> One: Steam bend that end of the wood strip. You don't need to do this on
> your forms, but steaming and bending it a little bit in the direction you
> want the strip to go may help.

Another idea along the steam approach is to use a long very flexible tube for the steamer. At work someone brought it a 1000' roll of plastic bag tubing (6" in diam) that would be great for making a steamer in which you keep the steamer going (say use 40' long bag) as you lay out the strip. I was thinking of using it but then got too excited as some of the strips actually stayed in place any way.

I also remember some guy talking about using downy fabric softener in hot water. Probably really good for finding your yak in the dark. Maybe would solve some or the excessive stiffness problems that our yaks (and?) have. And has anyone used PET (or something like this) - the stuff that archeologists use on old wood structures.

And please don't tell anyone, but I have actually just let some strips break a bit and glued them in anyway. The reasoning being that the break is just about the best matched joint you could get anyhow. Just mush it together and hopefully no one will know!

-mick