How to shape a daggerboard?

[Toller]

My sailboat's mahogany daggerboard is in sad shape and I decided to replace it since I have more white oak than I know what to do with.

I made a blank 2"x15"X44". I intended on cutting the corners off on my tablesaw, but at 35 pounds it didn't seem particularly safe.

So I went at it with my 3" belt sander with 50 grit, and my 2" planer. Both will work, but they will take hours and hours and hours.

Any suggestions for doing it faster? A router might work, but that doesn't seem like a good idea either. Would a 3 1/4" planer (rather than my 3a Kmart planer) be much better?

[Charles Spitzer]

spokeshave

[Ken Muldrew]

Maybe a hand-held power planer is the ticket for rough shaping. They'll hog wood off in a hurry.

Ken Muldrew [e-mail] (remove all letters after y in the alphabet)

[Lowell Holmes]

Spoke Shave. :-)

[Toller]

Yeh, I used to watch that guy (Underhill?) make stuff with old tools. He would put the blank in a clamp and knock out a dagger board with a spoke shave in minutes. Do they even sell spoke shaves any more?

[Doug Miller]

Yes.

[no(SPAM)vasys]

Yes, see:

might also want to look at a draw knife while your there:

[CW]

This is the way to go. Drawknife to shape, spokeshave to finish. With these two tools, you can move a lot of wood quickly and accurately.

[Archangel]

[Tom Banes]

1. White oak is not an appropriate wood for a daggerboard. It makes great barrels because it swells so well when wet.
2. Drawknife to shape (got one if you want it, it's only 60+ years old), plane or sander or spokeshave to finish.

Regards.

[Andy Dingley]

An Arbortech cutter in an angle grinder. _NOT_ a chainsaw chain circle (those are too dangerous). It cuts really quickly, so be careful not to over-do it. Make a couple of dados down to the shape of a cardboard template first, then joint them up.

Use a template that's deliberately over size. Then do the whole job again with the right size of template. Going to final size in one pass is for people who've been practicing lately!

A spokeshave or drawknife might be useful for finishing, but you'll be wanting a curved travisher to work on an almost flat surface this wide. The belt sander is probably the best finsihing step.

[Lowell Holmes]

I cant imagine a 2" thick daggerboard, but I still think spoke shaves are the way to go. I just purchased a travisher and it cost over $100 and took 2 months to get. I have a #3 Bailey plane that I set with a wide mouth opening and use a convex iron in it. I use it as a scrub plane. If I needed to make the dagger board thinner, I'd use the scrub plane and follow up with a jack or smoother. To shape the edges, I would use the spoke shave or even a block plane or a #4 Bailey. I normally use a travisher to scoop out a chair seat. :-)

[Toller]

On a boatbuilding group someone suggested running it through the TS as appropriate depths and taking it off with a chisel.

That sounds like a pretty good idea, don't you think?

[Lowell Holmes]

That will work.

I made a dagger board for a sunfish one time with a table saw, coping saw, and a router to round the edges. As I recall, the dagger didn't vary in thickness except on the leading and trailing edges. I might have used a belt sander, I don't remember. Today I would use hand planes and spoke shaves. A person has to use what ever tools available to him. A 2" thick dagger sure sounds thick to me. :-) I promise you that properly sharpened, spoke shaves are effortless to use in shaping wood.

[Toller]

It will finish up about 1 5/8". I should have planed the wood to size before starting, but I underestimated the labor in reducing it and figures it was better to start with too much than wish I had. Now it is too late, since I can't plane 15". The boat is about the same size and weight as a sunfish, but about twice the sail. I guess that is why it needs a bigger board.

[Lowell Holmes]

I didn't realize that my spell checker had removed the board from daggerboard in my previous post. I suggest you look for someone that can plane 15", maybe a wood working club or a commercial shop. I had an oversized blanket chest lid sanded by a commercial shop and he only charged $20. If your in the Houston area, I can do it for you, using a scrub plane and hand planes. Probably wouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes. On the other hand, there is sure to be someone at the Houston Woodworkers Club that has a

15" planer.

[Toller]

I bought a decent power planer and cut it down in 30 minutes. It is only

20% heavier than the mahogany board, when it should be 40% heavier, so obviously I made it a bit thinner than I intended; but since oak is 50% stronger than mahogany, that should not matter.

Still don't know if it actually fits, as the boat is 30 miles away with no electricity.