Thread: Seeking some hand tools for Bosun of the Duyfken ship replica

hi Clint,
I don't have either of those tools, but I noticed today that Hans Brunner has just listed a shipwright's adze.
See here:
New Listings

Cheers
SG

I've seen these in action at the Living Boat Trust shaping the new stem of the Gretchen. a day sailer that's undergoing some major maintenance. I'd never associated axes with fine woodworking but in the hands of an expert, it's interesting to watch

I'll ask down at the boatshed tonight if anyone has adzes/axes for sale or knows where to get them.

Hi Clint, I was lucky enough to take a tour of the Duyfken when it was in Weipa, 10 or so years ago.
I used to do a lot of fishing off the point named after the original ship, there is also a Janz Point named after the Captain.
I still have a poster of the ship ( that I still havent framed yet ) and a polo shirt with the Duyfken on it.
One of the local turners up there make some wooden sheeves for it while it was docked, I wonder if they are still in service ? I think from memory he used Red Stringybark (Darwin Stringy).

Hope you find the tools you are after .

I'm not sure this is helpful, but Peter Follansbee posted this about broad axes: the hatchet « Peter Follansbee, joiner's notes

Hi Clint,
I have a Gilpin Adze head you can have if you want it although its not a shipwrights Adze. Just needs a handle. Happy to donate it. Im in WA so tickets won't be much use although Im sure another forumite would like them. Let us know. I work for Aae so I can ship it for next to nothing.
Cheers
D

I have a pair of broadaxes with the offset handles. I think it would be a bit pricey to ship them halfway around the world though. They aren't small.

Thanks for that, I will check with the bosun and see if any others crop up

Fascinating search you are undertaking, Clint.

I stopped at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney (literally) for a week last year when returning the vintage yacht Westward to the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. We found the staff and volunteers to be very gracious hosts, and were absolutely fascinated by the behind the scenes insights into this great museum. It is the people that make it so.

I am no expert on the history of shipwright's tools of the sixteenth century - but guess Duyfken would have been built using hand-forged iron adzes and broad-axes. No doubt there were then national and regional variations in tools, and later the designs and materials would have evolved slowly over the next 400 years as steel was invented and perfected and then evolved quickly with mechanical manufacture, mass production and then be superceded by power tools.

Your seemingly simple search could be the start of a longer journey.

Best of Luck

Graeme

This is a pretty exciting thing you are trying to do ClintO.

As just pointed out, you're after hand-forged tools. We're talking pre-industrial revolution and those tools are a bit outside the scope of your average collector.

They're the sort of tools that you need to have made. Ultimately it might be best to track down someone that still does traditional blacksmithing.

Here's what the handles would look like. Do have a good look at this, we sort of take for granted how much of our handtools are made of steel now.
The Learning City - Tools - Page 1 of 8
Really sad that salt water is so hard on iron.

The Mary Rose is slightly earlier than the Duyvken, but still from a similar era. So what the ships carpenter on her used would have been pretty much what was used on the Duyvken...can't think why it wouldn't be.

As above, best of luck. It's an excellent thing you're doing.

cheers
Sean (The great-great-grandson of a ship's carpenter, sit yourself down and I'll tell you all about it....hey...where'd he go?)

Normally I am a pedantic person but to find 400 year old tools is a bit beyong my resources. Perhaps if I was in Europe it might be a different matter.
At the moment I would be happy with things that "look old", 100+ years or so.
Whe up and running perhaps we may find some more authentic tools

I have copies of 'Before the Mast' and 'Mary Rose - Your Noblest Ship' which cover most of the woodworking material, both tool remains and wood products, from the Mary Rose, and I just got 'Weapons of Warre' which covers the gun carriages & wood parts of the weapons.

I also have the first English language volume from the Vasa excavations, which shows the speed at which gun carriages were changing.

If you need some reference material, I might be able to bring them by or arrange scans of relevant material.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that, I will try and get to the Maritime museum library and see what they have first

BTW - Before the Mast is out of print, and the Mary Rose Trust has advised they will not be reprinting it in any form, despite lots of interest from the public and book sellers. I did note that the Trust bookshop still lists it as available for <50 pounds, otherwise you are looking at trying to get a 2nd hand copy from one of the on-line gougers.