Woodworking Tip of the Day: Epoxy Working Time

Shop epoxy answers to heat and batch size — not to your stopwatch….. A cup that looks fine at mix time can kick while you're still tooling the second fillet. Batch size, shop temp, and the early warning signs of a kick — that's today's tip.

Why it matters: On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory (or any stitch-and-glue / cold-molded hull), you're constantly mixing small epoxy batches for scarfs, fillets, and wet-out. Mix too big and the pot cooks itself before the work is done. Mix in a hot shop with Fast hardener and you get the same result faster. WEST SYSTEM / Gougeon publish the numbers — pot life for a confined 100 g mass, working time for a thin film — and the shop rule is simple: small batches, right hardener for the temperature, pour out of the cup when you need time.

Materials

• WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin (or equivalent marine epoxy) with the hardener matched to shop temp and job size — 205 Fast or 206 Slow for most boatshop work; 209 Extra Slow (or G/flex) when it's hot or the pour is deep
• Calibrated mini pumps or careful 5:1 by-volume metering for 205/206 (do not change the ratio to "slow it down")
• Clean plastic / metal / wax-free paper mixing pots — no foam, no glass
• Wide, shallow roller pan for coating jobs
• Filler (as needed) mixed in after resin and hardener are thoroughly blended

Tools

• Mixing sticks (scrape sides, bottom, and corners)
• Gloves, respirator / good ventilation when a pot starts to heat
• Shop thermometer — know whether you're closer to 60°F or 85°F before you pick a hardener
• Clamps / fillet sticks / scarf setup staged before you mix

Steps

1. Pick hardener for shop temp and job, not for hope. At ~72°F, WEST SYSTEM 105/205 Fast: pot life (100 g) 9–12 minutes, thin-film working time 60–70 minutes, solid in thin film 6–8 hours (min temp 40°F). 105/206 Slow: pot life 20–25 minutes, working 90–110 minutes, solid 10–15 hours (min temp 60°F). Hotter shop or big laminate → reach for Slow / Extra Slow. Colder shop → Fast is often the right tool, and you'll mix a little longer.
2. Meter the ratio — never "adjust" it for time. 205 and 206 are 5 parts resin : 1 part hardener by volume. Changing the hardener amount does not control cure speed; it creates a mix that may never fully cure and will have weak physical properties (Gougeon / Epoxyworks). Use pumps or marked straight-sided pots.
3. Match batch size to the job. Fillets and scarfs: a few ounces, mix as you go. Spot bonding: same. Coating / glass: mix, then immediately pour into a roller pan so heat dissipates and thin-film working time applies. Large laminations: pre-measure several small batches ahead; mix one at a time; prefer 206 or 209. Do not cast thicker than ½″ in one pour (thinner if foam-insulated).
4. Respect the 18°F rule and the cup. Every 18°F above 72°F roughly halves cure time (Epoxyworks). A confined mass builds its own heat — WEST notes a 100 g mass can reach ~400°F, and 8+ fl oz in a plastic cup can melt the cup and burn skin. Same quantity spread thin cures at ambient pace.
5. Watch for kick warning signs — then stop using that pot. WEST calls the start of gel the "kick-off" / green stage: the mix thickens and flows slower, the cup may warm (and in a runaway can froth/smoke), then it goes tacky gel → hard rubber and is no longer workable. If the pot heats up: move it outdoors, don't breathe the fumes, wait until cool before disposal, and mix a fresh small batch. Don't try to "save" kicked epoxy on a scarf.
6. Stage the work before you pump. Clamps open, fillet sticks ready, scarf faces wet-out planned. Pot life is a lab number for 100 g in a cup — your real clock is shop temp + how much is sitting in that pot. Work the clock; don't argue with it.

MOAM's shop note: Biggest miss is mixing one giant cup "so I don't have to stop" — then watching it kick while the second scarf is still dry. Second miss: running Fast hardener in an 85°F shop because that's what was on the shelf. Third: thinning the mix with extra hardener "to buy time" (it doesn't — it ruins the cure). Prefer small batches. Prefer the slow hardener when it's warm. Prefer pouring coating mixes into a pan. That's how epoxy stays a tool instead of a science experiment gone hot.

