryman recently received a set of deadeyes for Saga's rigging and we spent a little time over tea today mocking up the rope work that will be needed to get this piece of traditional gear onto the boat. Custom made by Paul Miller from black locust wood, they are lovely to behold -
Of deadeyes and lanyards Hervey Garret Smith says, "deadeyes and lanyards are seen but seldom nowadays, having been supplanted by the more easily obtained turnbuckles. Deadeyes have long since disappeared from the marine hardware catalogs and are obtainable only on special order, if at all." Luckily we know someone!
The lines connecting the upper deadeye to the shroud will need to be wormed, parceled and served and an eye worked in where it connects to the wire shroud. The lower deadeye will be stropped to the chain plate with a metal band.

Details to follow.

Mistral is laid up "on the hard" at the boat yard for new paint and rudder re-design - the perfect time to make changes and repairs to the mainsail. Some of the sail slides don't run as smoothly on the sail track as they should, so they are being replaced -
First, gather the necessary tools:
Reference book, 1/2" webbing, seam ripper (or un-sewer to those Down Under,) rigging knife, waxed nylon thread and needles, sharp scissors (flowered peach handles optional,) sail palm (a roping palm would be handy, but not strictly necessary,) a lighter for melting thread and web ends, and a wood fid to heave the stitches tight.
The first step is to find out how much webbing you need to wrap three times through the sail grommet and sail slide. Be sure you don't snug the slide tight against the bolt rope of the sail - this particular sail needs about 1/4" clear to work the stitches and ensure that the sail is even across the boom. Cut however many pieces you need and melt the ends of the webbing to prevent fraying. A candle works better than a lighter if you have very many to do and you won't burn your fingers on a hot lighter that way.
Wind the webbing as above, being sure that the cut ends will overlap as you sew - you will be sewing through 7 layers of webbing. The first few stitches can be pushed through without the palm, but as you near the end, the palm is needed as the stitches take up the slack in the webbing.
The first stitch is taken to the right of center (assuming you're right handed - reverse if you're not) through all 7 layers.
Take a wrap around the outside and up through the same hole.
Pull the stitch as tight as you can, and take another through the same hole - there will now be two threads on the outer edge of the webbing on the right-hand side.
Repeat on the left side...
Then go twice through the right and left holes across the center as shown above.
End on the "back side" (subjective, really, unless you never tack at all) with a square knot. Cut the ends short and melt them for security. Done!

Doryman recently re-worked a couple of odd oars stacked in the Boat Yard to furnish Lamb Chop with her own dedicated set. One oar already had leather on it, and one did not. The existing leather was interesting and so it was decided to copy the design -
The Turk's Head is made of 3 strand cotton line about 1/8" in diameter and makes a handy stop to keep the oar from falling through the oar lock. Tying a Turk's Head is a valuable skill for every marlinspike sailor to have and the sooner you learn how to tie this easy knot, the more uses you will find for it.

First, the old leather had to come off -
Stiff as a board, and rather thinner than the replacement leather. Worst of all, removing the old leather revealed that the oar wood underneath had no oil or varnish on it and was in need of sanding and finishing before the project could truly get underway.

The first step is to lay out the old leather to use as a pattern guide -
The first cut should be a little larger than you think you need - it can be trimmed off later, but if it's too small you've wasted valuable leather unless you have a smaller oar that needs a face lift.

Test the fit of the leather on the oar. I like to leave about 1/4" of space with this particular leather, as it will stretch and end up Just Right -
The holes are marked 1/4" in from the edge and 1/4" apart. Be sure you have the same number of holes on each side and that you start the marks from the same end so there will be minimum cutting to even things up at the end...

The stitch is the same as the majority of the oars shown on this blog, but the crosses are underneath the leather, leaving a neat row of dashes visible on top -
Note the pattern of skipped holes - it will make sense once you get started. Be sure to pull up each pair of stitches as you go - it's difficult to tighten up more than two stitches at a time with this stitch pattern.
Double knot and melt the ends of the waxed nylon thread and work the Turk's Head. I used The Marlinspike Sailor for reference, but you may choose any one of hundreds of online tutorials. I recommend that you tie one for practice first, as size doesn't matter so much - it will make a great bracelet for someone. This pair of Turk's Heads were tied with tarred seine twine about 1/8" in diameter and are made up of 5 strands -
When you tie your Turk's Head, work it up in your hand, not around the oar or you'll soon have a tangled mess of line. Make it only a little larger than the oar or you will spend a very long time tightening up the strands to make it fit snugly.

A copper or bronze tack won't detract from the salty look and is very practical for keeping the knot in place until time, salt water and weather meld it into the leather, making it almost impossible to remove -
Here's Lamb Chop with her new oars, looking quite spiffy in the sunshine -
I tied a smaller, two strand Turk's Head on the tiller to keep it from slipping through the rudder head -
Not as pretty as the five strand - I should replace it with a better (and matching) knot before much longer.

The scent of ennui has been lingering in the air here at With Needle and Palm, but necessity has at last overcome the desire for a nap. A bag for my waders and water shoes was on the agenda for today -
The Stash* yielded a light-weight cordura for the body of the bag, and a leno mesh for the bottom to allow water to drain out -
Construction is very much like the Round-Bottom Sail Bag from an earlier post, with a couple of modifications. First, the bottom is reinforced with a binding of nylon web (the mesh ravels at an alarming rate if not tamed in this way,) of which The Stash gave up just enough -
A "D" ring from some long forgotten project (for attaching to another bag, making porting to and fro a bit more comfortable) and a couple of hand worked eyelets (The Stash refused to give up something of a more mechanical nature) to enclose the 1/4" rope drawstring and it's flashy enough to pass muster -
The porch was sunny and warm on this rare Spring April day (Spring can be a precious four hours on a June day and nothing more) so Crazy Helper Dog fixed an adult beverage and we sat in the sun sticking the eyelets while watching the street for unauthorized canine traffic -
A palm isn't necessary to push the sail needle through three layers of this thin cordura (the bag body plus two reinforcing layers,) but it lends the proper mood to the proceedings -
Oh, sure, this manky old thing would have done the job -
But that wouldn't be Bristol, would it?

* The Stash is high and wide (not to mention deep) and, quite frankly, out of control. If you are in need of bags for your Stuff, drop me a note at catmccall at gmail dot com - one of the hats I wear is that of Sewist for Hire :-)