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These were listed in an online auction as "woodworking weights." I got 11 in the lot. I can't wait to actually get them in hand. I may paint them with awl grip, as I don't want to handle lead too much. Anyone familiar with these? They are spline weights or lofting ducks/whales used to hold a wood spline to a fair curve for lofting plans. I have wanted a set for a loooong time.
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New Duck! (..."New Whale!" just doesn't have the same ring, or sense of history). Clearly a major score:cool:.Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm Schweizer
Your excitement is not only clearly on display, but has evoked a strange sense of jealousy. Strange, because I have no idea what these treasures are, and so don't know why I'm jealous:confused:. When you have these in hand, please enlighten the landlubbers with a pic of them in use.
I do duck! I really duck. I paid for 11 what they sell for two or three. Here is a borrowed image- not mine, but posted on a public forum-
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In in this image he is using them to draw a plan, but the same would be used to loft a plan full size and I draw it onto thin plywood and cut a template to make my building forms. You plot the points from a chart given by the designer called a "table of offsets" and then you connect the dots to get the plans lofted to full size. A batten naturally falls to a fair curve between the points. The weights hold the batten in place and the points dig in to the batten a bit. Some have a chisel point, and some have the point filed to a very fine needle point. They are quite expensive, and hard to come by, as this is another dying art. Bronze ones sell for $45 each. Lead ones most folks these days make themselves. I don't even know who sells lead ones anymore.
I'm envious and definitely know what they are. I have a complete set of the splines although the only "duck" i have presently is a wood male for making the molds. Super catch. My friend still has his set and gave them a good coat of enamel and glued thin felt to the bottoms so they slide a bit easier. I bought the splines at a nearby Drafting supply. about (12) years ago.
Mac
I am likely going to glue felt as well. I may find time for a project to make a few more of these. I would like to have 20 of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac McQuinn
What a score ... congratulations! Since I am green with envy the only thing coming to mind are names the forum won't allow me to call you. The only consolation is that you probably had to pay more to ship them to your exotic locale that you had to pay for them.
Sticks and stones... :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Adamsen
We have the same USPS as the states. $51 for packaging and shipping. (They use a third party mail service to pack and ship.) Not bad for 50 pounds of lead.
Be careful! I had a set of 8 ducks, but they were "liberated" by a "visitor" to my shop about 15 years ago. Haven't seen any on offer since. Been making do with ice picks since, although they are much harder to use when fairing a curve. Of course, with only 8, I often had to use ice picks to supplement them anyway, so I didn't have to learn from scratch. I originally learned to use ice picks in a sail loft, where they seem to have been the norm, back when sails were cut on a cutting floor instead of a computerized laser table or tape laying apparatus.
Thanks for that info. I never used ice picks, but it makes sense. Speaking of sail lofting, we recently lost one of the greats- Manfred Dietritch has been hand lofting and hand sewing sails for many, many years, and with him died a lot of knowledge and talent. He literally fell over dead at the dinghy dock one day- suspected heart attack. He had a lifetime agreement with the National Park to stay on Hassel Island where he ran a sail loft. After his death, the National Park kicked his sons off the island with much hullabaloo, but they finally gave in. The agreement to stay in park land was only made to Manfred and was only for the duration of his life. I'm not sure how he managed to get such a deal to begin with.Quote:
Originally Posted by James Waldron
I've used ducks that where coated with Plasti-dip. They would probably need a little extra attention to get the bottom flat as you dont want them rocking at all when holding a batten.