Horns

A curved lime branch is roughly carved into a keel horn.

Hook, tongue and groove assembly for a keel horn has begun

And in close-up.

The raw keel horn is mounted for centre marking with a plumb line from the reference wire in the ceiling.

The almost finished keel horn mounted for directional control.

The joint between horn and bottom plank is almost complete

The boat is being taken down from the bed and moved to the front of the room. There must be room for the railing horn in height.
And the space behind the boat must be used for other purposes.

The boat has now been given its final place in the workshop and set up by reference wire in the ceiling.
The railing horn is set up for marking.

The extension of the stem block is cut to act as an tongue in a tongue and groove joint with the railing horn.
It is unclear how the horn was made: a natural branch on the stem of the stem block, or as here, attached.

The railing horn is roughly shaped and the groove is finished.

Fine-tune the butt joint against the tail block.

The tongue and groove assembly is almost in place. We need to remove some of the underside of the tongue and glue it in place.

The final adjustments to the assembly. The keel horn is secured with a pair of temporary dowels.

Finalising the surface of the horn.

A hole is cut in the keel horn for the outer locking plate.

Making a rivet hole to secure the outer locking plate.

The outer locking plate is mounted aft.

Measure up to the outer locking plate at the stem.

There is now a rectangular hole in the railing horn and a similarly shaped hole in the keel horn.
These are aligned in relation to each other.

The outer locking plate is inserted and holes are made for the locking pins. The keel horn is not yet glued in place, to install the locking plate, remove the keel horn and push the locking plate all the way up into the railing horn before reinstalling the keel horn and pushing the locking plate back down.

The outer locking plate is now in place. The keel horn can now be glued to the bottom plank and all four locking pins fitted.