Building the Oneida's Deck Knees

Building the Oneida's Deck Knees

Two types of knees are used to secure the deck to the sides of the hull. The hanging knees fits at the side of the deck beam and against the clamps, the lodging knees fit horizontal between the deck beams. To begin fitting the deck knees the hanging knees are set into place first. Note the small square gap between the back of the knee and the frames, this will be filled in with the lodging knee.

Before the lodging knee is notched into the hanging knee it must first fit so it sits flat against the beam and bulwark frames. By trimming down the face of the bulwark frames and the edge of the knee a tight fit can be achieved.

Here the knee has been lodged between the bulwarks, deck beam and notched into the hanging knee. The knees for beams 2, 3 and 4 have been cut oversize to allow for trimming and fitting to the bulwarks. Each set of knees all along the deck have to be trimmed to fit in its proper location. You can cheat a little with the fitting of the knee against the bulwarks because planking will cover the gap.

The lodging knee is notched around the hanging knee by holding it against the bulwarks and making a cut mark with a scalpel. Then slide the knee so it rests against the side of the beck beam and cut a mark to the thickness of the hanging knee.

Looking very close you can see the cut mark made by the scalpel. The notching work on the knees is very small compared to the dime you can see the mark is about the same as a straight edge of a letter.

Here you can see the two cut marks. I make it a habit to cut a wedge in the side that is removed.

This step of the notch making is a little delicate. The knee was set in a vice to hold it firm while the cut is made with an ultra fine razor saw. Don't cut all the way down to the level of the second cut mark. There will have to be some final adjusting made to get the knee fitting tight.

Once the notch has been sawn out to about the finished size a #11 scalpel is used to take very thin slices off both sides until the knee fits tight in its place.