The locust-crook jaws for my Whitehall required a couple of extra-long rivets.
I recently needed a handful of long rivets to secure the sides of a centerboard trunk to its ledges and to fasten jaws to a boom. Even if I could even buy just 8 rivets, I didn’t want to wait several days for an online order so I decided to make my own. I started with some copper water pipe I had on hand and some 6-gauge copper grounding wire (about 5/32″ in diameter) sold by the foot or in coils from the electrical department of the local home-improvement store.There are two things wrong with the wire as it comes off the spool: it’s round and it’s soft. Boat rivets are square to keep them from rotating as the wood around them moves; leaks would follow the slow wearing away of the wood. By hammering the wire I could make it square and at the same time work-harden the copper to make it rigid enough to drive into the slightly undersized holes I’d drill in the wood pieces I was assembling.
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Comments (7)
Chris, this idea sounds like something that I would think of or try. You did a good job with the rivets. Thanks.
Thank you sir, for the excellent idea. There are quite a number of instances on wooden boats and their parts where rivets are preferable to screws or bolts, particularly for longer lengths. The peening of the shank on the rove creates a lot of pressure to fit the parts together too! Your mention of working a strip of copper by hammering that hardens the material making it stiffer is another gem of practical knowledge.
Good description of using skills now almost forgotten to make what you need from what you can source locally rather than just going out andbuying it. I’ll remember this tip!
I especially like the home-made roves. Is there a technique to prevent bending the long rivet when doing the final peening?
After the long rivets are driven into the predrilled holes,they just require the same process and care you’d use with any other rivet. The greatest part of the rivet is snug and supported in the hole and not likely to bend. It’s only the part that’s protruding that’s prone to bending. After applying the rove, nip the end of the rivet to length, leaving just enough for peeing. Any excess invites bending. Peen with light tapping, lots of it, rather than nail-driving whacks.
Nice DIY article. Thanks, Christopher. I will use this one!!
In the late 40s, early 50s, I helped my father build cedar-on-oak boats. The rivets we used were purchased. Their shafts were round with a flat head and the roves were copper washers. After the holes were drilled through the plank and rib, the rivet was driven in hard enough to countersink the head about 1/16″,and the rove was added on the inside and the rivet was nipped.
To set the rivet, we used two tools. My father, in the inside of the boat, had an air hammer with a slightly concave hammer face. I had the “stop-iron” (not sure of the name) which was a 15″ length of solid 1″ bronze shaft, with a 3/8″ steel rod about 2″ long embedded in the end of the shaft, sticking out about an inch. On the other end was a 1″ thick “pancake” pad which enabled me to push the steel rod against the rivet head. Dad would use the air hammer in a slightly circular manner to put a neat crown on the inner end of the rivet, then yell: “Next!” I’d move to the next rivet and yell: “Ready.” This was repeated about every 5 seconds.
Christopher, thank you for the article and triggering some wonderful memories of a 10 year old kid living in Bay Head, NJ, surrounded by three working boat building yards, Hubert Johnson’s, Morton Johnson’s and Johnson Brothers.
all photographs by the author
Chris, this idea sounds like something that I would think of or try. You did a good job with the rivets. Thanks.
Thank you sir, for the excellent idea. There are quite a number of instances on wooden boats and their parts where rivets are preferable to screws or bolts, particularly for longer lengths. The peening of the shank on the rove creates a lot of pressure to fit the parts together too! Your mention of working a strip of copper by hammering that hardens the material making it stiffer is another gem of practical knowledge.
Good description of using skills now almost forgotten to make what you need from what you can source locally rather than just going out andbuying it. I’ll remember this tip!
I especially like the home-made roves. Is there a technique to prevent bending the long rivet when doing the final peening?
After the long rivets are driven into the predrilled holes,they just require the same process and care you’d use with any other rivet. The greatest part of the rivet is snug and supported in the hole and not likely to bend. It’s only the part that’s protruding that’s prone to bending. After applying the rove, nip the end of the rivet to length, leaving just enough for peeing. Any excess invites bending. Peen with light tapping, lots of it, rather than nail-driving whacks.
Nice DIY article. Thanks, Christopher. I will use this one!!
In the late 40s, early 50s, I helped my father build cedar-on-oak boats. The rivets we used were purchased. Their shafts were round with a flat head and the roves were copper washers. After the holes were drilled through the plank and rib, the rivet was driven in hard enough to countersink the head about 1/16″,and the rove was added on the inside and the rivet was nipped.
To set the rivet, we used two tools. My father, in the inside of the boat, had an air hammer with a slightly concave hammer face. I had the “stop-iron” (not sure of the name) which was a 15″ length of solid 1″ bronze shaft, with a 3/8″ steel rod about 2″ long embedded in the end of the shaft, sticking out about an inch. On the other end was a 1″ thick “pancake” pad which enabled me to push the steel rod against the rivet head. Dad would use the air hammer in a slightly circular manner to put a neat crown on the inner end of the rivet, then yell: “Next!” I’d move to the next rivet and yell: “Ready.” This was repeated about every 5 seconds.
Christopher, thank you for the article and triggering some wonderful memories of a 10 year old kid living in Bay Head, NJ, surrounded by three working boat building yards, Hubert Johnson’s, Morton Johnson’s and Johnson Brothers.