Shaping Inner Stems with a Block Plane - microBootlegger Sport - E7

[Music]
hi welcome to Episode seven this was
going to be part of episode six but I've
got about half an hour of making inter
stems so I figured I break that into a
standalone episode so here it is the
last thing we want to do to make the
strong back ready to accept strips is
make an inner stem at the bow of the
boat here you've got to end it someplace
and so if I lay a strip on this I've
designed the this line right here to be
exactly where this strip will way when
it's laying fair and smooth on the side
of the boat at a 1/2 inch thick so the
gap between this side and this side is
the precise half-inch right there but
that leaves this space if I lay a strip
on each side there's a space between
them I don't necessarily want that space
I could conceivably have this stem taper
down to a point so I bevel that and then
I have something to lay those strips
against as I'm laying them on the boat
and you know I could shoot a staple in
there or whatever as I'm building the
boat and so having sort of a landing
spot for the strip is useful again if we
were looking at the bow of the boat we
have this this gap here it's really hard
to clean out any glue in there and get
fiberglass up in there it's just a hard
place to deal with we're not going to be
all sand it we're not going to be able
to get fiberglass smoothly down in there
so I'd actually like to fill that in
before I have to clean it out and so the
way I go about doing that is with an
inner stem and so what the inner stem is
is a piece of wood this shaped to fit
that gap and so here I have a pattern
this fits right on to the end of the
stem precise match between this curve
and that curve and so this is a pattern
for my inner stem and if you look at
this this this leading edge here is
where
to a perfect point so again my two
strips coming to together here we'll
reach out and they'll they end up
somewhere out here that's this point
right here so if I cut this into a
triangle section I'll have something
that fills that gap up I want something
that's going to be reasonably strong
lightweight easy to work with and shape
that to make this sort of gap filling
piece in there and when it comes time to
fibreglass that we will have a half inch
wide seen there we can maybe put a fill
it in there we can actually reach into
something that's a half inch wide so the
inner stem is filling in that gap
creating a landing spot for the strips
coming down on either side
[Music]
so now I have a nice half-inch thick
piece of Sitka spruce close enough
nice straight grain on it a little bit
of a knot right in here but for our
purposes doesn't need to be perfect what
I want to do is get a nice stem out of
here
so using the wood efficiently I'm gonna
do something like that the grain is
running this way and so that's parallel
to the longest axis of this piece so I'm
going to end up cutting like this cut it
around here and so I'm just going to cut
the outer edge first and we'll find
something similar for the inner stem so
I'm just again gonna cut out around this
line here and that line there gonna
leave it attached at this point so I
have something to hold on to it there's
two keys to accurate cuts when you're
cutting out a pattern sharp blade and
easy to follow line first cut I'll make
is just to get the pieces free of a
bigger board
[Music]
again rule one of doing a nice job
shaping wood there's a sharp blade this
Lee Nielsen plane has seen a little
action but it's not in too bad shape
we'll give it a quick touch-up
so I'm just bringing it down until I
feel a little burr on the backside
switch to a finer stone
seems pretty sharp I want to make that
triangle shape so I'm looking to hit the
center of this and so I'm going to come
down from this bevel line that's this
line here down to the half halfway line
and on the other side just use the other
side of this pattern line it up with the
edge and like that
where this I have it rounded over
imagine this just continuing out that
way
likewise up here this continues out
something like that tapers off to
nothing I want to take it down and we're
trying to make a half-inch wide V like
that so in order to see where I'm going
where I've been just going to do this
and now as I plane away those lines
disappear and I want to end up hitting
this edge here at the same time I hit
this line there it's going to take a
little bit of estimating what that angle
is and then watch my progress as I go
and I'm about halfway back here so I
want to be about halfway down here back
off that blade is coming a little
aggressive I start by just making
straight cuts I'm not trying to follow
that curve right away what people tend
to do when they're doing this is they
say I'm aiming for that line and I'm
aiming for that line so they'll cheat in
on it so when they're trying on this
side they'll bevel this way when they're
on this side they'll bevel this way and
so they'll push themselves
back and what instead of ending up with
the straight plane down here you end up
with a crown and we want straight
remember we're going to be laying a
strip against that and so we'd like a
perfect fit of the strip against that
face so any crowning just makes it so we
won't have a nice tight glue joint there
we can clamp this piece down make it
easier to hold so I'm almost down to
this line and I'm almost up to this line
so it looks like I'm on a good angle and
I've just made it fairly straight going
from one end to the other looks like I
need a little bit more work at this end
here so a little bit more at this end a
little less at that end so we'll
concentrate down here you can see that
here too it's a little bit narrower here
than it is there
so I'm to this line just about and
similarly just about to that line so now
I'll start to work on my curve so I
wanted to sort of do the same thing in a
straight shot here I'm not trying to
wrap the plane around that curve yet I'm
just trying to make some flat fashions
bringing it from this point down to that
point so now I have that section I can
get rid of this little hump right in
there here obviously it's much steeper
be almost to the 45 so we've got that
