Tiller Carving

I bought a Craftsman 10" band saw last year on the recommendation of many posts. Given it was on sale for under $100 at Sears and the fact I really wanted one (but not for $300) I pulled the trigger on it. But all the reviews said to upgrade the blade. So the first thing I did was order a couple new Timber Wolf blades, which of course sat in the box they came in for the last few months while I used the OEM blade on the boom gallows, among other projects. Suffice to say, the OEM blade cuts about as well as a hammer through butter. But the new blade works great. I tested it on a few scraps and was able to pull off these cool patterns.

When tools work right, you can do this with them. The lamination is for a tiller extension.

Satisfied, I then tested it on the tiller blank, on an area that if I totally screwed up, it wouldn't matter much. That passed, too. So then I started cutting a bit wide of the pattern I traced, and it held true. I got closer and closer until finally I was cutting like a band saw  should cut. Just south of the line, maybe a blade width's off. This is one of my favorite power tools so it's nice to finally have a legitimate band saw again. It will come in handy when I do some of the more intricate blocking, like on the rudder. Thumbs up for the Craftsman but get a real blade. The Timber Wolf 3/8" is the way to go. I finished up with a 1/4" roundover, then sanded up to 120 with the orbital then freehanded with sandpaper. I sanded the length of the tiller for far too long. I'm reminded of the immortal words of my Boy Scout Scoutmaster: If you shake it more than three times, you're playing with it!

The nose knows. It took some work to get this to balance visually.

I decided not to apply a veneer to the bottom length as the alternating white-orange of the ash-padauk looks terrific underneath. I left a little bit of the ash in front like a fingernail. I find more and more though that the padauk has a finicky grain. Some strips are solid, some are more open. The open grain shows up as little rough patches, maybe an inch or two long. They epoxy/varnish as darker areas compared to the rest of piece and are difficult, if not impossible, to sand to marble. It also means I have to try to cut and trim in ways I wouldn't normally in order to get the most out of the grain presentation. Not terrible, just different, and I've decided I like it as part of the "character" of the wood. It's tough, though, because the perfectionist in me wants to bust out another 10' board and mill it down just for a one inch strip. No, can't do that. I'll stick with the character.

Speaking of which, a note about ash. I chose ash for its strength and for its grain. When epoxy'd and varnished, the grain lifts out like caramel on vanilla ice cream. It's subtle, like maple or basswood, but obvious, unlike maple or basswood, especially the end and side grain. Nothing wrong with maple or basswood, just different. Ash is a really pretty wood that deserves center stage. Hopefully the tiller and boom gallows do the ash gods justice.

Money shot: Cut, sanded, and ready for epoxy.

One thing to note on the tiller is I kept it the full length rather than trimming it down 6" - 8" as many others have done. I haven't sailed PocketShip yet, so I'm not sure how long I want my tiller to be. Taller fellas (not me) can get away with a shorter tiller. I have enough laminated scrap to make an extension but the tiller length is already almost halfway through the cockpit so unless I want to steer from the bowsprit, I'm not sure I even need an extension. That said, it's much easier to cut wood than to grow it. If I need to lop off half a foot, I can do so easily. If all goes well, I'll get to sail PocketShip, hopefully at the helm, at Okoumefest in a few weeks. That will be the highlight of a pretty good sailing year so far.