MOAM Out.

New Real Estate Listings on the North Shore Today – Saturday, October 3

New Listings Today – North Shore 29 Towns

Saturday's looking lively on the North Shore….. 17 new listings hit John's 29 North Shore towns in the last 24 hours.

Top towns: Lynn leads with 4, Beverly close behind with 3, then Peabody and Gloucester with 2 apiece. Salem, Danvers, Marblehead, Hamilton, Ipswich and Lynnfield each added 1. That's 10 of the 29 towns with something fresh this morning.

By property type: Residential Lease (rentals) 9 · Residential 5 · Residential Income (multi-family) 2 · Commercial Lease 1.

The MOAM's take: rentals make up more than half of today's new inventory, so if you're hunting a lease on the North Shore, this is a good morning to look.

Contact Nanepashemet to view these.
Nanepashemet Real Estate Services
Call or text 781-727-6516
jnestor@nanepashemet.com

MOAM Out.

Listing data courtesy of MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN); listings shown are held by various brokerages. Nanepashemet Real Estate Services, MA Broker Lic. 136995-RE-B.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Saturday, Oct. 3

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. the B's went to OT in Winnipeg last night and they're right back at it in Minnesota tonight — while Sunday in Orchard Park sits one sleep away.

Short version: Bruins (2-0-0) lead the Atlantic after a 4–3 OT win at Winnipeg; tonight it's Minnesota at 8. Patriots rest until Buffalo Sunday at 1 on CBS. Red Sox season is done. Celtics still waiting on preseason tip next Thursday.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• After that: Sun, Oct. 11 — 1:00 PM ET — vs Las Vegas Raiders (home)
• Standings: 1-2 · 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2); Buffalo 3-0 leads · Dolphins 0-3 sit 4th
• Last result: L 6–35 @ Jacksonville (Sep. 27)

Quiet Saturday. Tomorrow it's undefeated Buffalo in Orchard Park at 1 on CBS. Bring your coffee early.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday / Today: No games — eliminated, season over
• Last series: Swept in AL Wild Card by Yankees (G1 L 0–9, G2 L 2–9)
• Next: Offseason
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · Eliminated in AL Wild Card

October closed in the Bronx. Cap tip to a wild-card club that got there the hard way — now the long winter, and the other three sports carry the local board.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Then (preseason): Sat, Oct. 10 — 8:00 PM ET — vs Philadelphia 76ers (home)
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26.

Still quiet on the parquet. First preseason tip is five days out in Cleveland.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: W 4–3 (OT) @ Winnipeg Jets
• Today: Sat, Oct. 3 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Minnesota Wild
• Then: Mon, Oct. 5 — 7:30 PM ET — vs Ottawa Senators (home)
• Standings: 2-0-0 · 1st in Atlantic · 4 points (Florida 1-0-1, 3 pts sits 2nd)

Back-to-back road wins would taste good. Winnipeg in OT last night; Minnesota tonight; home vs Ottawa Monday. Stay loud.

That's the Saturday board, folks. Hockey night in Minnesota, football Sunday in Buffalo. Enjoy it.

MOAM Out.

New England This Morning — October 3, 2026

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Saturday morning just served up three classic New England moods — a golden Marblehead sunrise, a summit sitting pretty above the clouds, and Vermont fall color still holding strong.

Marblehead Harbor (BYC Oceanfront) — Clear sunrise flaring low over a calm harbor packed with moored boats. Soft gold on the water, deep blue overhead, and the Boston Yacht Club pier waking up quiet.

Mount Washington North View — Above a full sea of clouds. Rocky summit in the clear under bright blue sky, with a little lens moisture — and the valleys underneath completely socked in. Cam stamp 7:42 AM.