section good now we'll blend this into
that
hitting the line down there and got that
blended in so up here
another key to getting good work is hold
the material in a position where it's
comfortable for you to work on it if I'm
having to do this that's uncomfortable
I'm not going to do good work it's hard
for me to hold it here and get this
section and so and this wasn't I wasn't
getting a good grip on it I could wreak
lamp it down you can easier to hold and
not work on that little section there
there's no law saying you need to push
the plane all the time you can pull it
here when I'm pushing it I'm getting
tear out with the grain get a smoother
touch it doesn't really matter you're
all gonna be buried in the boat but you
know practice is good so now I've got
one side down I want to do the other
side again this is going to taper off
like that
this is going to taper off like that
make my little guidelines here is he
wearing that little witness lines
the state people often make with a block
plane is they don't feel it's cutting so
they end up cranking the blade forward
eventually they get to the point where
there's not enough room for the shaving
to get out this will go through for a
while healthy but then it starts to get
jammed up in there and if the more it
gets jammed up the harder it is to push
the next shaving through so it cannot it
can be very fine distinction between
where Shaving goes through and where one
gets jammed up you really want to set it
pretty fine so it's not taking too deep
a cut
as I'm pushing this I got a really work
at it to push it along if I crank the
blade back
all of a sudden it's much easier usually
what's happening when people are
cranking that blade forward is their
planes just dull and they don't think
it's cutting because they think it's not
cutting because the blades not far
enough out when it really is just dull
and so if you're finding you need to
crank it out to make it cut chances are
you just need to stop and sharpen a
little bit makes a big difference
so I've cranked it back and now it's not
cutting at all so I'll go a quarter turn
starting to get shaving so go another
quarter turn that's really nice nice
fine shaving this is easy too alright
now we'll work on these top and bottom
bevels a little bit first straighten
that out
getting a bevel on the top edge there
I still show the pencil line there so I
can make that a little bit narrower at
the point where it's almost gone on the
bottom edge I placed this piece so it's
well supported under the area I'm
working by the bench if it hangs out the
end and you go to push on it it'll fold
away and tend to flutter and chatter a
little bit
that's pretty good
sharp edge on it you could use a little
bit more that's good at that side up
there here we go I've left the line a
little bit but some places it's obscured
I can just take my pattern re-establish
that line I'll bring that back to the
bandsaw in Qatar now we'll do the same
operation with the stern inner stem make
sure you've got a good bright line to
follow there
I'm lying on both sides without a
centerline they're high precision we're
going from a line here to line down
there yeah they're witness lines back in
there and again it's easy to want to
cheat this down you're getting bored and
you want to get right down to the line
so you bevel it down here to get to the
center line and bevel it down this way
to get back to this bevel line there and
end up with it crowned
we don't want it crowned we want it
perfectly flat so I'm closer up here
than I am down here so I'm going to
angle my plane slightly more this way
and work it down until I get a flat
surface all the way across
all right so I've established the
primary bevel get a little bit up at
this end little flatter and then like on
the bow we're going to stab run that
forward from that curved line just to
make sure we've got our bevel there so
we've established a bevel there now we
can start to blend it together
let's look at one side done up it over
to the other side
[Laughter]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
just cleaning up this inner edge a
little bit this will be the only part
that would conceivably be visible from
the boat obviously way up in the ends of
the boat now back at the bow of the boat
this is where the inner stem is going to
fit this piece gets fit right in there
some of you may know enough about the
process to be thinking ahead and
wondering the hull and the deck are both
going to be attached to this so I'm
going to end up stripping the hull first
the lower half and then start on
stripping the deck but I'll cut this off
before I have to take the deck off up at
the top here we have this bevel that was
thrown in there and when I was doing
that shaping of the inner stem I
continued those lines out here and I
have centerline here I want to do that
to this two on both sides so the strips
when they come in can lay down and hit
off hit this inner stem and as you see
the the shape of the boat starts to
round over very quickly after it gets
back from the bow and so my bevel here
rolls quite quickly from almost a 45 to
almost flat conceivably I could have
continued this inner stem way back here
but I'd end up with the very delicate
little piece here with cross grain would
break off very easily so
this way I end it before it gets too
thin and delicate just shape to the form
a little bit so it's not in the way so
now the strips will lay down on that and
I'll go do the same thing on the stern
well that was a lot of time spent into
little bits of wood thanks for sticking
with me if you made it this far you
should give me an automatic thumbs up
for wasting 30 minutes of your life
please ask questions if anything was
unclear with the inner stems done the
forms are just about ready to accept
strips
well the strips are all cut I'm not
quite yet ready to use them I first need
to figure out my stripping pattern
exactly how I want to layout the
material on the kayak so the next
episode will involve me staring at wood
is I try to figure out what would look
good if that sounds exciting too you
should subscribe to my channel those
more like this coming until then thanks
for watching and happy paddling
you