BALL PEEN HAMMER
Is there a sight more captivating than the shipwright clenching a clinkerbuilt boat? Extrapolate, if you will, from my two fastenings to the glittering ranks of copper nails and rooves awaiting the nippers and ball peen hammer in a smart 12-footer of mahogany on oak. Following the nipping of each nail to about one-sixteenth inch standing proud, a firm tap of the hammer’s flat face will spread the point before a succession of carefully weighted swings of the ball peen will mushroom it over the roove. In full flow the work has all the rhythmic alchemy of a loom, turning raw materials into a beautiful fabric of copper-fastened wood.
It’s the sort of work which Jerome K Jerome may have had in mind when, reflecting on the efforts of his fellow crew in Three Men in a Boat, he wrote "I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours." Much like watching a boat rowed upriver, the clenching of a hull draws you in so that you’re desperate to try your hand. But for me at least, aching muscles and the monotony of the task soon take the edge off work’s fascination. Seeing how few yards I’ve rowed and the miles yet remaining, or the two nails clenched and thousands waiting, the role of spectator seems so much more attractive.
Perhaps it’s different for builders properly trained in the art because I’ve never heard one complain. While skilled hands are busy with the work, the look on the face often hints at a mind preoccupied with something pleasantly far removed. Thomas Hardy’s observation on traditional crafts in The Woodlanders suggested "an occupation which the secondary intelligence of hands and arms could carry on without requiring the sovereign attention of the head". But I wonder if that is a too romantic view of the strength and focus required for clenching, where a miscue with that 8oz of domed steel will punch an ugly crater in the smooth-planed plank or timber. And what of the holder-on who keeps the dolly’s nose pressed to the nail head, working in synchrony with the one clenching – no time for daydreaming there. Be late with the dolly and instead of being clenched that nail will be hammered right out of the boat. Yes, I like work...