Scrubbing the copper clean

Because I found the glue marks on the coppered part of the hull really extremely annoying, this morning I threw myself into scrubbing the copper completely clean with fine steel wool. The advantage of doing it now is that with the darkening of the copper the glue residue is much easier to find than when everything still shines: where there is glue, the copper stays light. After the treatment with steel wool I polished the copper with copper polish, Stephan’s tip from last week, so it can get an even layer of patina again. A before and after photo of the sternpost shows the difference.

Jaques thought the morning of polishing worthwhile, and Stephan had already been looking for a way to patinate the copper as a whole, with salt and ammonia fumes, but found this far better. As far as I am concerned the patina will come by itself. Simply a matter of patience. It was only the glue residue that kept it from becoming nicely even, now hopefully it will. Piet’s advice to remove glue immediately and to use only two small drops per plate I am taking with me to the next boat.

The gratings on the gun deck

This afternoon I started on the gratings on the gun deck. The first grating now has its coaming; beyond that it still has to be assembled.