Bowsprit | Marking Up & Making Tapers

After cleaning up the glue I laid the laminated baulk of wood for the bowsprit on the bench and checked how true it was. It was pretty good, with a couple of slight high spots at either end.

Here I am marking up a high spot at one end.

 And here a high spot is being planed flat with the jack plane.

I checked the whole length of the baulk for squareness, as here.

It was all good, and ready for making the bowsprit.

The bowsprit tapers fore and aft - top and bottom, and both sides. 

We are provided with one pattern for the top and bottom faces, and one for the side faces. the first thing to do is to clamp the first pattern to the top and then the bottom face, and to mark in the tapers.

Like this.

Next we cut the tapers.

I tried using a long blade in the jigsaw but it was ineffective. In the end I used a sharp panel saw and cut them by hand. It was no trouble.

Then the tapers are planed flat and true, as in this pic.

It doesn't take too long with a good, sharp plane iron.

When all four tapers are finished, the second set of tapers is marked up. Here the second pattern is clamped to the sides of the bowsprit and the tapers are pencilled in.

Again, the tapers were cut with a hand saw. As here.

Again, the tapers are planed flat and true on the bench. Like this.

The next and final stage is to make the chamfers. This is fun!