by Dean Beeman
The third strake is going to be steamed and bent against its will (on the wide, not the thin). This will cause the strip to twist as it seeks a better natural bending angle. A press is needed to force (flatten) the strake.
The paint paddle is between the two clamps. The bending pattern consists of 3- 1/16th holes in the paddle. These are first laid out with cross-marks at dead center and two parallel lines at 4.5 inches on either side of the centerline. The first hole center is ¼ inch from the paddle edge, and the other two are marked at ½ inch from the same (bottom) edge. These are marked, and then holes are drilled through the paddle and the plywood below.
In the photo (above), the planks are just above the paddle. They are center-marked to line up with the middle line on the frame and platform.
The strakes are then steamed. This is not a casual steaming- very hot water for a few minutes should be completed before they can be bent. (I used an electric cook top for this step, but placing them between wet paper towels and applying a very hot iron will work just as well.)
Next, the strakes are pegged in place using 1/16th dowels (broken oriental toothpicks in my case). This requires some amount of forcing and bending. I’m using mini-clamps, but no matter what clamp is used, it is important that the pressure on the frames allow the wood strip to bend to an unnatural curve. If too much pressure (arc) is applied, the bent strip will be forced into an irregular curve at the points where it would normally twist to resist this unnatural shaping. Since I learned this lesson already, you don’t need to relearn it.
Once the strakes are captured, the assembly was left to sit overnight. While drying, the whole operation looked like this:
In the photo a very small edge of one strake is visible at the bottom.
After the strakes had dried overnight the clamps came off and the strips looked like this:
The center points were dented by the middle peg, so the dimples were flattened using the small red pliers in the photo. The grain in the basswood strips is never going to be perfect, so the resulting curve won’t be, either. The twist area that I mentioned earlier will be minimized, but unavoidable. Unless you can figure out how to locate a perfectly-grained strip of wood, ( and I haven’t), this irregularity will effect the steps that follow. If is more than a ¼ inch or so, re-steam and re-clamp: trying to force a snug fit with glue won’t work well.
Remove the model from the frame, and line up the centerlines of the third strakes with the second strakes. One set of third strakes will match up better with the other (laid) strakes. Keep track of which side pieces match best- marking them might be helpful.
On one set, mark the keel profile on a third strake, and trim the ends so the third strake fits more or less comfortably into the second, and meets the keel plank more or less well, sanding as you go.
Place a dot of glue on one side of the center strip and a glue line along one half of the second strake. Press the third strake into the second and clamp it along that line, and force the end into the keel brace. This looks like (and might be) a world-class kluge:
It isn’t obvious from the photo, but the other half of the strake is seriously misshapen. Once the better side is set, I will begin to sand and glue the other. Again, note the (released) scrap that is forcing the strake into the keel/brace groove.
This might be a good place to mention that where we are with the model was depicted in the Fifth Dynasty tomb of Ti, where a large bas-relief scene clearly shows the various steps involved in constructing a wooden boat. The scale of the strakes in that scene very closely resemble the strakes we are placing- they were either steamed or adzed to a shape that also very closely resembles the shapes that are being placed on the model. My method is considerably uglier than theirs.
The Cheops Royal Boat was constructed with 5 planks to a side. These were scarfed to insure longitudinal strength, and pegs were inserted to hold the planks in place. The joints and seams were barely visible when the workmen completed their joining and disappeared when they were caulked and tightened. We’ll get to the thwarts and deck beams pretty soon, but for now the point is that when the sanding and final shaping start there will be the same caulking, filling and sanding needed to eliminate these seams on the face of the model. So if there are some very minor irregularities they’ll be sanded away. That is, unless you want an observer to note how difficult it was to form these strakes- in that case leave an obvious seam or two. We could add a few more sets of frames to the mold, cut the joints and pegs and build the model that way, but the workers depicted on the wall and I were and are going for a boat, not a psychiatry test.
After the third strakes are placed the boat is going to look something like the next photo. To prepare for the ceiling (floor), the boat and the original keel plank pattern should look this:
Lashing the Hull (Ceiling)
In Khufu‘s boat, tunnels were drilled in an elongated “v” shape through the hull planks, ropes were passed through the tunnel (or eye), threaded over a batten and then back down through the next tunnel, over the next batten, etc.. Like everything else, this was done very precisely, and when all the tunnels and battens were loosely threaded together, some sort of caulking was inserted into the hull seams, and the ropes were tightened, forcing out any excess filler. This tightening step probably involved the same type of twisting vise that we’ve been using, and undoubtedly also involved the thwarts, keel beam and ribs in a carefully orchestrated effort to tighten everything sequentially.
Let’s start with the ceiling, which was not a ceiling at all but solid pieces of planking. One of the reasons for the keel stringer was to shape the hull- the other is to provide a space where this threading can be recreated without drilling hundreds of “v” tunnels and ruining the model in the process.
