First spring shower. Rivet plugs

Installing plugs on Farm80 prove to work fine: after one night they all sit tight with few exceptions where screw head was close to the plank surface.

To cut them flush I experimented with Japanese saw which is bendy but it was too easy to dent the hull while cutting. I used the standard method instead: cutting with chisel, along the grain. First stroke to remove most of the plug and then shaving the rest flush with hull. Stupidly sharp chisels are the key here. In some cases - with bigger plugs - it is important to follow grain direction, otherwise shaving leaves tear-out. The first stroke gives the answer what is the wood grain direction.

After cutting all of them I primed them with iron oxide paint (järnmönja) and then, just in case, covered with thin layer of Farm 80, just to seal them.

Then I moved on to prepare the hull for varnish. Originally I planned to varnish today but there was strong wind which was blowing dust clouds around. Not good for varnish job, tomorrow the weather should be more suitable.

I matted the hull with scotch-brite. Tedious job which takes around 3h but much more pleasant than doing that with machine.

Next step was to clean the boat from all dust before varnishing. Normally I would vacuum the hull but now I have a luxury of being alone in this part of boatyard so I simply showered the whole boat. Much simpler and yields better result - also by wetting the ground around so dust is not rising when people walk in vicinity.

Before I finished washing the other side the first was already dry. That’s why we need to hurry up with putting Meritaten back into her element!