Great Eddy Covered Bridge, Waitsfield — Bright morning sun over the Mad River, peak orange and gold foliage, and the covered bridge reflecting in still water. (Stream weather graphic can lag; the live scene is the bridge and fall color.)

Southern New England looks sunny and pleasant later — high near 64°F around Boston, mostly clear tonight.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Greenfield columnist writes Trump his Stalingrad

Greenfield just mailed Trump his Moscow and his Stalingrad — and the MOAM's reading it cold. A retired professor writing for the Greenfield Recorder — western Mass, our backyard — just cast the midterms as Napoleon's retreat and Hitler's last stand, then casually prescribed martial law as the “best solution.” Easy, quick, and foolproof, he says. Down here in Marblehead we know a fever dream when we smell one.

What was said

On Friday, October 2, 2026, Jon Huer — retired professor and regular “As I See It” columnist for the Greenfield Recorder — published “As I See It: Napoleon's Moscow, Hitler's Stalingrad and Trump's America.”

He opens with powers that would make a history department blush:

“Donald Trump, our sitting president and the leader of the free world, who holds the fate of his nation and the world in his hands with powers greater than Napoleon's and Hitler's combined, is facing his own political end…”

Then the midterms become Moscow and Stalingrad:

“On Nov. 3, he will either meet his Moscow and Stalingrad and lose everything he cherishes or will cement his name in history as the greatest conqueror of the world.”

Lose the House and Senate, and the ledger is sealed:

“If he loses his majority in the House and the Senate, his whole political fate — just like Napoleon's and Hitler's before him — will be sealed.”

And here comes the cure — not a poll, not a platform, martial law:

“The best solution for him, as it's so plain to see, is to prevent Nov. 3 from ever coming to America: Declaring martial law and letting the army take over America, in the name of its commander in chief, seems high on his strategic plan — just for the simplicity of its execution: Easy, quick, and foolproof.”

Aftermath? America's Armageddon:

“everything we've known as ‘liberal America,’ ‘citadel of democracy,’ ‘shining city on a hill,’ etc., etc., will never come back, amid unimaginable civil war and chaos that will be America's Armageddon.”

Source: Jon Huer, Greenfield Recorder, Oct 2, 2026

Context (not spin)

You can handicap the midterms. You can argue that a president who loses both chambers of Congress is politically boxed in — that's Civics 101, and fair game for any columnist from Greenfield to Georgetown. Serious people write serious takes about November.

What Huer did is not a midterm preview. He stacked Napoleon and Hitler in the same sentence, gave Trump “powers greater than… combined,” cast Nov. 3 as Moscow and Stalingrad, then announced that martial law / army takeover is the “best solution” and “high on his strategic plan” because it's “Easy, quick, and foolproof” — before closing on “America's Armageddon.” That is not strategy analysis. That is apocalypse fan fiction with a local byline.

If the argument is “Trump faces a tough midterm map,” say that. Cite the districts, the polls, the generic ballot. What you don't get — not if you want anybody west of Franklin County to take the “democracy in peril” lecture seriously — is a column that scripts martial law as the sitting president's preferred Plan A and calls the aftermath America's Armageddon. That's not analysis. That's the end-times channel with a Recorder masthead.

MOAM's diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

When “powers greater than Napoleon's and Hitler's combined,” midterms-as-Moscow-and-Stalingrad, martial law as the “best solution,” “Easy, quick, and foolproof,” and “America's Armageddon” all land in one western Mass column, we are past spicy local opinion and into clinical territory. Presidents can lose elections. Columnists can be dramatic. Neither requires a Greenfield byline to hand the commander in chief a martial-law cheat code and call the result Armageddon. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a hard midterm take and a Napoleon–Hitler–Armageddon sandwich with coffee. Save the democracy lecture for the evidence. Save the martial-law bedtime story for the fiction shelf.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Steam Bending Frames

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. steam-bent frames. Blank size, springback, and overbend — the three things that separate a frame that lies sweet against the planking from a pile of expensive kindling.

