John

I just saw your first post and I agree.  For deep holes that have to end up
where you want them, you need a “barefoot” auger.  You would start the holes
with a traditional auger with a lead screw to get the hole started where you
want it, then when you are in a few inches, switch to the barefoot auger, then
it will follow the original hole.  The longest I have done is 14” and it came
out within about 1/8”, but a friend of mine did this:

He had to drill 4 anchor hawse holes - angled holes that the anchor line passes
through on its way from near the waterline at the bow to up on deck.  This was 2
each on the 2 identical ships Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson

http://www.lamitopsail.o
rg/mylink.php?id=5760

Here are the two boats (identical except for the blue/red trim) and you can see
the anchor hawse holes:

https://www.fli
ckr.com/photos/ronkacmarcik/6579532805/

These holes were almost 4 feet long through solid wood.  My friend rigged up a
jig that drilled a 3/4” hole down from the deck as a pilot and these were all
within 3/8” of where they were supposed to be (so he claimed).  He then used a
larger bit with a pilot rod that fit the 3/4” hole to make it bigger, then did
that again and after 4 drillings he had a 6” hole - 4 holes!

And when I was on the Johnson search I found this picture of my friend Jim
Knowles who is a carver who has done much of the carving on recent American
ships and even one from Poland:

http://jamesaknowles.net
/JohnsonCarvings.html

He is working on a project on the Kalmar Nyckel right now and I am one of his
assistants.  Look at his page on “sculpture” - he really has the 18th-19th
century feel about his work.  I sat with him in a bar one night and he was going
to carve the face of the captain.  He had a lump of clay about the size of a
baseball.  He held a fine conversation while he poked and twisted the lump, and
in about 15 minutes he had the captain!  On his site you can see a good shot of
the Johnson hawse holes.  I so appreciate what he does.

Ed Minch




On Oct 29, 2014, at 2:40 PM, John Ruth  wrote:

> GG's
>  
> I've been re-thinking what I wrote about these long #11 and #13 auger bits
possibly being used in a shipyard.
>  
> I have a large collection of long auger bits whose provenance is
unquestionably from the tools of a early 20th century shipwright.  Almost all of
these are "blind-footed" helical augers.  They have no pilot screw. They have
only one cutting edge.
>  
> Another significant difference is that Jim's long bits are Irwin pattern,
quite a contrast to the plain helix of the shipyard bits in my collection.
>  
> I'm not so sure that I'd want a pilot screw on a really deep drilling effort.
It might tend to make the hole go astray.
>  
> On a different note, I want to second Scott's comment on the gloatability of
the embossed Plomb socket wrench box.  De-rusting and repainting that box would
be quite an effort, but it would look so cool in a fresh coat of olive paint.
>  
> John Ruth