Why are they Swedish?

7/8” wide at the head, wooden handle/fairlead for the strand. Nice ditty bag size.

Small is to the right in the picture.

Nearly globular turned ironbark parrel beads. Look great, less expensive than Lignum!

3/4” hole for reeving onto the parrel-line.

Smaller size of the classic turned parrel beads made from genuine Lignum vitae…don’t drop them over the side, they don’t float! These have a line inscribed around the middle, a nice old touch. I have 7 on hand but more can be made.

3/8” hole for reeving onto the parrel-line.

Why are they Swedish?

1-3/8” wide at the head, wooden handle/fairlead for the strand. Nice tool bag size…I’d use this on line 7/8” and larger, maybe up to 2”

Medium is to the left in the picture.

Classic turned parrel beads made from genuine Lignum vitae…don’t drop them into the drink, they don’t float! I have about a dozen on hand, but more can be made. Sort of a fat doughnut shape.

5/8” hole for reeving onto the parrel-line.

Made from ash wood, with stainless or bronze pins. and Delrin sheaves. These are best rove with 14mm-16mm line, and have a light pine tar/linseed oil treatment.

Made from ash wood, with stainless or bronze pins. and Delrin sheaves. These are best rove with 14mm-16mm line, and have a light pine tar/linseed oil treatment.

Made from ash wood, with stainless pins and nylon or Delrin sheaves. These are best rove with 8mm-12mm line, and have a light pine tar/linseed oil treatment.

Made from ash wood, with stainless pins and nylon or Delrin sheaves. These are best rove with 8mm-12mm line, and have a light pine tar/linseed oil treatment.

Dark hardwood handle with a lighter colour head. 13” long total, 5” x 2-3/8” head, with a 1” groove. Drilled to accept a bolt for spools of your choice of serving material.

Great size for a ditty bag or to take aloft for seizing ratlines, this Tiller & Gaff heaver has a hardwood head 2.5” x 1.75” and a 3/8” bronze rod handle with a handy lanyard hole. 6.5” long total.

Larger 14” version of the simple seizing stick from Tiller & Gaff, for a bit more leverage when using wire or twine. I believe these are actually larch instead of hickory but I’m not positive. Best for working vertically when you can walk around the shroud or block strop being seized. Coated with linseed oil.

Good general purpose-sized hardwood mallet with stout oak handle, drilled to accept a bolt for attaching a spool of your favourite spunyarn, marline, or seine twine. I’d use this on 1/2” up to about 1-1/4” fiber or wire. 12” long, head is 5”x2”

A very pretty hardwood turned stick, which can be used for either serving or seizing, made by Tiller & Gaff. 9” long. Great ditty bag size!

This is a handy-sized Tiller & Gaff product, ideal for seizing up to 1/2” or 5/8” shrouds, with either small seizing wire or seine twine size 72 or smaller. Seizing sticks let you do a fast, tight seizing, when set up vertically so you can walk clearly around the piece of gear. Hickory tool handle, shaped to lead the seizing material cleanly, branded with Luc’s logo, and coated with linseed oil. 10” long

Another hardwood Tiller & Gaff product…a very handy small size with a nicely turned handle. Use with a helper or slide the spool of serving spunyarn, marline, or twine right onto the handle after loading the mallet. 7” long, with a head 2-1/2”x1-3/4”

This is ideal for use with a 1 pound spool of seine twine. Nicely made by my friend Luc Maheu of good hardwood and brass fittings, with his Tiller & Gaff logo. 14” top to bottom, head is 3”x2”. 6-3/4” between metal tabs for twine spool.

1608 engraving from a book on The Wars of the Nassau, about the Dutch overthrowing Spanish rule in the late 1500s

Beautiful 1768 French collection of several works relating to the sea: “Essay on the navy of the ancients”, “Description of the naval combat at Actium”, “On some particularities of natural history”, “On the general properties for salt water and fresh water”, “On the worms which gnaw the wood of ships, and on how to protect oneself from them”. Several lovely fold-out engravings. Other copies online for $900!

Howard Chapelle’s masterful work on the evolution, design, and details of hull and rig of these iconic vessels. This is the 1994 W.W. Norton edition, in good condition with dust jacket.

by John Leavitt, Mystic Seaport publication, 1973. Lovely volume describing the last American whaler, giving a history of her 37 voyages complete with their crew lists, up to her restoration to a floating vessel by Mystic Seaport. Fine condition, dj good with a few bumps and scuffs.