Why it matters: On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory (or any traditional plank-on-frame boat), steam-bent oak or ash frames take the hull's curve with continuous grain — stronger and fairer than a sawn frame that chops the grain at the turn of the bilge. WoodenBoat shops and Fine Woodworking both hammer the same shop truth: wood will compress a lot and stretch almost not at all, every bend springs back some, and you set the form from a test blank — not from wishful percentages.

Materials

• Straight-grained, knot-free bending stock — white oak or ash preferred for boat frames (hickory, elm, walnut also bend well); air-dried when you can get it
• Blank cross-section at least as wide as it is thick (square or wider); leave extra to saw to final molded width after the bend dries
• Plywood or particleboard for a bending form (laminate to about the blank's width) plus a lighter drying form/rack if you're bending a batch
• Steel compression strap with end stops (Veritas/Lee Valley style or shop-built)
• Optional: warm-water soak for thick stock preconditioning toward ~15–25% moisture (WoodenBoat / Jagels)

Tools

• Steam box + boiler — get a full head of steam before you start the clock
• Heavy gloves, clamps staged and open, form bolted to the bench
• Moisture meter (handy for "is it dry enough to come off the rack?")
• Test blank from the same board and thickness as the real frames

Steps

1. Size the blank right. Wood Magazine's hard stop: never bend a workpiece thicker than its width — under pressure it thins at the bend and the sides bulge. Bend square or wider; when dry, saw to the final frame width. Straight grain, no knots, minimal runout. For ring-porous oak, WoodenBoat (Jagels) likes the radial / quartersawn face toward the inside and outside of the bend so you're not peeling earlywood on the tension face.
2. Build overbend into the form — from a test. Every steamed piece springs back some when you unclamp. There is no universal shop percentage that trustworthy sources will swear by (Fine Woodworking: springback is not an exact science). Cut a sacrificial blank from the same stock, bend it, cool it, measure against the drawing, and tighten the form until the relaxed curve hits your target. WoodenBoat frame-benders add overbend on purpose — especially in the straighter upper sections — because you can always relax an overbent frame a little, and you almost never add bend after it cools.
3. Steam on the clock, don't overcook. Classic rule of thumb (Wood Magazine, Fortune/FWW, Jagels/WoodenBoat): about one hour of full steam per inch of thickness. Start the timer only after the box is truly steaming. Jagels notes many good bends at 20–30 minutes per inch when stock is already at 20–30% MC — so test short before you cook long. Oversteaming makes wood brittle or wrinkly on the compression face (Fortune: don't push a 1″ blank toward three hours).
4. Strap the convex face, bend hot, clamp fast. Wood compresses roughly 20–30% and stretches only about 1–2% (Jagels). Put the metal compression strap on the outside (convex) of the blank with end stops snug enough for a slight arc — too loose tears fibers; too tight raises compression wrinkles (Fortune). Have the jig ready before the lid lifts. A 1″ blank stays usefully pliable on the order of ~10 minutes (Fortune); thicker buys a bit more time. Clamp through any kink rather than muscling past it.
5. Cool, then dry — then fit. Leave the piece on the form to cool. Fortune pulls the steel strap after about an hour (tannins + steel stain oak). Transfer to a drying form/rack and let it dry down (furniture shops often wait for ~7–8% MC, about a week — use a meter). Boat shops often install cold once the curve has set. If you overshot the bend, a wet rag on the concave face (and gentle heat) can relax it a little (FWW). Do not try to crank more bend into a cold frame.
6. Install without residual fight. WoodenBoat's bench-bending method (chain gauge / Crosby timber mold + strap) aims for frames that lie against ribbands or planking with almost no paper gap and no leftover tension. That's the goal on the Marblehead dory too: fair, quiet wood — not a frame you have to bully home with fastenings.

MOAM's shop note: Biggest miss is skipping the test blank and guessing an overbend percentage off the internet. Second miss: bending a tall skinny blank (thicker than wide) and wondering why it mushroomed. Third: oversteaming "just to be sure," then watching the inside face wrinkle or the blank snap brittle. Prefer overbend. Prefer a strap. Prefer air-dried oak or ash with honest grain. Steam once, bend once, let it dry — that's how frames earn their keep from loft to bilge.

