Here is the jig me Da and myself made to hold the strips as we planed them down. Now I didn't take a picture of how we got the line or angle to cut to. We did this in two ways, one by bevel gauge (shown in next picture next to the jig) which proved to be mostly a double check as the angle from the laid strips to the centerline cut changes slightly as you move the gauge away from the intersection of the two. The way most accurate for us was to place the strip bead into the cove of the previous strip as best we could and mark the intersections of the top of the strip with the centerline and the intersection point of the previous strip and the centerline thus giving us our desired angle and fit. The strip was then tweeked several times to fit into the intersection point. Then we drew a line midway down the strip from the strip to the previously laid strip. This line guided us in letting us know how much wood we need to remove from the opposite end, when the opposite was finished tweeking, the mark should line up. With that first end still in place, we mark the intersection of the centerline and the top of the strip and again at the point, then repeat the process tweeking it into place.
Dad's hands were really efficient at planing! He's really good! I messed one plank up in the process eventually and the colors don't match real well. Oh well. A glitch in our process proved too complicated for me! LOL We will get to that later! *notice the bevel gauge at the bottom of the pic.
OK so the first football strip is in! The strips were numbered on both sides of the football previous to these steps so that the colors matched as best as we could. The flat faces of the points on either end are glued with an acid brush and the cove of the previously laid strip is filled and brushed with glue. One end is slid into the intersection point then the other side is slid into place in a process likened to "Torturing" the wood because there is a belly in the center of the strip as you try and slide the second point into place AND the strip is also curving with the shape of the football. Basically the wood is being tortured in many directions to get it into place. Then the same clamping method is used to hold the center of the strip and at the ends straps with little blocks pulled down on the points to keep them secure. Later as the boat gets wider and the points aren't located at an inner frame, some scrap wood was used that was the same width as the gunwhales or greater to keep the strap from pulling the gunwhales together and breaking.
The first strip of the football at the stern. Nice...
The first strip of the football at the bow. Nice, for now....
But later, because our gunwhales were off by 1/8" (one lower than the other on the internal frames) this point did NOT line up! The next strips on the football were going to be massively off and the football would look, well, not like a football... SO we had to improvise!
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