Dueling Dhows: Brightwork and Sanding on the Blue Dhow

May 6, 2018

With a significant amount of time not producing any meaningful results (see yesterday's post), I was focused on getting back up to speed with continued work on the blue Dhow's brightwork - the portion I had in my control for the time being. I removed the aft seat and backrest yesterday, and needed to begin construction of a new seat and backrest.

I began by culling out three boards from my inventory. I had some older mahogany boards that were 6" in width, and just over 4/4 in thickness. Unfortunately there is a bit of sap wood on a couple of the boards, but in one application it will be hidden, and in another there will be a small amount showing. Varnish will protect the sap wood. I ran the boards I had selected for the aft seat across the jointer, and jointed the edges that would be mated together (epoxy will be used to glue the two pieces together to give me a board just shy of 12" in depth).

I then ran the boards through the planer to get them to the rough 3/4" thickness I needed.

With achieving the desired thickness for the seating boards, I set them aside and prepared to glue them up.

I laid out the two boards - purposely cut longer than I needed - to decide which surface was more attractive. having decided the glue up orientation of the boards, I wiped the edges to be mated together will solvent to remove any oils from the wood.

I ran a tape line down the inside length of each board, and then applied neat epoxy to the surfaces first, and then another coat of epoxy thickened with West System 403 microfibers. With the edges ready for the clamps, I then moved the boards into positioned and applied several clamps across the surface of the two boards. While I was working in the shop, I selected a third mahogany board for the backrest, and then also read it through the jointer and planer. I cut the backrest longer than I need so that I could later apply a template to then cut it to proper length.

I moved back over to the blue Dhow and began sanding the interior - running through about 8 40-grit discs on the RO sander. I finished up the sanding, and then vacuumed it out and solvent washed the surfaces to remove any remaining sanding debris. I grabbed a couple pieces of cardboard and created a template of the outboard surfaces of the backrest, and then set the template to the side. I mixed a few ounces of neat epoxy and painted out the surfaces I intended to work.

Back in the shop, I laid the template out on a sheet of 6 oz. fiberglass cloth and removed the section that I needed - I intentionally cut this piece of glass longer than the actual dimensions since I planned to wrap it over onto the interior of the port and starboard hull.