MOAM Out.

New Real Estate Listings on the North Shore Today – Friday, October 2

New Listings Today – North Shore 29 Towns

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. 51 new listings hit the North Shore market in the last 24 hours across John's 29 North Shore towns.

Top towns: Lynn leads the way with 13, followed by Ipswich (4), then Saugus, Groveland and Amesbury with 3 apiece. Lynnfield, Peabody, Swampscott, Salem, Newburyport, Gloucester, Danvers and Beverly each added 2, and Rockport, Boxford, Essex, Salisbury, West Newbury, Merrimac, Hamilton, Rowley and Georgetown each added 1. That's 22 of the 29 towns with something new.

By property type: Residential 30 · Residential Lease (rentals) 12 · Residential Income (multi-family) 4 · Commercial Sale 2 · Commercial Lease 2 · Land 1.

The MOAM's take: Lynn alone brought about a quarter of today's new inventory, and rentals made up nearly one in four new listings, so renters have fresh options heading into the weekend too.

See the full list here: New Listings Today – North Shore 29 Towns

Contact Nanepashemet to view these.
Nanepashemet Real Estate Services
Call or text 781-727-6516
jnestor@nanepashemet.com

MOAM Out.

Listing data courtesy of MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN); listings shown are held by various brokerages. Nanepashemet Real Estate Services, MA Broker Lic. 136995-RE-B.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Friday, Oct. 2

 

Not for nuthin'…. But….. the B's are on the ice tonight in Winnipeg, and Sunday's trip to Orchard Park is the next football date on the board.

Short version: Bruins (1-0-0) visit the Jets at 8; Patriots rest until Buffalo; Red Sox season is done after the AL Wild Card sweep; Celtics still waiting on preseason tip next Thursday.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• After that: Sun, Oct. 11 — 1:00 PM ET — vs Las Vegas Raiders (home)
• Standings: 1-2 · T-2nd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2); Buffalo 3-0 leads · Dolphins 0-3 sit 4th
• Last result: L 6–35 @ Jacksonville (Sep. 27)

Quiet Friday. All eyes on Orchard Park Sunday at 1 on CBS — undefeated Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday / Today: No games — eliminated, season over
• Last series: Swept in AL Wild Card by Yankees (G1 L 0–9, G2 L 2–9)
• Next: Offseason
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · Eliminated in AL Wild Card

October closed in the Bronx. Cap tip, then the long winter. Football and hockey carry the local board now.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Then (preseason): Sat, Oct. 10 — 8:00 PM ET — vs Philadelphia 76ers (home)
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26.

Still quiet on the parquet. First preseason tip is less than a week out in Cleveland.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: No game (opener was Tue, Sep. 29: W 3–0 vs Rangers)
• Today: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets
• Then: Sat, Oct. 3 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Minnesota
• Standings: 1-0-0 · 2nd in Atlantic · 2 points (Florida 1-0-1, 3 pts leads the division)

Opening-night shutout still the last result. Road trip starts tonight in Winnipeg, then Minnesota tomorrow. Stay loud.

That's the Friday board, folks. Hockey night, football Sunday, Sox in the books. Enjoy it.

MOAM Out.

New England This Morning — October 2, 2026

Not for nuthin'…. But….. Friday morning just handed New England three very different moods — a golden harbor sunrise, a summit socked in tight, and a covered bridge wrapped in autumn color.

Marblehead Harbor (BYC Oceanfront) — Clear sunrise flaring over calm water and a full field of moored boats. Soft gold on the harbor, pale blue overhead, and the pier waking up quiet.

Mount Washington North View — Fully socked in. The North View cam is fogged and wet with zero visibility — classic summit moisture, timestamped this morning.

Great Eddy Covered Bridge, Waitsfield — Overcast Mad River morning with the wooden bridge reflecting in still water and fall oranges and golds holding strong on the banks. (Stream weather graphic can lag; the live scene is the bridge and foliage.)

