What were the planking edges of hull filled with in old times

I think that your method was incomplete. The traditional way involves a sloping of the caulking thread and carefully jamming it in with special tools in different steps. This company (among others) sells the correct tools, they are shown in the catalog:
http://www.toplicht.de/en/
A description (in German) is found here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalfatern
(Anyone interested in a translation, please tell me and I will try)

 

Caulking carvel seams is a dieing art. I'm one of two that I know in the area, that are qualified as far as the insurance companies are concerned. This is an important consideration, because if you can't insure the yacht, any problems or issues will be on the owners head and most will not accept this level of work. It's like buying a car, but voiding the warranty with you customized treatments.

It's not enough to have watched someone do it or have read about it. You have to feel the iron in your hand and learn the right sounds and feel when the mallet strikes. There's also the materials involved, you'll need to know these as well. It's not a hard skill to acquire, but it does require practice to get it right, as it's easy to screw up a hull by not pounding caulking properly. I repair this sort of damage fairly regularly and it's unnecessary, if the boat is caulked properly.

 

A while ago I stumbled over a boat where the owner had closed the planking seams with polyester putty for cars. It was a small powerboat in the 40's style.
After two dry years on the hard, the boat went into the water and guess what happened...

 

....don't need to guess mate, we all know the result.......every time it is done. Sure makes it harder for us to fix it though.

 

Fortunately, most try to use polyurethane in the seams, which works out well for me, when I'm called to fix it. Unless it's under considerable pressure during the cure, it pulls out as one long *** rubbery string. They usually putty knife it in and it just pulls out, though often with some wood from the seams, this wood was probably loose or rotten anyway, so it had to come out for the repair too.

 

Products like 'Sikaflex' make a good impression to me, too.
Additionally, working with original tar or lead paint is not welcome nowadays.
Rot along the seams is perhaps caused when someone does not seal the edges first.
After longer dry storage I have often seen gaps that resemble ventilation slots rather than seams. If then the elasticity of the PU is insufficient, it will rip off the contact surface.

 

Paul
Local wooden boatwrights here are happy with sealants like sika providing they are used to pay the seam after caulking. And as I said trying to be rude to John before, it's better than chalk and linseed oil.
A wedge shaped gap tailoring to nothing is the issue if the seam is square cut to facilitate a modern sealant then it is more likely to be a success.

 

Mike I was referring to the 11 year old's sealant seam job, in lue of caulk and seam compound, posted the other day. You can make these sealants work, but only as a topping treatment (compound). In this capacity, I find them more annoying to work with and especially repair, than more traditional materials, but . . .

 

I'm surprised to hear that linseed oil putty was used for this purpose. It certainly had a tendency to fall away from window glass after a while, after becoming very hard and brittle, though I have seen cases where it stayed relatively pliant, possibly because the oil used had no driers added, but just guessing on that one.

 

The mixtures of traditional seam compounds can and have varied wildly over the years, pretty much depending on who you asked. Some standardized version have been marketed, but many revert to their own concoction, which is the usual problem with these sort of things.

 

At Leigh Old town we used to caulk fishing boats on a regular basis, most owners would only want the bit that was leaking done as they were skinflints!
If a decent job came along cotton would be used if the seams were small, oakum if the seams were big & wide.
The cotton would come as a ball & would be separated into the required number of strands say 3 or 4, these would then be twisted into a sort of rope with a hand drill & hook. The resulting rope would then be laid in the seam in small loops. caulking relies much on feel as anything & overcaulking an old knackered boat should be avoided!
Once the caulking was driven home the seam would be prmed with paint, metallic pink primer or better red lead primer. The seam was then filled with red lead putty, this was ordinary linseed oil putty mixed with red lead powder.
Orange hands were the order of the day!
This would last for years if done well. Modern sealants have their place but in an old boat that has had its planks contaminated with linseed oil, diesel or engine oil from the bilge you are wasting your time & money. Best stick with the old stuff done properly!

 

Texas and shrimp?

Port Isabel?