The main task of the day was to take the sampson post and cut it to size, shape it and add the mortice.
Having cut the post such that 8″ extended above the deck, I cut a significant chamfer on the four corners and the top. The hole for the crossbar was added, it is a little loose since the bar is Imperial and my drill bits are metric, but that will be sorted out with a little sealant.
The corners of the rest of the post were given a lesser chamfer which is to prevent whatever coating I use below the deck from wearing thin around a 90º corner.
The result is above. Not at all bad.
This is the result when put into the boat. The whole thing so far took around two hours as I’m being very careful such that I don’t mess anything up as that would probably require starting from scratch and I don’t want to do that.
Time for a cup of tea.
Once I had finished my tea break I started on the mortice. I used tape on the post so that if I messed up the measurements, I could remove the tape and start again. I didn’t but that might be because it didn’t matter.
The next part, cutting the mortice, took some time. This is because I’m not a finish carpenter and I rarely make mortices by hand. The cut-off mixing stick was used a a depth gauge, the correct depth being that pencil mark, and I made sure to sharpen the chisel several times during the operation as Oak is tough.
The fit is very good. I did make the mortice 5mm above the deck level so that there is plenty of room to put a bead of mastic around the joint between the deck and the post to prevent water ingress.
Notice I didn’t say sealant.
That’s because the sealant is also an adhesive and I want to be able to get this out regularly and adhesive would prevent that.
Only one more thing remains to work on the sampson post before it may be coated with something and that is some way to prevent the post from popping out of the footer whilst in use. I intend to use a drop nose pin below the deck for this purpose and that task will have to wait until the pin arrives.
I finished the day by sanding the forehatch and the port galley locker door and applying some varnish. In keeping with the Charles Stock paint and varnish tradition, only the loose varnish was removed, the test was just sanded.
Time for a cup of tea.