How to build and use 18 traditional navigational tools, by Dennis Fisher. Very clear instructions for making (besides the titled ones) a kamal, astrolabe, quadrant, sundial, nocturnal, cross-staff, backstaff, dry card compass, traverse board, hand (sounding) lead, heaving line, chip log, weatherglass, pelorus, sun compass, and an octant. Great for both movie Props and Set Dressing, as well as replica ships and living history programs! Like new condition.

Joseph T. Higgins’ 1927 thin volume for building a model; the subtitle is “The Distinguishing Details of Old Time Whale Ships with a Complete Description of a Typical Whaler and Working Plans of the Famous Alice Mandell”. Very good condition, has both plan sheets; ex J. Porter Shaw library. Very scarce original Rudder Publishing Company edition, not a print on demand.

1955 Second Revised edition of Cyrus Day’s classic, published by the US Naval Institute. The Bibliography is a treasure trove. Very good condition, ex-San Francisco Maritime Museum book,

A newer reprint of William Baker’s classic 1966 book tracing the development of this type of vessel, from European origins through the Colonial period in America and into the 1800’s. Excellent condition.

Timothy Wilson’s book published by the National Maritime Museum Greenwich in 1986. Very good condition, though for some reason one chapter has yellow highlighting (I didn't do it!). Beautiful illustrations throughout, including many in colour. I’ve used this one as reference on a couple of movies, when historically accurate flags were needed.

Cedric Windas’ collection of random tidbits of information, mostly from the age of sailing ships, with lovely illustrations. A paperback copy published in 2001, taken from the original 1942 volume. Very good condition.

Hervey Garrett Smith’s Dover edition of his 1953 book. Some of the same info as his The Marlinspike Sailor, but some differences. This copy got carried around in my rigging bag for a little, so it has some wear, but the spine is still perfect and the pages are good. A few scuffs and some water (salt? fresh? gin?) curling on the first 8 pages or so.

Graumont and Hensel’s classic, thorough treatment of splicing. There’s some interesting ones in here, as well as good explanations of various tackle purchases, rope characteristics, and tools. One of the best for this topic. As new condition.

Don’t laugh…I read this when I was a 6th grader living in Savannah, Georgia, and memories of this book with its lusty sailing ship action in Revolutionary War-era Newport, Rhode Island, stuck with me so much that I felt like I was re-living the book when I sailed into Newport a decade later on Bounty! As male-romance-novel as it gets, this book’s historic plot has been retold several times, including by James Nelson. Honestly, this was one of the books that fed my early interest in historic sailing ships.

This is the smaller version of Bjorn Sandstorm’s beautiful book. The dust jacket is present but torn. The text block is good though. Easier to carry around than the big volume!

Ernie Bradford’s book on the history, discovery, archaeology, and planned raising and exhibiting of Henry VIII’s ship, sunk in 1545. Lots of good photos and drawings of artifacts. Hardcover, with dust jacket in very good condition.

V.R. Grimwood’s 1942 book has a wealth of line drawings of vessels not commonly seen, including a San Francisco scow schooner and a gondalow, as well as superb. rigging and deck detail drawings. With dust jacket, in very good condition.

Anything with Basil Greenhill’s name on it is worth having! This volume has British and North American vessels and their people. Lots of great photos. 1970 hardback, some water damage to the top and bottom boards but the text block is unaffected.

Geoffrey Budworth’s beautifully photographed 2002 hardcover volume. I wish he had done it with only the lovely hemp lines…lots of synthetic braided cordage in there, but a great resource nonetheless

Graumont and Hensel’s classic work, published by Cornell Maritime Press in 1943 (3rd edition). If you only have this one and Ashley, you’re in good shape.

Darcy Lever, in the large Dover edition. Excellent condition. Every rigger should have at least one copy!

Sea Officer William Bentley novel #3, by Jan Needle. I really loved this series, and wish he’d written more of them. Fine condition

by Lowell Thomas, Garden City Publishing 1927. Amazing true story of a German sailing ship captain who captured and sank enemy ships during WW1—without killing. The last of the real fighting ships under sail! A bit beat up copy, but the text block is good and intact.

Charles Nordhoff’s (Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy co-author) writes of his experiences at sea on a whaling vessel. A beautiful little volume. Dodd, Mead & Co 1895 edition

First Dell printing in 1961, in conjunction with the release of the Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard film, using the Bounty replica I sailed on! Compilation of various authors, including Bligh, Christian (!), Peter Heywood, James Morrison, and Sir John Barrow,

Thrilling story of Hawkins, Drake, and other Englishmen breaking into the Spanish New World

40” long overall, made of beautiful 1/2” linen rope with fancy knot splices by Luc Maheu for Tiller & Gaff. Nice snap hook and a sewn leather brand label.