Morris

Cats, budgies, hamsters, stick insects, ban them all!!

Yup, seeing the purse seine netting of mackerel or watching salmon farming documentaries should put anyone off spending money at the fish counter! Frankly, I think keeping dogs should be banned because of the issues of fecal pollution, noise pollution, carbon footprint implications (haha), and causing fear of physical harm. But I don't run the world so my opinion is worth diddly squat.

I remember seing a recipe for home brew waxoyl on a Landrover forum. Think it used engine oil, paraffin wax and maybe grease as well. Always thought it would be good to be able vary the amount it set by altering the recipe but never got round to making it. I did make some good shoe polish with beeswax and safflower oil, but I guess that's not too relevant.

I have a Volvo seal. Recently had the experience of travelling up a canal full of hair like weed which wrapped round the prop shaft and, judging by the sounds produced and the bubbles from the end of the Stern tube when the weed was removed, starved the seal of water. This caused it to drip at quite a fast rate until I managed to get some silicone grease into it. It is still dripping at certain revs though so I imagine I need a new one. I would much prefer something I could easily grease and/or tighten and I'm thinking of getting a packed gland fitted.

If anyone is interested in the subject, I highly recommend 'A Life on the Humber - Keeling to Shipbuilding' by Harry Fletcher.

If anyone is interested, this is the page that sparked this lively debate! (taken from canal arts and crafts by Avril Lansdell)

Presumably 'butt' (byt?) as a term of endearment in Wales is derived from this? I suppose the next question is: if two men were working down a mine were they bytis or was only one the byti of the other?

Great thread, thanks!

Most of those quotes are dated after the introduction of motor boats so its hard to tell if they are relevant. The quotes from 1858 and 1909 in section c2 hint at a butty being the second boat only, but it is unclear if either refer to a horse drawn working pair of narrowboats. The 1909 quote mentions horses but the arrangement of the boats does not sound like standard practice! Haha, sadly it does seem that the number of people interested in these things is vanishingly small! Thanks, it is an interesting discussion, but I am now confused over the term 'monkey boat' as I was under the impression that it was one of the earliest names used for narrowboats, but that thread suggests that it is used for a motor! Alas, no mention of use of the term butty or butties prior to the invention of powered boats.

Sorry if this all gets a bit too Susie Dent, but I have a bit of an etymological question regarding the term butty. Most books I have with info on working boats only refer to a butty as the unpowered boat towed by a motor, but one book states that the term was in use before powered boats and referred to boats being worked in pairs, butties being a term for mates. Has anyone else heard of this earlier usage? Also, strictly speaking, should a narrowboat without an engine be called a butty if it is on its own? And if not what should it be called? A Monkey boat?

Thanks for the replies. I was just wondering because I don't seem to be having any trouble getting to the 1% figure using a charger on shore power. Also the rested voltage of the batteries after charging is 12.8, which some sites say indicates overcharging, so I just wondered if something was awry.

Could anyone tell me if the guidance I have seen on here regarding tail current (ie keep charging at 14.4V until the current gets to approx 1% of battery bank capacity or current remains the same for 45 minutes) applies to sealed for life cheapo batteries, or if there is a risk of boiling them dry?

Actually she played Barbara in The Young Ones, Laurie Peters played Barbara in Summer Holiday. (I'm not trying to be clever, I looked it up on imdb!)

I find those green pan scrubbers combined with brasso or t cut work quite well for getting bad tarnish off but the do leave a haze of fine scratches. A bit of hard work with brasso on a rag does polish them out though. Anyone got any tips for getting varnish off brass (my pet peeve). I've been meaning to try paint stripper but don't know what effect it would have on the brass.

Thanks for the tip. I haven't knocked a full bottle of brasso over yet but have been feeling that it's only a matter of time. Paste sounds much more convenient. I see that point of view, but isn't it nice to have some that are kept in the sort of condition they would have been in during their working days? Isn't part of preserving history keeping it alive and in the present and not just a collection of mothballed artefacts? Not that it matters to me mind, with my brass tat from car boot sales in my noddy boat...

That's good to know thanks. I used to have linseed oil soaked rags at work. I didn't know about the possibility of spontaneous combustion and never had a problem, so I guess the chances are pretty remote even with the oils known to cause it. I like the zip lock suggestion as they don't half pen and ink!

After polishing your bright bits do you have to be careful with the resulting brasso soaked cloth as with some woodworking oils? I know brasso rags are good for starting fires in the stove but I don't fancy a spontaneous one!

Similar to peanut's advice, but use a wet tissue or piece of kitchen roll. That way when it is soft you can get it off and throw it all away and not have to wash anything out.

I generally try to manage without side fenders but recently we tied up somewhere that had nasty bolt ends sticking out of the armco. Taking inspiration from the planks on the edges of some lock landings, I fashioned some fenders from 1"x4" plank I had in the boat and hung them on rope from the edge of the canal with storm pegs. They worked fine and without the demented dolphin noises I seem to get from go-kart tyres or those torpedo shape fenders. I just wondered why wood is never mentioned when fenders are talked about? Is there some horrendous consequence I've yet to discover?

Thanks for the replies. Arthur, Goliath - did you notice any smell from welding with everything still in place? (not the time with the polystyrene sheets - that sounds like it was an ordeal) When we were looking round boats to buy one had an acrid plastic/ rubber burning smell and I wondered if it was from welding.

When getting small welding jobs done (filling rust pits for example) is it normal or advisable to remove all the internals behind the area to be welded? Would fibreglass insulation be a problem if left in situ?

I recently found a couple of pictures of these stoves. Hopefully it's not a problem to reproduce them here. They are both taken from canal arts and crafts by Avril Lansdell.

Sorry I probably didn't get my point across very well. My post was intended to be a dig at those dog owners whose idea of training seems to be to wake up every morning and hope their animal has achieved mastery over the the English language during the night.

If they are required to be kept under control 'like dogs' that presumably means that the owner should pathetically give commands like 'Stop' and 'Come Here' as the cat does as it pleases.

Ha ha, very droll I was wanting to say electrical connection but didn't think that sounded quite right. 'Bond' was what I was searching for! I know what I mean but sometimes I can't locate the correct group of letters. (I just want to say Tony that I really appreciate the effort you have put into replying to my questions and it doesn't bother me that you don't currently own a boat. Oops wrong thread!)