Making Edge Protection *PICS*
William R. Duffield on the Cohansey
>Sometimes, I have to take my edge tools out of the protective environment of my shop. I have found these old slicks, for example, to be useful down inside a schooner, when replacing deck beams and planks. The original blue plastic edge protector went missing somewhere in the 3" one's approx. 130 year history, so I made a couple of replacements. Not only do they protect the edges from the elements, they protect the ships' carpenters from the slicks.
Easy to make, they're even easier to use. I started with a couple of teak scraps and put a loose fitting mortise in one edge, drilled a hole, cut a notch with a file, and then drilled two more holes and carved them into the shape of a cleat. Make the mortise shallow enough to provide a substantial foundation for the cleat.
A length of line with a double overhand stopper knot in one end completes it. To install, hold the slick by the handle, edge up, and drop the protector into place, wrap the line as shown in the photo: Pull the stopper knot up tight against the hole, bring the line down across one face, around the back of the handle, up and across the same face, over the notch, down and across the opposite face, around the front of the handle, and back up and across the face. Then cleat it off, tie a figure eight stopper knot in the bitter end and cut the line to length. With stoppers in both ends, you can't misplace the line.