Southern New England looks mostly sunny and warm later — high near 79°F around Boston, with a chance of showers tonight.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Prospect editor grades Trump against Hitler

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. when a co-founder of a major progressive magazine spends a whole column running a Hitler scorecard on the sitting president — and lands on “more unhinged than Hitler” as the punchline.

What was said

On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, Robert Kuttner — co-founder and editor of The American Prospect — published a column titled “Trump's No Good at Dictatoring.” The deck sets the mood: “Trump would like to be a supreme dictator, but his demented narcissism keeps undercutting his own schemes.”

Then comes the comparison. Exact words:

“When it comes to both shrewdness and ruthlessness, Trump doesn't hold a candle to Der Führer.”

January 6 gets the full Reichstag treatment:

“Trump was rather more like Hitler on the fateful day of January 6, 2021, when he encouraged brownshirt-style thugs to invade the Capitol and try to block certification of Joe Biden's election. That day was the equivalent of the Reichstag Fire of February 27, 1933…”

And the scorecard keeps rolling — Hitler better at delivering for his base, better at a welfare state, Speer vs. vanity projects — until Kuttner arrives here:

“To observe that Trump is more unhinged than Hitler is of course faint praise.”

Source: Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, Sep 30, 2026

Context (not spin)

You can dislike Trump's second term. You can argue about January 6, appointments, inflation, foreign policy — all day, with footnotes. Serious historians write serious books about how democracies die. Fine.

What Kuttner did is not a history seminar. He built an extended Hitler ledger in which Der Führer keeps winning the competence contest, cast January 6 as the Reichstag Fire, and closed the loop with “more unhinged than Hitler” as faint praise. That is not policy critique. That is the Godwin finish line with a magazine masthead.

If the argument is “Trump is a bad executive,” say that. Cite the bill, the poll, the battlefield. What you don't get — not if you want anybody outside the Prospect subscriber list to take the “democracy in peril” lecture seriously — is a column that grades the President of the United States against Adolf Hitler and finds Hitler the shrewder operator. That's not analysis. That's the ward with a library card.

MOAM's diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

When “doesn't hold a candle to Der Führer,” “brownshirt-style thugs,” “equivalent of the Reichstag Fire,” and “more unhinged than Hitler is of course faint praise” all land in one editor's column, we are past spicy progressive punditry and into clinical territory. Presidents can be wrong. Magazines can be sharp. Neither requires a Prospect co-founder to run a Hitler report card and call the worse-than-Hitler line faint praise. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a hard column and a history-channel fever dream with bylines. Save the democracy lecture for the evidence. Save the Führer scorecard for the museum.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Fairing Battens

Not for nuthin'…. But….. a fair curve isn't what your eyes hope for — it's what a good batten will agree to. Today's tip: fairing battens — picking stock that bends honest, spotting bumps and hollows, and fixing them before you cut good cedar.

Why it matters: Yesterday we spiled the plank shape off the boat. Today you connect those points (or fair a sheer, a mold edge, a ribband) with a batten. On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory, that fair line is the difference between a plank that lands sweet and one that fights every clamp. WoodenBoat (Bud McIntosh's lofting chapter) and Robert M. Steward both hammer the same truth: the batten finds fairness — you don't invent it with a French curve and wishful thinking.

Materials

• Fairing / lofting battens — clear, straight-grained, knot-free stock (clear white pine is the classic pleasant choice; straight-grained oak or ash when you need something very limber)
• A small quiver of sizes — stiffer for long gentle lines, thinner for tight stem / body-plan curves
• Colored chalk (blue carpenter's chalk works) for marking highs
• Fivepenny nails (or similar) to set as fence posts against the batten — not through it
• Optional: spare thin strips to shim a persistent low

Tools

• Pencil and a sharp eye (get your sight line parallel to the surface)
• Handplane / block plane for taking downs highs on wood you're shaping
• A light behind the batten edge (shop lamp, bright wall, or cardboard)
• Longboard or sanding stick when you're into fairing compound / finish fairing