The keel pattern should rest comfortably on the keel stringers- if not, some very slight trimming of the pattern may be needed. The ceiling assembly is going to fit onto the stringers, so the pattern fit is important.
The beam on the pattern template should not be much broader than about 1 5/16 inches (33 mm) to accommodate five ¼ x 1/32 in. strips. Any width adjustment that is much more or less than this can be made by ripping the middle strip to a width that results in an overall width of 1 ¼ inches (31 mm).
While not present on Tut’s model, the shipbuilders of the actual-sized (Cheops) boat incorporated fore and aft bailing wells. This provided access to the bilge, and in the case of the model, a similar window will provide visual access to the construction of the hull. This is a departure from the original (Tut) model, but an important point when it comes to understanding the actual boats.
If you don’t plan on revealing the construction of the hull, ribs and beams, you can skip a lot of work (and authenticity) by fast-forwarding to the section that deals with the construction of the deck.
Otherwise, lay out the ceiling strips on the pattern to cover it completely (there will be a 32nd or so showing on each side). Mark the width on a couple of scrap ¼ x 1/32 strips, apply a light bead of glue between the marks on the reverse side and clamp the scrap strips to the ceiling strips at no particular location. These are to brace the ceiling for the next steps. Be a little careful not to glue these braces to the work board. This assembly looks like this:
Much later in the process we are going to construct the deck and throne so that the throne will be removable, allowing a visitor to see the inner construction details. This can also be accomplished by adding removable bailing wells, so if that’s your choice, adjust the next steps to your method.
Turn the ceiling assembly over, and trace the keel plank onto the ceiling blank, keeping the bow and stern of the tracing template centered on the blank.
Whichever method you have chosen, the next step is to construct a drilling template. I’m going to be using the same 10lb hemp that was used on the whaleboat to stitch the hull together, 2 threads to each stitch line. (or whatever the correct term turns out to be. Stitch line sounds reasonable.)
The hemp has
a diameter of about .5mm and will compress to about .3mm. A needle threader or a rigging needle adds another .1-.2mm or so to the material going through a given hole. We’re starting with a plank that is 5mm wide, so the holes become critical- like the frigate, the material is reaching its tolerance limit. I‘m going to start by completely drilling a set of holes with a 1mm drill.
It is unclear what device was used to bore the original, actual holes, but it had an effective boring depth of about ½ the plank thickness. In case your library didn’t stock the text mentioned earlier, a much less professional sketch of the hull plank construction looks like this:
With 1/32 planks we can’t peg the planks together, and we can’t bore the tunnels exactly, either. But so long as the batten-lashing-batten pattern is followed with at least two threads per hole, the ancients will probably forgive our compromise. Or not.
Let’s proceed.
Start with a piece of scrap cut square to ½ x 2 inches; I’m using a piece 1/16th thick. Construct a T-square using another piece of scrap squared across one end. Mark pencil lines 1/8th of an inch from each side, leaving ¼ inch in the middle. Using a pin, mark holes spaced at 1/16th along each line from each long edge- these will serve as the drilling lines. These sets of holes should line up. Drill holes down one set of lines and several holes down the parallel strip as markers.
Before drilling the first set of holes, line up the template on the ceiling blank. The holes should line up so that each plank receives 2 holes and the holes between planks are equally spaced.
Drill one set of holes, then move the template so pins through the centering holes anchor the template. Drill another set of holes and keep going. The picture shows the template and the process.
It’s obvious from the photo, that I’m using long hatpins- these make it easier to line up the centering holes with the ceiling. The top of the T-square is another check. This may seem like a lot of trouble, but from what can be seen of the lashing job performed by the Egyptians they were apparently even more precise than this.
Repeat the process until the fore and aft lines of holes extend about 70mm on either side of center.
(As you will see in a later chapter I did not extend the holes 70mm originally, so I had to stop and re-visit this step.)
Returning to our discussion of tolerance, the holes will be slightly ragged, and we have to pass 2 threads through each hole. The hemp thread will pass twice through a 1mm hole with some help from a pair of pliers, but that’s a lot of tugging, and each pull puts a strain on the planks.
Given that, I’m going to treat the first set of holes as if they were pilot holes, and re-drill the section using a 1.5mm drill bit. When we add the ribs, a third lashing will be needed to hold them in place, so what’s left of the ceiling plank wood is pretty weak.
Turn the blank back over, use a knife to cut out the blank along the traced lines, and trial-fit the ceiling to the boat. My trial- fitting looks like this:
If the center is pressed gently, the ceiling should fit comfortably into the hull.
Now for the battens. I’m using 1/16x1/16 strips for the battens. Each strip should be sanded to form a crown (see the drawing) that will fit (just barely) between the holes that straddle each seam in the blanks.
