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By Dan Beard
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Just what an Ingenious Boy Must Do to Build It: Detailed Instructions as to How to Make the Boat and How to Rig It.
Good straight-grained pine wood is, without doubt, the best "all-around" wood for a boy's use. It is easily whittled with a pocket-knife; it works smoothly under a plane; can be sawed without fatiguing the young carpenter; it is elastic, pliable, and cheap; therefore use pine lumber to build your boat.
Examine the lumber pile carefully and select four boards nearly alike. Do not allow the dealer or his men to talk you into taking lumber with blemishes. The side-pieces should be of straight-grained wood, with no large knots and no "checks" (cracks) in them, and must not be "wind shaken."
Measure the wood and see that it is over twenty-two feet long by one foot four or five inches wide and one inch thick. Trim two of the side-pieces until they are exact duplicates (Fig. 160a).
The stern-piece (or bow-piece) should be made from a triangular piece of oak (Fig. 166), and it is wise to make it a few inches longer than will be necessary, so that there may be no danger of finding, after all your labor, that the stick is too short; much better too long, for it is a simple matter to saw it off. Make a second stem-piece (Fig. 167) of oak about one inch thick and the same length as the first, and two or three inches wide, or twice as wide as the thick-a of the side boards.
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