you will come across this type of mast in many models,mostly victory, are you in for a treat, now what ever I tell you, I'm going to be told that you do it another way by a newbee.who heard on another web site that their is an easier way.
I take it you don't have a wood lathe. think what would you substitute it with?
ah an electric drill, and something pointed the other end to support it.if you don't support it,it will fly off by centrifugal force.

then you can use sandpaper to taper it.now the square bit. mark the end where it is going to be,and use a good old fashioned file until sq.
good luck karl.
p.s. I am not reposible for any injury,or technical information, and do not try this at home,this is my oppinion only,and doe's not reflect the skills of others.

This is what I put in a different post:

So I now have three kits on the go plus Cutty Sark hidden in the attic!

Once I have finished the deck fittings on HMS Halifax, which I now regard as my training project before Victory, I will be moving on to the masts and spars. I really admire some of Zeptraders earlier posts showing his re-fitting on Bounty but decided that this could be really time-consuming using hand sanding. I tried sanding using a normal electric drill clamped horizontally but again for me, I found this awkward.

Therefore the birthday fairy was persuaded to deliver the ultimate power tool this week in the shape of the Proxxon DB250 mini wood-turning lathe and a set of 5 mini-chisels.



So far it has taken me several hours on the web looking at wood-turning video lessons and about an hour of practice. The results are on top of the motor unit.

I am justifying this in terms of speed and accuracy.

In my opinion the mast profiles for Halifax get quite complicated and you need to turn down from large to quite small diameters.



This last picture shows the tapering exercise based roughly on part of the topmast profile which includes the narrow bit towards the end. Not bad, I thought for a first ever attempt at a craft I have always wanted to try my hand at .. wood turning.

As a footnote: the birthday fairy (oops SHMBO) has decided that a fitted spice rack in the kitchen with turned vertical pillars would look really nice!! I did suggest after Victory but the outcome was .....)

[color=darkred]

I actually found the horizontal drill method potentially dangerous, probably because I hadn't got a good solution for the free end. Karl113 seems to be hinting at that as well.

I know the lathe is a lot of money but I figured that if I am spending the next few years continuing with this hobby it might as well be enjoyable rather than become a bind when I think about all the masts and spars which will need sanding down by hand!

Mike T

Can I add another way, at least this is what Iv done with my bounty, take something from it.

http://modelshipworld.com/phpBB2/mastone.php

Good luck and take yor time:)

Glad you liked that Karl, remmeber this is from square stock so a little more work involved. Personaly I think for he better, dowl just dont do it for me.
Dont just use the mini dril, I found that was used just to get started on the shaping, I then moved onto some fine sand paper glued to a 1 inch wide scrap of wood.
Shape the mast from 4 sides, to 8, then to 16, by the time you are at 16 it would be so small its almost rounded:)

Mike, yeah I must of missed that but I do need to do more mast for the Bounty and I will take some pic/walkthrought on how Ive done it.
The big hole, I'm guessing you mean on the base of the drill? just for the drill to lay as low as possible to he base, saves the stock being rasied, lower the drill to base level.
Ive added a flat piece to use instead of the original drill press base.

"pictures, I hear you cry"!

Thanks for comments all. I've used the power drill method on slow and seems to work for now, but not done the ones that are chamfered both ends.. Will report back.. I also managed the masts with the squares and different diameters with a file..