Woodworking Tip of the Day: Story Stick for Bulkhead Locations

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. a tape measure is fine until you’ve re-read the same station mark six times on a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory — or any hull with bulkheads that have to land in one athwartships plane. Today’s tip: make a story stick (story pole) for repeating bulkhead locations, and stop letting tiny tape errors stack up.

Why it matters: Fine Woodworking has been preaching this for years — a slender stick that holds your critical marks in full scale is more accurate than measuring the same distance over and over. Knife the stations once from your lofting or plans onto the stick, then hold that stick against the keel, sheer, and stringers and transfer. Same marks. Same plane. Every time.

Materials

• Straight scrap for the story stick — length at least as long as the run of stations you need to record (Canadian Woodworking: cover the longest dimension you’ll transfer)
• Optional: thin clear finish so pencil labels don’t rub off in a wet shop
• Your lofting board or printed plans with station / bulkhead locations already established

Tools

• Marking knife (score lasts; pencil alone rubs)
• Sharp pencil for labels after scoring
• Combination square or framing square
• Clamps to hold the stick while you transfer
• Optional: dividers if you can’t lay the stick directly on a member

Steps

1. Start from lofting or plans — not from memory. Your station spacing belongs to the design. Don’t invent inches for a Marblehead gunning dory (or any boat) off a blog tip. Pull the bulkhead / station locations from the lofting board or the plan sheet you’re building from.
2. Cut a straight stick. Long enough to hold bow-to-stern (or at least the stretch that carries every bulkhead you’ll locate). One face is enough for stations; you can use other faces later for thwart heights, limber locations, or coaming lands if you want — same idea furniture makers use when they put an entire stool on one stick.
3. Score the stations. Align one end of the stick to a clear reference (bow perpendicular, stem datum, or station 0 — whatever your lofting uses). Knife a fine line at each bulkhead station. Highlight with pencil and label: BH-A / Sta 1, BH-B / Sta 2, and so on. Fine Woodworking’s point: the stick becomes the record so you aren’t re-reading a wobbly tape tang.
4. Transfer to the boat. Clamp or hold the stick along the keel / keelson with the same reference end oriented the same way. Tick each scored mark onto the backbone. Repeat on the sheer (port and starboard) and on any longitudinal that will land a bulkhead cleat or tab. You’re copying physical marks — not measuring 47⅜″ six separate times.
5. Check the plane. At each station, sight or square across so the port sheer mark, starboard sheer mark, and keel mark live in one athwartships plane. A bulkhead that “looks close” but is racked will fight every seat, tank, and hatch that lands on it later.
6. Dry-fit the bulkhead blank to those lands. Once locations agree, cut and fit the panel. For curved hull contact, that’s a different tool in the same family — a joggle stick or tick stick with a marking board (WoodenBoat / Small Boats) picks up the hull curve and transfers points to the plywood. Use the story stick for where along the boat; use the joggle/tick for what shape fills that station.
7. Hang the stick. Drill a hole, varnish if you like, hang it. Next season when you build the sister boat or replace a bulkhead, the story is still on the stick.

MOAM’s shop note: Don’t mix references mid-transfer — if the stick’s “zero” was the forward face of the stem on the lofting, keep that zero when you tick the keel. Flip the stick end-for-end once and you’ve just built a beautiful bulkhead half a station off. And if you’re fighting a curved hull to fit the panel itself, put the story stick down and pick up a joggle/tick stick (Simpson’s classic in WoodenBoat No. 39; Cunningham’s quick tick stick in Small Boats) — that’s the tool for picking up the shape, not for station spacing.

MOAM Out.