In an actual boat, the thread that we are using on the ceiling followed the bored tunnels, so the stitching would not be visible on the outside of the hull. On our model, the braces provide spacing between the hull and the ceiling to create this illusion. The stitching pattern follows the heavy black line on the drawing without the middle tunnel.
I’ll be using dyed hemp to create a more dramatic color difference between the wood and the lashings, but the same contrast can be created by staining the planks and/or the battens and using a lighter or natural color hemp. As the stitching proceeds the ceiling will become much more rigid, and since we’re going to need the whole assembly to warp into the boat, the lashings should be tight enough to fit, but at the same time be slightly loose so the ceiling assembly can bend into the shape of the keel braces.
As I was sanding the battens I marked the sanded surface of each one- without that step it was difficult keeping track of the sanded edges.
I’ve started by weaving both ends first- this will keep the battens oriented. The loops are neither tight nor loose- a hatpin can be used later as a marlinspike to tighten up any obvious holidays. The rigging (or big eye )needle can be seen amidships. (It was been bent out of shape previously.) If you’re trying to thread this boat using anything but a big eye needle you will be in for a very tough slog.
If the thread on a second pass doesn’t pull through with a gentle tug, then the rigging needle probably pierced the strand in the first bundle- pull out and aim for an open corner in the hole. The basswood may splinter between holes- if this happens, save the sliver, finish both threads and, using a dot of clear nail polish and tweezers, push the sliver back into place. It will dry just fine- leaving the open split in the wood is probably not the best way to display your work.
After the rows of battens have been stitched, it’s now time for the bow and stern sections. Before starting this phase, fold the threads over the back and temporarily tape them in place using small strips of masking tape. Cut and glue a 1/8x1/8 spacer amidships to create a good glue line between the ceiling and the keel plank. The width is not that important so long as it nests between the keel plank stringers. Once taped, trim the lashings to a length that equals the keel plank width- the end should reach the other side, but not much further.
Mark a crossing centerline on ceiling that matches with the centerline of the keel plank. Holding the ceiling and pressing it down on the spacer and the keel planks, drill a small ( in my case a 1/16th hole) through the keel plank into the spacer. Glue a 1/16th dowel (or toothpick) into the spacer. The dowel will be used to add additional strength to the ceiling, but also will provide a very reliable way to remove and reset the ceiling as we construct the bow and stern sections.
The back of the ceiling with the spacer and peg should look something like this:
Once we’re ready to complete the ceiling the lashings will be tightened with a marlinspike (pin), so they are a little loose, and when the pegged ceiling is pressed into the hull, the peg can be clamped from below. I’m using a bulldog clamp and the supported boat looks like this:
Bow and Stern Pulpits
The bow and stern sections of the Cheops boat were independent of the main hull structure.
The curved, vertical (papyriform) structures that arise from these sections are the bow and stern pulpits. In the Cheops boat these assemblies were fitted into the sides of the hull and rested on the hull planks. They were structurally weak because of their vertical dimensions, and were held upright by overlapping the pulpit’s side with the strakes. This is the only case on that boat where hull lashings are visible- in order to achieve the strength needed to hold the pulpits upright, much thicker lashings were threaded through the strakes and then covered by decorative battens. In the case of Tut’s boat these lashings and battens were not included, but I believe these are an important bridge between the actual and the model. So I’m going to overrule the Egyptian model builder and incorporate them on the modern model. Whether this has consequences in the afterlife remains to be seen.
The pulpits were each constructed of multiple pieces of cedar- these pieces were most likely rough-cut with an adze, fitted precisely to each other and the hull, and then planed, abraded and polished smooth before a final lashing.
These construction details are not present in any of the models from Tut’s tomb, but they are important to understanding Egyptian boat construction as it evolved. So we are going to continue to diverge from a strict copy of one model to capture the essence of many actual boats. As we go along feel free to choose to stick more closely to constructing a more exact copy of the model.
On the copy of the photograph on page 19 and the museum photo there are clear demarcation points between the main hull an
d the pulpits. These show up in the different colors, the pulpits appearing to be gilded gold, meeting the white and dark of the hull. While the ancients probably assumed that everyone knew about the spiritual essence of the underlying cedar,that understanding in a modern context could easily be lost unless we find a way to reveal the assumption. So as we go along, my preference is to work with what will hopefully be an imitation of the red cedar. This is one more aspect of the model that you may choose to ignore or modify, but I’m building my model and you’re building yours.
Throughout this series I have made the assertion that the last boat ever built owes its heritage to the first boat ever built. And then there is the matter of equifinality and, last but not least, phi. The bow and stern sections of this boat are not theorem proofs, but these sections will be built using the same bending frames as the whaleboat, since the natural sweep of the whaleboat’s bow and stern are identical to the curves found on Tut’s boat. As a matter of fact, the drawing was made by tracing the bending templates onto a blank piece of paper.