April brightwork

[Skipper599]

I thought I would like to have a Boom Gallows. I salvaged a chunk of good mahogany that used to be a mantleshelf over the fieplace in my den. Now it's a nicely shaped gallows all contoured and varnished along with bits and pieces of highly polished SS fittings that I made up myself.
I still need to make up a couple of fore&aft support brackets. This will be installed after everything else is done, so as to know there is room for everything on that little boat.

[Rachel]

Pretty! I sure am glad you have taken to posting photos :) And, good idea to wait on the support struts until you can see how they will interact with the rest of your deck hardware, rigging, and etc.

Now that I'm looking at yours, I have a general boom gallows question:
I've only used one set of boom gallows for more than an afternoon or so, and on them the notches cut for the boom were leathered. Is it just one of those things that everyone does differently and so you will always see some bare and some leathered? Or is it something that many/most people end up adding later for a good reason?

Rachel

[Skipper599]

Rachel, I think it all depends on the individual owner. I've thought about it myself and, I'll probably "leather" mine eventually, Just not right now. . . . First, i need to find some leather . . . which raises the question . . . Will any old leather do, or is there a specific type better suited to this application?
Come to think of it, I have no idea where one can buy leather in my town. Maybe a shoe repair shop? . . . we're such a throw away society, do people still have their shoes repaired?

[mitiempo]

Here's where:

[Hirilondë]

Will any old leather do, or is there a specific type better suited to this application?

I have always used elk hide for padding in gallows, boom crotches and the like. I always got it from the part guy, so no idea where to order it from.

[Rachel]

Ditto on the elk hide.

Although.... be careful. The piece I had was about 12" square and cost me over $2500.

(After I accidentally left it lying out, my dog naturally thought it was a rawhide toy for him and chewed it up into small pieces and swallowed them, thus necessitating expensive emergency surgery...)

[Hirilondë]

Although.... be careful. The piece I had was about 12" square and cost me over $2500.

Huh!?!?!?!?! 1 square foot of leather for $2500.00? I'm going to go buy some and sell it to Rachel ;>)

[Quetzalsailor]

Geeze! For $2500. you shoulda' gotten the whole Elk!

A moment on Google will give you $80-100/sf: http://www.crazycrow.com/mm5/merchant.m ... 45-200-000

Good grief! Even available on eBay: http://stores.ebay.com/1-Source-for-Lea ... 34.c0.m322

Also Sailrite, but it's moo-cow: http://search.sailrite.com/category/lea ... ing-canvas

Only Sailrite brags about using their stuff on boats. I don't know whether there might be differences to learn about. Certainly, the leather on my old oars was not Elk and eventually shrank and deteriorated The old Elk wheel cover did pretty well, outlasted the original thread and outlasted my replacement sailmakers thread before becoming too weak to hold stitches.

Bingo: http://www.boatleather.com/

[Skipper599]

Ditto on the elk hide.

Although.... be careful. The piece I had was about 12" square and cost me over $2500.

(After I accidentally left it lying out, my dog naturally thought it was a rawhide toy for him and chewed it up into small pieces and swallowed them, thus necessitating expensive emergency surgery...)

Sorry to hear about your experience Rachel, that was a very expensive piece of leather. Also a good reason why I do not own a dog. Vets sure know how to part people from their money.

[bigd14]

Its alway the labor that gets you- the leather UN-installation fee!

Hopefully the dog was the wiser for the experience...

[Rachel]

Its alway the labor that gets you- the leather UN-installation fee!

Exactly! Installing it was easy and virtually free ;)

Hopefully the dog was the wiser for the experience...

Well.... I was going to say that *I* was wiser, in not leaving things on the floor that looked obviously like they were dog-intended. But I had actually done something similar once about ten years earlier, when I accidentally left a chunk of "bar bait" on the floor after moving a cabinet (that's a peanut-butter flavored vermin poison). Luckily that one only cost me a Christmas/night/blizzard trip to the vet, a turkey baster, and some Vitamin K --- no surgery. Some humans never learn!