Caulking

Re: Sawdust

What about throwing a sackfull of hard wood sawdust in as you put the boat back in .The sawdust gets sucked into the joints as the hull takes up .
Ever though about mud when you have a problem you can certainly slow down the ingress of water through joint's by stirring up the mud .
No I'm not an expert or any thing like but this stuff is common knowledge among the old boy's.
RE prevention of rot I was always told to use Cuprinoil green ,or clear which seap's into the timber helping to preserve it.
I always listen to people that actualy did the work for a living ,they know because they were taught ,and didnt get it from a book.
Mick
 
Re: Salt verses fresh.

Antifreeze was mentioned in issue 23 and again in issue 25 where its preserving properties were mentioned as being used for newly-felled wood being turned for wooden bowls, and as a way of stabilising wood being shown in museums. Pete Greenfield - the then editor, mentioned trying it out on his old dinghy, but I don't think he ever reported back. Conspiracy theorists should probably meet Pete before thinking he could be nobbled. It's quite a bizarre idea!
I was going to use creosote on my boat once. But luckily I asked myself what was the point before I changed my saltwater world into a garden shed.
 
Having worked with baltic traders for many years, here's what we do...:
During construction frames have a hole drilled in the top, which is filled with salt/brine as often as possible. If the first cargo could be salt, it was much appreciated. Why ? Salt pickles the wood ! Before the age of refrigeration fish & meat could be kept for years when pickled !
Fresh water allows for all sorts of germs & bacteria to grow.
For rot and fungus to appear, a moistore content of more than 25 % is needed, and ventilation is the best way of preventing rot. I am in the process of restoring an old oak on oak working vessel, an have used huge amounts of raw coldpressed linseed oil.
Advantages : It is non toxic, expands 15-20 % when curing (do NOT ad any turps, thinners or the like) and helps keep the moisture content below the 25 %. It allows the wood to breathe and obtain and give of moisture as needed, but at a very slow rate, thereby extending the life of the wood as it doesnt deteriorate as fast....
For wood that doesnt go through the steambox, I have added 1% fungicide.
 
A moisture content of 25% sounds about right, but! and its a big but, it doesn't matter if the wood is wet with salt water or fresh water, the wood will still rot, look at pilings in old docks in salt water, in the splash zone. The linseed oil sounds a damn good idea, I will use that on some new wood I'm fitting!
 
Maybe we should rename this subject !
The reason woodpilings rot is more due to the fact that the wood gets wet/gets dry/ gets wet etc.
If the wood had been soaked with linseed oil and tarred, it would last for 200 years or more. In Sweeden they have wooden churches about a 1000 years old !
Untreated wood will absorb more moisture, then dry, and that is what causes the wood to deteriorate, We use beech for keels and under waterline planking, and as long as it is kept submerged,it last nearly as long as oak....but it has also been used as woodpilings under houses and as the groundwaterlevel goes down, so does the houses....
Wood can of course rot anywhere, but go smell a lake and then try the salty Med !
I have been to the Dead Sea, and I can tell You, nothing lives in or near that water !
 
Wood doesnt rot underwater, the water content of timber will not allow the spores of the fungus that rots the wood live! Around the dead sea it is also very dry, so the wood does not rot, as there is not enough moisture, this is not an easy subject, but that is the simple facts, even the wooden salt carriers used to rot! The timbers under the ground in saturations over 25% dont rot with the fungus, they may well get eaten, by all kinds of worm and gribble etc. but they will not "rot" over or under the moisture barriers. I used to beleive the salt/fresh water rot thing, but since I read a study on this subject I have been forced to change my views. I will try and find the study, I'm sure its on board the boat, but I'm offshore Norway at the moment. I'm not sure I would use beech for anything apart from woodturning, but each to there own. I still like teak, but its so bloody expensive these days and of questionable quality!
 
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