Wood from HMS Victory

This week I called in to Nauticalia in Shepperton, Surrey and purchased some timber which was taken from HMS Victory during a restoration project a few years ago. The Victory was launched in 1765 and was most famous as Lord Nelsons flagship in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It took 6,000 oak trees to build her, much of which would have been planted in the reign of Elizabeth 1, 200 years earlier for just this purpose. These four small pieces cost £270, I've included my 17" jointer to give a sense of scale.

Each piece came with an official signed certificate, I should hope so at that price!

This piece particularly caught my eye as you can clearly see some very nice ripple where the wood had been split.

It was also bang on the quarter so there was the prospect of some very nice timber.
The number on the bottom indicates the exact position on the ship where the wood was removed.

The layers of paint were incredibly thick and I need to try and incorporate this in a piece.

Two large iron bolts went through this section and I would look to keep this as a handle on a box lid.

The wood was even nicer than expected with some very attractive mudullary rays as well as the ripple. These shots show the wood straight from the band saw.

This yielded enough for 7 box lids with a thickness of about 8mm. I will use the other wood for the box sides, watch this space!