Reference · Techniques

Deck planking: margin plank, joggling and caulking seams

A deck gives itself away in two things: the seams, and the way the planks meet the margin plank at the bow. Cutting them off square is wrong, because that is not how it was built; the planks are let in, and that is called joggling. The seams here were made with a thread of yarn between the planks rather than with pencil, which reads much more calmly at this scale.

How-tos (5)

4 steps Pre-sanding deck strips with 320 grit
Sand the tanganyika strips smooth before they go on the deck, so that they don't splinter and the caulking seam stays crisp. 6 steps Making the margin plank and joggling the deck planks
Work out the width of the margin plank from the literature, cut it by hand from sheet and let the deck planks into the margin plank at the bow (joggling). 7 steps Deck planking with caulking seam and four-butt shift
Cut the planks to length, apply the caulking seam with an oil-based pencil, scrape and mark them, and lay them in a four-butt shift from the king plank out to the margin plank. 4 steps Deck planking plank by plank
Glue each plank separately and only cut the next one off the long strip once the previous one is fixed, so that the caulking seam runs on and the planks stay the same width. 9 steps Planking the upper deck off the ship with thread as caulking seam
Plank the upper deck off the ship with a king plank, 0.15 mm thread between the planks as caulking seam and temporary bulkheads underneath against warping, then scrape and oil.

Problems you run into here (5)

ProblemFix
Deck planking (practice run on the false deck)
The 1x4 mm tanganyika strips splinter when the caulking seam is applied; some strips are rougher or narrower, and the rasp leaves scratches in the deck.		Sort the strips beforehand, lightly chamfer (break) the edges, blacken the edge over its full thickness and pre-sand the strips with 320 grit.
in the register
Margin plank
Cutting the margin plank from wood with a cutting plotter (Brother ScanNCut) failed: rounded corners, shifted cuts and ragged notches.		Made the margin plank by hand with hobby knife blades, finished on 30 March 2017.
in the register
Upper deck
The oil-based pencil for the caulking seams has run out and the shops are closed.		0.15 mm thread as caulking seam (real seams 7 to 9 mm).
in the register
Upper deck
Risk that the loose planked deck warps.		Temporarily glued bulkheads with the correct camber under the deck.
in the register
Upper deck
Because the planks were let in symmetrically, the lines at the waist and forecastle no longer line up.		Accepted as the only drawback.
in the register

In the build log

19 March 2017Sanding strips and a bulkhead that doesn't touch the batten
Piet teaches me to pre-sand strips with 320 grit, a glued-in bulkhead has to come out again, and at the sternpost bulkhead 14 doesn't touch the fairing batten. 30 March 2017The margin plank is finished
Piet supplies the rules for the margin plank (width, butt end one third, angled part at least one plank width) and after two days it lies complete on the deck. 1 April 2017The first planks and the joggling
Start of the deck planking: caulking seam with an oil-based pencil, scraping the planks and marking the grain direction, four-butt shift, and the first joggling at the bow. 1 July 2017First half done, and a better method
After a three-month break the first half of the gun deck is done, but the caulking seams are irregular; for the second half I glue one plank at a time and only then cut off the next one. 21 December 2020King plank laid, with a sheer under the deck
The home-made 5 mm king plank is down; after warnings about warping from Piet, Herby63 and Stephan I temporarily glue bulkheads with the correct sheer under the deck.