Steps

1. Pick honest stock. Clear, straight grain, no knots, no wild swirl. A knot is a hard spot that kinks the curve and then snaps with no warning (every amateur boatbuilder learns this the expensive way). Steal battens from clear ribband / stock when you can, and hang them where feet and kids can't find them (WoodenBoat).
2. Match stiffness to the curve. Steward's rule, echoed all over the shops: start with the stiffest, largest batten that will still bend around the curve, then rip narrower if you must. A floppy batten will follow every mistake; a too-stiff one will break or refuse the turn. Long sheer lines want more backbone; tight stem and body-plan curves want limber stock (oak/ash under ⅜″ square in McIntosh's lofting kit — that's his example, not a universal cut list).
3. Set the fence posts. Drive nails at your known points (offsets, stations, spiling intersections). Pull the batten in against that row of posts. Hold it with nails driven against the batten, not through it, so you can ease it in or out (WoodenBoat).
4. Read unfairness. Sight along the batten with light behind the edge. A bump / high lifts the batten or takes chalk when you rub a chalked batten across the surface. A hollow / low shows as a gap under the edge (WoodenBoat fairing practice; Gougeon / Epoxyworks chalk-stick method). On lofting, the unfair station is the nail the batten refuses — move that nail, don't force the stick into a kink.
5. Correct, then re-check. Ease highs (plane / sand the high wood, or move the high nail toward the fair line). Fill or shim persistent lows — don't chase a hollow by digging the neighbors deeper. Iterate lightly overall; rushing one section is how you get a potato-chip fair. Done when a critical eye and the batten agree — ideally the batten touches everywhere without showing unfair bends (WoodenBoat).
6. Mark and move on. Once the batten lies fair, mark the line, pull the batten, and protect that stick like shop gold. Same battens serve lofting, ribband fairing, and connecting spiling points on the bench.

MOAM's shop note: Biggest miss is "helping" a stubborn station by shoving the batten into a kink so every nail looks touched — you've just drawn a lie into the plank. Second miss: a knotty scrap you swore was "good enough." Third: sanding a low spot instead of filling it, which digs the hollow deeper while the highs laugh at you. Keep a quiver. Start stiff. Trust the batten more than your optimism. That's how the Marblehead dory's curves stay honest from loft floor to last plank.

MOAM Out.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Thursday, Oct. 1

Sox got swept out of October in the Bronx — board flips to Pats at Buffalo Sunday and B's on the road Friday.

Short version: Red Sox season is over after an AL Wild Card sweep; Patriots rest until Orchard Park; Bruins hold 1st in the Atlantic heading into Winnipeg; Celtics still on the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• After that: Sun, Oct. 11 — 1:00 PM ET — vs Las Vegas Raiders (home)
• Standings: 1-2 · T-2nd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2); Buffalo 3-0 leads · Dolphins 0-3 sit 4th

Quiet week after the Jacksonville loss. Next stop is Orchard Park Sunday at 1 on CBS — undefeated Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: L 9–2 @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 2 (Wed night)
• Series: Swept · outscored 182 (Game 1 was L 0–9 / 9–0)
• Today: No game — eliminated, season over
• Next: Offseason
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · Eliminated in AL Wild Card

October ended in the Bronx. Tough series, now the long offseason starts. Tip your cap and look ahead.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Then (preseason): Sat, Oct. 10 — 8:00 PM ET — vs Philadelphia 76ers (home)
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26.

Still quiet on the parquet. First preseason tip is a week out in Cleveland.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: No game (opener was Tue, Sep. 29: W 3–0 vs Rangers)
• Today: No game
• Next: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets
• Then: Sat, Oct. 3 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Minnesota
• Standings: 1-0-0 · 1st in Atlantic · 2 points

Opening-night shutout still the last result. Road trip starts Friday in Winnipeg, then Minnesota Saturday.

That's the Thursday board, folks. Sox pack it in; football and hockey carry the week. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.