Have Okum and Hammer - Let's Caulk!

Howard prepares to get started on the caulking of the boat seams. To do this, the seam is first primed with above or below water priming paint - you cannot use above water paint below the water line and vise versa. Then "okum" which looks like shredded up gunny feed sack material that has been spun into ropes and soaked in a natural oil and bentonite, is pounded into the seam with a wood mallet. Howard made his own mallet, as the only other place we could find one was in Great Britain. It didn't take Howard long to determine the right "thunk" sound that indicted that the okum was properly sent into the seam, using the mallet and a "hardening iron".


After the okum is set into the seams, then the seam is re-primed with primer paint. After the paint is dried, then seam compound usually made of linseed oil, whiting, and some kind of setting powder is applied and worked into the seam. In the old days, the setting powder was red or white lead.


We are currently using our horse trailer as a storage unit to hold the teak lumber, etc., to keep it all dry and handy without having to climb in and out of the boat to get each item needed.


We have gotten a lot of comments on our dragons which are on the bow, Susan took almost three weeks sanding, priming, determining the proper color scheme and painting these beauties. They are really turning peoples heads around here.