GL: Cutless Bearings

[Al Schober]

   Beg to differ about the cutless (not cutlass - that's a sword) bearings.
Cutless bearings are rubber.  Last I checked, still in use by the US Navy and
a lot of other folks.
  Not that the lignum vitae bearings weren't good - just very labor intensive
to fit, as the end grain had to bear against the shaft for best effect.  This
was done by having pieces of wood slide into a number of dovetail slots, all
parallel to the shaft centerline.  Each piece of wood was shaped with the dove
tail shape as well as being angled on each end to secure adjacent pieces in
each slot.
  When the change was made to rubber, the rubber was bonded to a brass strip
with the dovetail shape.  All that was required to do was to cut the strip to
length and slide it into the slot.  Current design of bearing strips uses
rubber bonded to a plastic backing, again with the dovetail shape.
  Smaller bearings don't use the individual staves, but have the rubber molded
in one piece inside a brass or (lately) fiberglass tube.  The rubber is molded
with grooves, and simulates the effect of individual staves.

Al Schober