Gaye is Painting Again ...

rather Jackson Pollard'esque

... and we get two beautiful little visitors for the day...

Couta Boat gets a Deck

Cap't'n Ratty would be proud of me, I have progressed the couta boat build a little further. The boat now has a partial deck. I am thinking of leaving a little bit off the deck permanently, so as to be able to see the construction details underneath.

Couta Boat

Couta Boat

Couta Boat - Deck planks installed w/o gunwhales

Safety & Survival at Sea Course 2012 by ORCV

I recently signed up and participated a Safety and Sea Survival Course (SSSC)  run by the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria and thoroughly enjoyed the two days of classroom instruction and in pool practical exercises.  http://www.orcv.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1847&Itemid=450
Below are a bunch of pics from the course. They are low res so anyone wanting high res just let me know.

Stanley 55 Combination Plane

I picked this little beauty up a couple of weeks back from Michael and only just now have had the time to take a pic and post it. It is a Stanley 55 Combination Plane. It is complete with the 4 boxes of cutters that originally came the the plane. Originally designed to replace wooden moulding planes, these planes now are rarely used these day as they have in turn been replaced by (screaming) electric routers and spindle moulders. However when time permits they are great to set up and cut mouldings, beads or trenches etc. with the only noise that of the shavings coming away from the timber. 

From Stanley Tools, by John Walter. Mfgd from 1897 to 1963. Type 1 from 1897 to 1905. 

Type 1 will have the 9/19/1893 and 1/22/1895 patents stamped on the skate.

That's great --- mine is a Type 1. --- Cool.

Here is a little further reading from a web research:

http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=424

http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip9/stanley/comb-planes/stan-com.htm

http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/combinationplanes.html

http://www.handplane.com/136/stanley-no-55-universal-combination-plane/

Some info on Record Planes: http://www.recordhandplanes.com/index.html

http://www.jonzimmersantiquetools.com/features/combo.html