Chapter 1

Tools

Unlike most hobbies, ship model making requires few expensive tools. Almost every household, no matter how small, harbors the beginnings of a fine model maker's tool kit. The rest can be made, improvised, and bought as the work progresses.

Most important of all tools to the maker of ship models is his knife. It may be anything from an inexpensive pocketknife to a high-grade wood carver's tool. Price and handle style are unimportant as long as its blade is keen and has the quality of taking and holding an edge.

Many experts rely on various types of "sloyd”or bench knives. Others use nothing more than an ordinary jackknife, while still others feel that inexpensive kitchen paring knives, ground and sharpened to convenient shapes, are best suited to the work.

For the special carving and whittling jobs that often are required on models, as well as for the general shaping and roughing, the amateur can fashion his own specially shaped knives from sections of discarded hack saw blades. Ground to shape, hardened and tempered, honed to a fine edge, and mounted in suitable handles, they form one of the most useful assortments of tools that the model maker can own.

To make a knife similar to the one shown in Fig. i, simply grind off the teeth, and shape the end. Then, as a preliminary to the tempering process, grind one side bright or polish it with emery cloth.



While you are polishing the blade, place a flat iron bar in your furnace or forge and heat it until it becomes red hot. Pick up your knife blade with a pair of tongs or pliers at the handle end or tang and proceed to rub the blade over the hot iron until the polished surface turns a light brown. Then quickly plunge it vertically into a pail or pitcher of water. Finally, give the blade its final grinding and sharpening.

When grinding thin tools be careful not to draw the temper. If you use an emery wheel, be sure to keep the work cool by dipping it in water frequently.

If, during the process of shaping your knife, you will file a series of V-notches in the point opposite the cutting edge, you can furnish yourself with an excellent tool for marking imitation planking lines on the decks of your ship models. Grind the upper edge of your knife to a rounded point, file in ten or twelve teeth at the highest point of the curve, and then, using a fine flat file, dull the points of the teeth slightly.

To use the tool, planking lines are drawn on the wood with a pencil and the tool moved back and forth over the lines with a light pressure. To make sure that straight lines will be true and uniform, you can guide the tool with a ruler.



Tiny gouges of various shapes and sizes also can be made from discarded hack saw blades. The blade is first softened by heating it to a dull red and laying it on a brick. After it has been allowed to cool, the teeth are removed with a file. The gouge shape then is obtained by setting a vise to the proper width and driving the blade into the opening by pounding a long, rounded wooden tool against it with a mallet. Another and perhaps more accurate method is to use a swage block cut to fit the desired curve of the gouge as shown in Fig. 2.

To stiffen the otherwise springy blade, the curved channel must run the full length of the tool. The edge of the gouge, which has an inside as well as an outside bevel, should be shaped and partly sharpened before it is hardened.

In hardening the tool, heat the blade to a dull red for about 1 in. of its length and, holding it vertically, plunge it into cold water. To temper it, brighten about 1 in. at the point and hold it over a flame in such a way that the tool is heated at its middle. Watch the polished portion of the blade and, as soon as a light brown or straw color appears, plunge it into water.

When making a flat chisel from a hack saw blade, the end of the blade is, of course, left flat while the stem is made trough-shaped for strength. Like the gouge, the cutting edge is formed by two bevels, one on each side of the blade.

Even tweezers, the model maker's extra hand, can be made from sections of hack saw blades. The tweezers shown in Fig. 3 consist of two 10-in. blades joined together at one end by a rivet passed through the holes already in the ends of the blades.

Place the riveted pieces in a vise, cut off the free ends just above the second set of holes, and file the two sections to slender, tapering points. The two legs can be bent to the shape you desire with flat-nosed pliers. As a finishing touch, smooth up the edges with emery cloth. In making tweezers and, in fact, any tool that will not be used for actual cutting, the hack saw blades need not be hardened and tempered, merely softened for the process of shaping, filing, and bending.

Excellent miniature knives for delicate cutting also can be made by grinding and shaping old stiff-back razor blades. The blades can be formed at one end and the remaining portion of the rigid metal back used as a convenient handle (Fig. 4). A set of small knives of this type, ground to various shapes, is particularly valuable in preparing spars and other small parts.

