Now that the bottom and sides of the main pontoon for the Rufe are
sheeted, I thought I'd have a change of pace by making the balsa nose piece.
This balsa block happens to be
more dense and heavier than need be but it was the only material on hand
that was large enough so off I went. After hand saws, coping saws took it
down to size, I went at it with sharpened chisels and gouges, followed by
lots of 60 grit sanding and shaping until I got to the outline I copied off
the plans and transferred the outline to the centerlines of the main block
sawed right down the middle. Once the profile outlines were reached on both
halves, they were glued together and the top view outline was transferred to
the piece.
The top outline was had by lots of hand sanding and once reached,
whatever was left between these two datum lines was sanded down to a smooth
even transition. I finished the rough sanded piece with the obligatory
hollowing out as pointed out on the plans. Lots of elbow grease used up in
this 6 1/2 hr. session.