Portnets dry dock timbers

Left click on any picture to view in a full screen size with great detail,all pictures taken by R McBride,Canon FT camera with a 50mm lens and 100 asa film. Skilled trades men from Portnet showing how its done with an Adze.

Portnet craftsmen, sizing and adzing the ends of the Karri wood timbers to take the wrought Iron bands 

they had made in Cape Towns harbour works.

  This sawmill was self sufficient in making their own AC 220/360 volt electric power,waste from the mill drove the fires which ran the generators,what a great idea! The visible cracks are of no importance,once the square has dried out it probably closed those cracks up. With the karri wood as supplied by Commercial Lumber cc,then strapped correctly,there was no degrade and the squares could be used for many years. This was the result of another attempt at use local karri,the ends were not steel banded correctly,we worked closely with Portnets engineering dept,they had two carpenters visit our suppliers mill and fitted Iorn bands with an adze as soon as the squares were cut,after that the squares could dry out without splitting. When Portnet,Cape Town Harbour required large squares of timber for blocking up ships such as the Agulhas in the Ben Schoeman Dry Dock,they bought them through Commercial Lumber cc,which was our trading name before we founded CKD Boats cc,the idea was to supply Iroko from west africa but at twice the price of our local Karri,it made little sense,we supplied the quality required and in time for the next dry dock session,we also saved Portnet a lot of expense.