Another group of tools important to the model maker is his saws. As in every branch of woodworking, a certain amount of cutting must be done. If the work is to be carried through right from the rough lumber, a large panel saw will, of course, be a necessity. In cutting the lifts for the hull and in shaping small parts, a coping saw will be a valuable investment; and a back saw or a dovetail saw will come in handy for the many small cuts that are required in model making.
In his assortment of saws, the model maker again can make good use of discarded hack saw blades. Mounted in a grooved strip of wood or inserted in a slot cut in a length of brass tubing as shown in Fig. 5, they form excellent wood saws for making shallow cuts. A suitable handle for your improvised saws can be made by binding one end of the wood strip or tubing with many layers of friction tape.

Aside from his saws and knives, one of the handiest tools a model maker can add to his tool kit is a round bottom plane. Its slightly curved bottom surface makes it easy to shape the intricate curves and twists in even the most complicated hull. Although hulls can be smoothed entirely with files, chisels, and gouges, a round-bottom plane does the work faster and with less chance of a costly slip that may ruin many hours of careful work.

In the trade such a plane often is referred to as a pattern maker's plane. Similar tools also are used in shaping the delicate curves on musical instruments. While such planes can be bought, they are expensive and, because of the little call for them, sometimes hard to get. Besides, the ingenious amateur craftsman can improvise a tool that will serve the same purpose by revamping the general shape and design of an ordinary iron block plane costing about fifty cents. The plane that is best suited is known commercially as the No. 100 pattern.

As purchased, the plane has a flat sole or bottom. To transform it into a round-bottom plane, this surface must be ground or filed to a slight curve and the greater portion of the toe must be removed with a hack saw (Fig. 6). Only enough material should be left ahead of the cutter slot to guide the blade and prevent it from digging into the wood.

If you intend to file the bottom, clamp the plane firmly in a vise and, with a sharp-pointed scriber, scratch a line along both sides of the metal base about 3/8 to 1/2. in. above the bottom edge and parallel to it. Then, using a medium mill file, file along one edge, shaping a gradually rounding surface toward the center line. When half of the bottom has been rounded, turn the plane end for end in the vise and complete the curve by rounding it from the other edge.


Rounded to                  Line scratched as                       Round off
2”radius                        filing guide                                  back edge

The result will be a rounded surface that can be smoothed and finished with medium and fine emery cloth. The plane cutter then can be ground and sharpened to agree with the curve of the plane bottom.
 
If a grinding wheel is available, the work, of course, will be simplified. When the nose of the plane has been cut off, simply adjust the cutter to take a thin shaving and grind down both the plane bottom and the cutter in the same operation. Hold the plane against the side of the grinding wheel and rock it back and forth to give the right curvature. After this has been done, the cutter can be removed and sharpened.

As a final touch, grind or file the back edge or heel of the plane to form a gentle curve. This will make it easier to follow the delicate double hull curves without denting or marring the surface of the wood.

Besides a regular vise, the model maker should have a combination notched vise and sawing block for holding stock when it is being drilled, cut to length, or shaped with a coping saw. It will be of endless value in shaping spars and masts and in cutting hull lifts and fretwork.

As shown in Fig. 7, it consists simply of three pieces of lumber nailed together at right angles, the vise portion being nothing more than a series of notches cut into the upper edge of the vertical member. By nailing a narrow piece of wood to the underside of the horizontal base, you can provide a gripping surface that will allow the vise to be placed in your regular bench vise. The V-shaped cut for use in coping saw work should be at least six inches long.

FIG. 7 Gripped Inbench Vi5e

Notches Hold Stock When Cutting It To Length

Fig. 8 GLUED-UP

Heavy Cord Loop Twisted By Dowel

Although large clamps are a help when gluing up the lifts in a large hull, the amateur can get along without them if necessary. Four loops of heavy cord, several long screw drivers or strong dowels, and four lengths of heavy lumber are really all you need to clamp a hull quite effectively (Fig. 8).

Place the four strong strips of wood on each side of the glued-up hull, locating them in pairs one above the other. Then push the loops of heavy cord over each pair of projecting ends, insert a screw driver or dowel in each loop, and twist the loops until the hull is firmly clamped. To lock the screw drivers or dowels in place, wedge them against the sides of the hull.

