Good day,
Dear friends,
if I understood correctly - we are talking abt staples on the main spar... if yes, this I did for gaskets securing...unfortunately I made them a little bit out of scale...so they looks too big, need to be more miniature in size ...
regarding protection gear...as I could understand,in those days,there were no protection gear ,such a foot ropes for example,at least non of contemporary drwngs show them...looks like sailors working with sails like this
here ,on the foto, Fore mast main spar completed with gaskets attached