For cast bronze I would refer you, again, to Roger Winiarski (http://www.bristolbronze.com), but he's not in the Midwest and I don't know if he could beat the stock bronze price. But, again, Roger's is a very pure alloy that would outlive any of us, even in a saltwater environment. Thanks for the details! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard A" <haudsley@tranquility.net> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 8:02 AM Subject: M_Boats: Centerboard Honshells wrote: Doug, Is Navy Brass bronze? If a new CB were to be cut from stock using a CAD file, would the lead and trailing edges have to be shaped, or it the existing board just a flat section of metal? What about having the board cast in a different metal? Would that be prohibitively expensive? Thanks, Craig The "navy brass" term might have originated with me. After considering several options other than steel or cast iron, I was told I could order bronze plate and have that cut out to shape. The steel shop's term for bronze plate was navy brass, but I'm not sure what the alloy content of that would be. It sounds different than silicon bronze. At any rate, the cost for the size I needed was nearly $1,000....before having it cut. I think the ultimate solution is to use cast bronze, like Bob is doing for the new M23, but I have been unable to find anyone in the midwest that can fathom the idea of casting something that big. The least expensive solution is to use reglar plate steel and have a machine shop with precision gas cutter cut out the outline, then shape it by hand. The leading edge of the cast iron boards has a blunt bullet shape or slightly thinner profile than a half round shape, and the aft 3 or 4 inches is tapered to maybe a 1/4 inch. These tapers apply only to the triangle shape of the board that is actually exposed when in the down position. Howard _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats