Scarf Musings

First up, I want to apologise for the lack of posts here. I know how annoying it can be when you have an occasional look at a blog and there's been no action for a while. Poor old thing is sitting out there under the tarps again. The build has been on the back burner since February, due to overwhelming work/family/study commitments, but I hope to resume work on her shortly.

In my defense, I did spend quite a bit of time having a go at scarfing the teak for the gunwales, but my experiments haven't gone well. My excitement in finally being up to working with wood again has been thwarted by inexperience. Cutting scarf angles to an 8:1 ratio and just epoxying them together sounds so simple, yet it turns out that it is also so incredibly easy to get wrong. I've only got just enough Teak for the gunwales, so after reading up on the process in various books, I started experimenting on scrap bits of timber.

I tried cutting the bevels with a saw, chisels, planes, etc., but I kept stuffing it up. I spent ages messing around with my table/drop saw, but the fences can only be adjusted to 45 degrees (my bevels require way more). I tried just sanding them on my disc/belt sanding station but I couldn't get it very accurate (mind you, I was using old hardwood fence palings). Finally I decided to set up a jig (like a miter box) using more scrap timber. This had the parallel advantage of also being able to experiment with using my epoxy mixed as a glue. It looked like it could have worked, except that some idiot made the jig too short.... (I'm not naming names). The jig did prove useful during my tantrum-like destruction testing. The epoxy glue joints appear to be bullet-proof. The wood fibers came away instead of the glue letting go, so I'm quite happy that it should hold up OK in the boat (e.g. the stringers supporting the seats).



At that point, I retreated and adopted the tactic of avoidance. This hasn't seemed to have helped though, so my current plan is to seek the help of someone with a bit of competence. I reckon I might even just pay someone to cut the scarfs for me. It's imperative that these bits are done right, since they're going to be structural items and they really MUST be left varnished.

Anyway, if you come back for another look in a few weeks, hopefully you will see a bit more progress.