Next to his knife, the pin vise is the model maker's most valued small tool. With it, he guides the tiny hair like drills in making the thousands of small holes that are required in models. Although it does not replace a good hand drill in the ship modeling kit, it fills in where the weight and size of the hand drill is undesirable.

Most commercial pin vises, or finger drills as they are sometimes called, have small metal handles that are difficult to hold and direct. To improve your pin vise, you can fit it with a removable wooden handle as shown in Fig. 9. Being large, the handle will fit snugly in the palm of your hand, give you a better grip, and be less tiresome.

          Down tight
          Pin vise
          Lockscrew
          Not Screwed

Groove Filed In Shank Of Vise
FIG. 9

Model makers who boast of a metal lathe can make the inexpensive and improved type of pin vise shown in Fig. 10. It, too, is fitted with a comfortable handle that is easy to hold.

The handle is turned from any available hard wood such as birch. The hole to take the bearings (D and B) for the shaft (E) is bored with a 1/2-in. auger to a depth of 111/16 in. The shaft, fitted with a suitable pin chuck at its outer end and machined to a sixty-degree point at its other end, is made from a piece of 1/4-in. drill rod. The collars (C and F) are forced into place and then cross-pinned.

For the bearings (D and B) use brass, and drill the outer bearing (D) to be a running fit on the shaft. To hold this bearing in place, drill a hole in the handle with a No. 36 drill and run in a 6-32 tap to take the set screw (G).

When the pin vise is completed, the shaft should rotate easily. If it is tight, loosen up the inner collar (C). Also, be sure that the bearings are well oiled.

In assembling the large number of small drills that he will use in his pin vise, the model maker can improvise still further to save money. Sewing needles, available in all sorts of sizes for little or nothing, can be made into excellent substitutes for expensive twist drills. Simply break the needle at the swell of the eye and sharpen it to a V-shaped point on an oilstone.

Tiny chisels for small carving also can be made from needles of various sizes. Sail needles ground to a keen bevel and oilstoned are particularly well suited for use as chisels. (See Fig. 11.)

For the various delicate gluing jobs required in making deck fittings and other gear, the model maker can make good use of a half dozen or so of ordinary spring clothespins. By filing their heads to various shapes, you can improvise strong clamps for holding almost any
kind of joint in place.

                                    Head of eye broken off-.

                                        Sail         Stoned to
                                        Needle   Chisel edge

FIG. II

On small models, a draftsman's ruling pen forms a good clamp. Being adjustable, it can be clamped on the smallest joint until the glue sets. A ruling pen used in the same manner also is a valuable tool to be used in combination with tweezers when fastening wires in place.

Even the lowly crochet needle has a place in the ship modeler's kit. Its tiny hook can be used in tying small knots and arranging and guiding the thin lines in the rigging.
Naturally, there are many tools that the ship modeler cannot improvise or make, but these can be bought a few at a time as the demand for them arises.

When asked recently what tools he would buy if he had only a few dollars to spend, a well-known model maker listed the following:

Pocketknife, having two or three blades, one ground to a slim point.

Panel saw, 20 in. long and having approximately 9 teeth to the inch.

Block plane, small, about 31/2 in. long with a 1-in. blade.

Fret saw, 12-in. bow, and blades.

Jeweler's hack saw for cutting small metal parts.

Small spokeshave, wooden, having a square face and a  1½ in blade.

Rasp, 8-in. half-round cabinet, second cut.

Bit brace and wood boring brace bits.

Assorted twist drills for pin vise.

A good pin vise. An extra one will be useful and worth the additional money.

Hammers, 16-oz. claw and a 3-oz. riveting (No. o).

Pliers, flat-nose, round-nose, and diagonal cutting, 5-in.

Nail set. 1/32 in. nose.

Try-square, 9-in.

Boxwood rule, 2 ft. long and having four folds.

Assortment of small size C-clamps.

Tweezers and scissors.

Oilstone, 5-in. combination, fine and coarse.

Soldering iron, solder, and flux.

Various types of saws and planes, of course, can be added to this assortment from time to time to make it more complete. But in building up your tool kit, buy only those tools that are absolutely necessary. Having too many tools is sometimes more confusing and time wasting than not having enough.

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