Ancient Tools - The Stringline

[john zulu]

I use this method with ink to remove the bow in the board itself. Remove most of the waste with the bandsaw then flatten it with a hand plane.

[James Pallas]

Like these line blocks?

Exactly them Jay. They can be handy when working with long pieces.
Jim

[Mike Holbrook]

Here are the Tajima's I ordered on Amazon, next to a classic LV HB pencil as a size reference:

IMG_1642.jpg

At under $3.00, in the link Jay provides, I may just buy the spacer blocks from Lowe's as well. The Plumb-Rite, plumb bob, is heavy and they offer quite a selection of other sizes as well. The Plumb-Rite string holder has a magnet, a place to hook it on a nail..., and a super heavy duty very sharp pin. The "handle" on the top is for driving the pin in and removing it. The little dial, yellow dashes, sets the tensioning device for different Plumb Bob weights. The Chalk-Rite, stringline, came with a 1mm braided line, other sizes are available.

[James Pallas]

Here are the Tajima's I ordered on Amazon, next to a classic LV HB pencil as a size reference:

IMG_1642.jpg

At under $3.00, in the link Jay provides, I may just buy the spacer blocks from Lowe's as well. The Plumb-Rite, plumb bob, is heavy and they offer quite a selection of other sizes as well. The Plumb-Rite string holder has a magnet, a place to hook it on a nail..., and a super heavy duty very sharp pin. The "handle" on the top is for driving the pin in and removing it. The little dial, yellow dashes, sets the tensioning device for different Plumb Bob weights. The Chalk-Rite, stringline, came with a 1mm braided line, other sizes are available.

It looks like it may be a very handy set. I would be very tempted and still may be. I have so much of that stuff around it a little difficult to justify.
Jim

[Frederick Skelly]

Would it be possible to purchase a, say a new "Dewalt" chalk line and replace the string with the Spectra line to build a higher quality system?

Seems like it would be worth a try Bob.
Fred

[Mike Holbrook]

All I had was an old broken chalk box and I like working with rough lumber and logs. I have boards for a bench that got wet and need to be reprocessed and I have semi "green" red oak from a tree on our property so I should get to use them soon.

[Stanley Covington]

James Waldron kindly directed us to a series of videos by a shipwright named Louis Sauzedde. I have been voraciously eating these videos.

One video shows a technique for marking the waterline on a boat's hull (a curved surface) using battens, essentially winding sticks in this case, and a stringline. This technique is fascinating because it uses a straight line to mark a plane on a curved surface. This job is done in the construction industry using transits, and nowadays laser levels, but now I know how they did it before optical tools were available. I think you will be impressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEoi...r0N7ICHnt0Rt1n

Just for the record in case the video goes down, the job is accomplished by placing the boat in shallow dead-calm water with one man sitting inside as if he is rowing. Another man marks the hull at the waterline at a few key locations with a pencil.

They take the boat back to the shop, set it on horses, and clamp a batten (a long board that is called a "batter board" in the construction industry) across the transom (tail end). Another batten is place at the boat's bow supported on horses, at the same elevation as the pencil mark on the cutwater, and parallel to and co-planar with the batten at the transom, like winding sticks. Two men take each end of a stringline, and stretch it over the top of the 2 battens, with the stringline just touching the hull. They then shift the stringline's position on each batten walking the stringline's point of contact around the hull, while a third man marks the stringline's contact points. Connect these marks and they have the intersection of a plane on the curved hull's exterior surface. Very clever!

Thanks James!

[James Pallas]

James Waldron kindly directed us to a series of videos by a shipwright named Louis Sauzedde. I have been voraciously eating these videos.

One video shows a technique for marking the waterline on a boat's hull (a curved surface) using battens, essentially winding sticks in this case, and a stringline. This technique is fascinating because it uses a straight line to mark a plane on a curved surface. This job is done in the construction industry using transits, and nowadays laser levels, but now I know how they did it before optical tools were available. I think you will be impressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEoi...r0N7ICHnt0Rt1n

Just for the record in case the video goes down, the job is accomplished by placing the boat in shallow dead-calm water with one man sitting inside as if he is rowing. Another man marks the hull at the waterline at a few key locations with a pencil.

They take the boat back to the shop, set it on horses, and clamp a batten (a long board that is called a "batter board" in the construction industry) across the transom (tail end). Another batten is place at the boat's bow supported on horses, at the same elevation as the pencil mark on the cutwater, and parallel to and co-planar with the batten at the transom, like winding sticks. Two men take each end of a stringline, and stretch it over the top of the 2 battens, with the stringline just touching the hull. They then shift the stringline's position on each batten walking the stringline's point of contact around the hull, while a third man marks the stringline's contact points. Connect these marks and they have the intersection of a plane on the curved hull's exterior surface. Very clever!

Thanks James!

Louis Sauzedde was also involved in the restoration of the Coronett an 1885 sailing yacht. It's quite a woodworking project. You should check out the Coronett 1885 site. A bottom up restore of a more than 100 ft. Vessel.
Jim

[James Waldron]

James Waldron kindly directed us to a series of videos by a shipwright named Louis Sauzedde. I have been voraciously eating these videos.

