Whaling vessel Charles W. Morgan looking for large oak knees

Rob Whalen · September 01, 2011, 02:55:45 PM

I am the lead shipwright in charge of the restoration of the whaling vessel, Charles W. Morganhttp://www.mysticseaport.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=B3E63C64-B3CA-45AE-A83D72C303A9C6BF at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic CT. We are looking for substantial white oak or hackmatack (larch) knees for this vessel. I'm enclosing some rough sketches to show what we're looking for. In short, we're looking for crooks coming from large branching of oaks or large roots of hackmatack. These should make a roughly 90 degree turn and be about 5' tall, 3' out, and 10" thick. Like I said, big material. Although seasoned lumber is always desirable, we are more than willing to work with green wood. Call or shoot me an email if you know of a possible source for this. I can be reached at rob.whalen@mysticseaport.org or 860-572-5343
Thank you,
Rob Whalen

Ironwood · September 01, 2011, 10:47:37 PM

Rob,

Fun Fun.

What is the timeline? I just had a few big white oaks here (gone now). I know what you need. I knew a fella who supplied knees to boat makers a few years ago until he got killed felling. Met him at the ADK Museum, he made furniture out some of them.

Size looks reasonable. Most of my "urban salvage" guy know I like limb extensions left on for a foot or two, so that is in their "frame of reference".

I will call you.

Ironwood

Phorester · September 05, 2011, 10:23:16 AM

Rob, I sent you an email. Let me know if you didn't get it.

snowstorm · September 05, 2011, 08:39:06 PM

ships werent the only place they were used. have seen several buildings that used them. the old knox woolen mill in camden has them. it was a mill then mbna bought it now its a reastruant. most of them were hack

John Mc · September 05, 2011, 08:50:31 PM

Not much that big up my way.

I was traveling through central Mississippi a few weeks after Katrina hit. There were HUGE live oaks that had been toppled. I saw a couple that had fallen AWAY from the power line, but still managed to take the line out when the root ball flipped up and hit it.

I wonder if some good could come out of the devastation wrought by Irene... if some good sized trees got blown down, something might be salvageable??

John Mc

zopi · September 06, 2011, 12:31:46 AM

Have seen some big white oak down here, but very few that big...and I haven't yet got my grubby mitts on any...I don't think I have seen one which would render a ten inch knee either...
Maybe some big hack up north...the storm hit pretty hard up there too...

SwampDonkey · September 06, 2011, 04:47:06 AM

Getting hard to find large tamarack to with the sawflies and other bugs hitting them. Might find an isolated pocket someplace. Most loggers leave them to stand, worth less than firewood. There was a large track of tamarack following a riparian area for 100 acres near here that the bugs moved into and wiped out. There were some large trees there as it was not a valuable species to cut and hard to get to unless frozen. I've planted it on super wet ground where about the only other thing that could grow was cedar and willows and that stuff grew like it was on the richest soil on earth. :D

hampton · September 15, 2011, 01:13:23 PM

I think I can find this Lots of big white oak but the tree guys and loggers work quickly and this shape dosen't survive long What's the budget and how many

Autocar · September 15, 2011, 04:45:34 PM

Thats a good question , I e-mailed the fellow but never head anything from him. I was wondering if anyone else has :

.

SwampDonkey · September 15, 2011, 07:07:04 PM

Maybe the fellow was just phishing around. ;)

Phorester · September 16, 2011, 08:16:21 AM

Nope.
I emailed him and he answered promptly with a lengthy email. Maybe he's just busy.

woodsy · September 16, 2011, 08:43:09 AM

Yup, he's legitimate and so is the restoration project that has a budget of 6 million over 5 years. Busy I would suspect. This is a huge undertaking to oversee as head shipwright.

Roxie · September 16, 2011, 07:25:55 PM

I hope he hangs around and shows us his project.

SwampDonkey · September 17, 2011, 02:32:00 AM

Yes, same here.

woodsy · September 17, 2011, 07:12:41 AM

Here is some good info on the progress with lots of great pictures. http://70point8percent.blogspot.com/2011/01/charles-w-morgan-restoration-volunteers.html

Ron Scott · September 17, 2011, 01:06:14 PM

Great project!

Ianab · September 17, 2011, 06:13:21 PM

Cool project.

I can see how finding the right logs for parts would be an issue.

The pics on the blog site show them using a Lucas chainsaw slabber to break down big curved logs, then free handing them to final curved dimensions with a chainsaw.

Not the sort of components you can buy off the shelf at the local boat building supply store :D

It's worth having a look at the link above.

Ian