Classic_Boat_2016-03

Boatbuilder’s Notes

CRAFTSMANSHIP

WD-40

The best just got better

The digital age

BY ROBIN GATES

It is sometimes said that the cabinet maker works to the nearest^1 / 64 th

inch, the carpenter to the nearest^1 / 16 th and the boatbuilder to the

nearest boat, although obviously not when there are boatbuilders

listening. But if there is a kindly truth behind this dubious saying it may

be a reflection on the adage that ‘if it looks right it probably is right’ –

itself based on the tradition of building ‘by eye’ rather than to the

arbitrary divisions of a scale rule.

Or, indeed, ‘by thumb’ if we return to 18th century France where it was

customary to buy timber from the merchant in widths and thicknesses

measured in thumbs. Curiously the French use pouce to mean both

‘thumb’ and ‘inch’ but since discovering the width of my own thumb is

almost exactly 1 inch across at its widest point, the logic of this ‘digital’

system of measurement becomes clear. Not only were those so-

metricated chantiers across la Manche working in equivalents of Imperial

inches 250 years ago, but their rule was always to hand.

Nicely handled

In the hands of an artisan the look and feel of a tool are

inseparable from its function, resulting in an infinity of

designs. There are as many different handles for a chisel,

for example, as there are sails for a square-rigger. The

London pattern handle shown here is the cabinet maker’s

favourite and the most expensive, being made from dense,

fine-grained and slow-growing boxwood. While thumb and

forefinger fall naturally into the shapely turned cove behind

the brass ferrule, its facets nestle securely in the palm – and

also prevent it from rolling off the bench when rested. By

contrast the split-proof red and yellow resin handle is

cheap and utilitarian, designed to soak up hammer blows

when roughing out a shape. Yet it too is beautiful, glowing

like fossil amber in the workshop light.

Above: Boxwood London pattern and moulded resin handles

STORY STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

There can’t be many who don’t have a can of WD-40 knocking around, its red plastic straw

long ago lost. The introduction of the ‘spray or squirt’ flip head Smart Straw can in 2005 was

not before time; WD-40 was invented in 1953. Now we have the EZ reach can with a flexible

memory hose to reach awkward spaces, also with a flip head for the spray function.

There are a few myths about WD-40, firstly that it’s British (it’s Californian) and secondly that

WD stands for War Department. It actually stands for ‘water displacement’. Uses for WD-40 are

so varied that it appeals to almost everyone. Its uses as a stain remover, penetrating low-viscosity

oil, and water displacer (remember it is petrol-based and you’ll not go far wrong) are so various

• the manufacturers list 2,000 – that it must rank alongside duct tape and the claw hammer in
  general utility. If you haven’t already, try using it to remove sticker residue from labels on timber;
  as a bath to remove rust from tools and fixing; as an under-eaves spray to prevent wasps from
  nesting in your work shed; as tinder when you soak cotton wool buds with it; as a scratch
  remover if you scrape your car; as a rust inhibitor in your tool box; to remove pitch pine residue
  from saw blades; to drive moisture from electrical wiring in an engine; and to remove almost
  any stain from any surface.