One video shows a technique for marking the waterline on a boat's hull (a curved surface) using battens, essentially winding sticks in this case, and a stringline. This technique is fascinating because it uses a straight line to mark a plane on a curved surface. This job is done in the construction industry using transits, and nowadays laser levels, but now I know how they did it before optical tools were available. I think you will be impressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEoi...r0N7ICHnt0Rt1n

Just for the record in case the video goes down, the job is accomplished by placing the boat in shallow dead-calm water with one man sitting inside as if he is rowing. Another man marks the hull at the waterline at a few key locations with a pencil.

They take the boat back to the shop, set it on horses, and clamp a batten (a long board that is called a "batter board" in the construction industry) across the transom (tail end). Another batten is place at the boat's bow supported on horses, at the same elevation as the pencil mark on the cutwater, and parallel to and co-planar with the batten at the transom, like winding sticks. Two men take each end of a stringline, and stretch it over the top of the 2 battens, with the stringline just touching the hull. They then shift the stringline's position on each batten walking the stringline's point of contact around the hull, while a third man marks the stringline's contact points. Connect these marks and they have the intersection of a plane on the curved hull's exterior surface. Very clever!

Thanks James!

The stripe at the waterline is named the "boot top."

To extend the foregoing technique, it is used to define the bottom of the boot top, but not the top boundary. Both because of the changing shape of the hull, a boot top of constant width looks horrible, as in view, the shape will virtually disappear as the stripe goes toward the stern, where the shape often becomes nearly horizontal. Nor is it workable to make the boot top at a constant height above the waterline; it will still look humped in the midships and too narrow at the bow and stern.

To overcome these, first the bottom of the stripe is generally placed a bit above the flotation waterline. A bit is relative to the size of the boat, and may be one inch for a small boat to three or four inches for a large one. One does not want the boot top to be in contact with the water, as the paints used for these stripes has no antifouling properties and marine growth on the boot top is not attractive. Second, the top of the stripe is most often defined by sight by (most often) the boat painter. Lining out the stripe is done with painter's tape directly on the hull, sighted by the painter, adjusted (sometimes over and over again) until a pleasing stripe is found as sighted from the bow and the stern and from amidships.

The quality of execution varies from one boatyard to the next. On such things, reputations are made (good or bad). And then there are boat owners (and spouses) who interfere with the project in one way or another.

[Stanley Covington]

The stripe at the waterline is named the "boot top."

To extend the foregoing technique, it is used to define the bottom of the boot top, but not the top boundary. Both because of the changing shape of the hull, a boot top of constant width looks horrible, as in view, the shape will virtually disappear as the stripe goes toward the stern, where the shape often becomes nearly horizontal. Nor is it workable to make the boot top at a constant height above the waterline; it will still look humped in the midships and too narrow at the bow and stern.

To overcome these, first the bottom of the stripe is generally placed a bit above the flotation waterline. A bit is relative to the size of the boat, and may be one inch for a small boat to three or four inches for a large one. One does not want the boot top to be in contact with the water, as the paints used for these stripes has no antifouling properties and marine growth on the boot top is not attractive. Second, the top of the stripe is most often defined by sight by (most often) the boat painter. Lining out the stripe is done with painter's tape directly on the hull, sighted by the painter, adjusted (sometimes over and over again) until a pleasing stripe is found as sighted from the bow and the stern and from amidships.

The quality of execution varies from one boatyard to the next. On such things, reputations are made (good or bad). And then there are boat owners (and spouses) who interfere with the project in one way or another.

Nature (and the human eye) abhors a straight line?

[Mel Fulks]

It is guessed that the curved (entasis) lines of columns was to make them look straight. And modern perfectly straight sided columns are often perceived as being slightly hollow at mid point.

[James Waldron]

A writer for PopWood, Graham Hayden, did a bit on using a string line to guide making co-planar bearers for a work bench top. https://www.popularwoodworking.com/w.../string-theory It works like the door installation discussed above, but making everything co-planar in a horizontal plane.

[Mike Holbrook]

Nice tip James. I will be trying those methods out soon.

I bought a second Tajima stringline, both are 100 feet long. The first one was a CR301JF ($16), which comes with a 1mm line. I will use it without chalk. The second one, CR202B ($26) comes with a .5mm string. I will actually put chalk in the second one so I can mark thin, hopefully accurate chalk lines. The CR202B is more compact but a little heavier. It is probably sturdier with an aluminum case. It will be interesting to see the advantages of various strings.

[steven c newman]

Here is another little tip:

Snapping a LONG line. Too often, snapping long lines throws the line out of true, turns it into a curved line. Trick is the raise the entire line, and let it "snap" straight down....doesn't work all that great, unless you do this sort of thing daily. However, by having another go out to about the middle of the line, carefullyplace a finger to hold the line in place, and then snapping the line on each side of the NOW blue finger, line stays straight. OR, if the helper is a third, have the two on the ends snap the lines, will the third holds the middle down.

But, then I was marking wall lines 25-50feet long. This can work on long sheets of plywood. IF you can reach the line at the center of the line, then you can snap half at a time.

[Mike Holbrook]

Another good one Steven, should work on logs, except for the bark. Maybe I use the large drawknife to level a place for the string to "snap" to. If not I might have to go back to your tip on snapping sections to get past curved and rougher surfaces.