I've spent the afternoon doing some deck planking.

As far as my knowledge goes these are 3 and 4 butt shift system deck planking, I will add more pictures to show how I did it and what I used but for now (as wife has come in with shopping, she has 3 crates of luke warm Becks beer)

3 Butt Shift System


4 Butt Shift System

Here is what I did for the 3 butt system















Treenails are done by drilling the plank ends and over the marked beams.


You can see the bare wood in this picture, by using a stain of your choice use only a cloth otherwise it will become darker to soon, simply layer, stain, sand back, stain ect. If you used a beeswax rub lightly over the finished stain using natural beeswax. Coat the layers by buffing the dried beeswax, the same goes for Danish Oil, a couple of coats and buff to a satin finish, the more Oil or Beeswax the greater the shine.

The thread I got from the local sewing shop, its Gutermann 100% Linen and looking at the writing on the side 0.50mm, half a mill, the thing about this is it does not fray or is hairey, it would be perfect for rigging IMHO.

I may get more and in different colours. I'll get more info.

Nice one mate.
Thanks for that.
Bob

a quick request where did you get the danish oil from
peter

colin, your attention to detail and research deserves commending

As I am painting my victory, am I mistaken tat the decks were white so will the cotton look out of place, sorry to sound dumd but new to wooden kit builds

Thanks Tomick,
so there we have it 5mm width, sounds about right, my Bounty was the same, and to be honest it doesn't look to bad at that width.



You need to have a search on the net and see what colour you want to paint the decks, I've not seen any white but the net is a big place, if it where white then yes black would look sorta out of place, once you get the planking you need to decide how you want to or if you even want to caulk the decks, there are other options of using paper, different colours thread's, Ink ect.
Have a look at the links I placed in the last post, there are other options.

most impresive how long does it take you to do the small section shown?

These took a few hours to do, by using the Proxxon mini saw I was able to cut the planks to the desired width and thickness, re-sand them on all edges.
But by doing this now gives me an idea on how I will plank the vast amount of decking we will have on the Victory.

I not decided yet on how or what colour to do the decks, I need to see what type of wood we get for the decks, I cant imagine it being anything less than a cheap cut of wood so staining would have to be done, the hull on the other hand may well be darker, will have to wait and see.

I don't know if people have seen or heard of it but by doing a cross section of the hull you can also prepare the method of planking and staining ect for the hull in a similar manning to the above, I am drawing up a plan on paper for this, maybe if I can I'll do it in such a way that can be replicated by anyone here. More to come on that one

The biggest advantage on spending this time now is to find out what you like and the ease of the task ahead, scrap wood and a few hours is a small effort with a big gain on a large and expensive ship as the Victory, it also give you a little knowledge and experience if you have not decked or planked a ship before, and believe me if the colour is not to your favour you will feel pretty sick, maybe a little shopping list/sizes of material for this demo would at least give some newcomers the chance to have a go?..and get comfortable with it.

Oh and forgot to say, I didn't actually use any sanding sealant, I have some but didn't use it on this demo, that's not to say you shouldn't.

Thank you Colin very interesting tut, look forward to rest! Think I will do a practise deck to see wot I prefer before I muck up the real thing! forewarned forearmed