Pilot House Nameboard

Mat, they're not that hard to do. I have used mahogany (expensive) and a router, finishing off with hand tools to make the edges and corners "square". Just lay everything out exactly as you want it and be very careful.

I also used a router around the outside edge. I used gold leaf in the routed out letters and on the edges. It looked pretty darn good, if I do say so myself!

Name Boards

Greetings From New Orleans !
Matt ,
I have recently used a man from Thibodeaux , La. , named Bob Thiboedeaux , imagine that , who makes vessel Name Boards , professional enough that the U.S. Coast Guard uses him to make Name Boards for their cutters and other vessels as well . I paid a visit to his work shop and his equipment and quality of work is second to none and does the work at a very reasonable price !
He has a web page and if interested I will be happy to give you his number but I believe his number is also on his web page as well !
Good luck with your project !
Smooth Sailing !
Ted Davisson

Mathew Stage;24589 wrote: Hey all,

Does anyone on here make pilot house name-boards, or would like to? The ones of the CBelle are starting to get rather run down, but the biggest thing that I want done is for the letters to either be raised or routed into the name-board. My grandfather and I have experimented with a router pantograph that we have, but can't get the letters big enough. There would be 4, plus one thats different as described below.

Also I wanted to make one that was a little elliptical to put on the spreader bar on the gangway to hid the ugly steel pipe.

- Mat

Something tells me Bob's gonna be busy soon!

Here's the link:

Bob Thibodaux's Custom Woodworking - Hand Carved Signs and Name Boards

Aaron

The Belle of Louisville's nameboards were carved into the planks (poplar, I think) with a hammer and flat-blade chisels.

Raised letters would be easier since you would simply saw them out with a jig-saw and glue or nail (or both) the letters in place. Painting the letters in advance of applying them would be easy to do.

Talk Keith Norrington into painting the one for the stage spreader.

The hardest part is the dread to start.

*RE: Nameboards/Incised/Sand & Gilt*
Steamboating colleagues:
Great topic and link to the gentleman doing this work. Alan has great suggestions but personally [Never having graduated beyond Class 101 in lawn mower repair] I'd find cutting out, applying letters would be a real headache. Also moisture could get behind the applied letters causing havoc in time. I always favored the 'incised' letters deep catching the light.

Alan, Keith and others here recall the fine nameboards on some of the big 'brag boats' we see in old photos. There was, I 'think,' a discussion on this board about these boards several years ago. It was a work of art with the gold letters surrounded by the field of black resembling glistening sand or even coal with--at times--the edge frame gilded. Navy/passenger/ocean ships & yachts I knew favored the mahogany or teak boards incised deep in gold or black. Other boards in museums simply painted flat.

There's a man here in this area who has picked up a lucrative contract to mill/finish fine oak planks for use as stair/ship ladder steps he ships far and wide. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

I think I've posted this image previously, but considering the topic, it's timely to post it once again. Here is Alan at work on one of the new pilothouse nameboards for the BELLE, with chief engineer Courtney M. Ellis admiring his work. This photo is from a slide, taken by Capt. C.W. Stoll, on September 17, 1962.

What I love about that photo Keith is the new BoL nameboard being made while an old Avalon life bouy hangs in the background.

Yeah, I like that too! One of the AVALON pilothouse nameboards, painted by Capt. Doc Hawley in 1961 and shaded in dark red and green, is part of the Howard Museum collection. It suffered damage in the 1971 fire, but is still worth keeping. Just yesterday, Chief Kenny and I moved it to a safe place in the museum attic.

Here's Alan Bates carving the new name boards for the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE in the summer of 1962. These pictures are from the old Louisville Times.

I like how Alan chiseled out all the easy ones first and left the headache letters for last.

I just noticed the same thing!

AVALON Nameboard at Howard Museum

Here is the AVALON nameboard pictured in July 2006 backed up by august assemblage of riverfolk: (L to R) Capt. Jim Blum, yours truly, son Jonathan, Judy Patsch, "Curator Keith" Norrington, and Mary Bill Bauer. It is indeed fitting that after years of carrying painted nameboards on masonite, that the BELLE proudly sported her classic new ones in the traditional fashion courtesy of Alan Bates.

Yeah,
I was hoping to borrow a gouge. Noboby had one so I bought a pair of them for the curved letters.

A Deluxe Wood Carver

Bob Thibodeaux got back with me about making some signboards for the SUN*FISH, but I have yet to reply. I really like the one inTed's attachment.

The Late Crazzy Clifford made some finely carved wooden directional signs, possibly of mahogany or teak, that grace the downtown business district of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky giving the directions to the General Store, Rabbit Hash Shipyard, and other places of note. Clifford's tool of choice were a chipped ball peen hammer and a discarded slotted screwdriver. Perhaps. Cap'n Walnut can post some pics of CC's work. Clifford was my 1st choice to make the pilothouse nameboards for the Fish, but it wasn't to be -- at least not in this lifetime ....

Shipyard: Yeah, Clifford was good with a screwdriver. He even made a three-dimensioned effigy of Randal's german shepard dog. I don't have any nameboards to hand but will keep my eyes out for them. Clifford's passing is a loss in more ways than one...time wuz you could blame near anything on him and it would stick. Now that he's gone we have to be more inventive! Cap'n Walnut