The materials used in rebuilding and restoring USS Constitution span from 45-foot-long, 12,000 pound white oak trees to three-inch copper pins. Currently, Stephen Nichols, blacksmith for the Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston, is finishing the last of 468 hand-made copper pins that will hold protective bronze plates to the forward edge of Constitution‘s cutwater.
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/1-1024x742.jpg)
Stephen Nichols works in a purpose-built blacksmith shop near USS Constitution in the Charlestown Navy Yard. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2-1024x693.jpg)
An acetylene torch is used to heat copper rods to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. Stephen can tell the approximate temperature by the color of the metal as it heats up. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/3-1024x746.jpg)
As the hydraulic press lifts, the headed pin is released from the die. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/5.jpg)
A box of newly headed copper pins. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/4-1024x705.jpg)
Three copper pins showing the first two stages of manufacture. The pin on the left is headed. The two pins on the right show the cold-pressed tips before they are cut into points. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6arrow-1024x867.jpg)
This view below the waterline shows the beginning of the cutwater restoration in the summer of 2015. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
![[Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]](https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Constitution.jpg)
USS Constitution‘s cutwater, as seen in 2009. [Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston]
-M. M. Desy & K. Monea