Hi Brett,
The basswood will bend like wet spaghetti after soaking in hot water for a few minutes. The walnut will be a bit more of a struggle. This will take quite a bit more soaking time, and you will need to replace the water with really hot water just before you do the bending. The water will cool after a while of soaking. You will have to work fast since if the wood cools much while you are bending it, it will stiffen up a bit. Your biggest problem will be if the walnut is cut with the grain angling through the strip rather than going straight with the strip. On 1/8" strips, you will get some breakage if this is the case. In this case, steaming would help. Actually, a steam box can be a really simple affair. For strips this small you could use a 6 foot length of 1 1/2" PVC pipe. Just need to get steam into one end (stick an elbow on it and put it over the spout of a teakettle or something similar). Plug the other end with a rag. You should still soak the strips first so they are wet.

Hope this helps. I usually use 1/16" strips since I can usually bend them dry. I use the 1/16" mahogany and maple veneer from Certainly Wood.

Grant

: greetings to all,
: i just purchased some 1/8" by 6 1/2 " planks from the local wood
: shop. i intend to cut these down into 1/8" by 1" strips and bend
: them into a jig to form my cockpit coaming. i talked to the
: "expert" at the wood supplier who sd that all i'd have to do is
: fill my bath tub with REALLY hot water and let the wood soak for a few
: hours. he said that the wood sould be plyable enough to bend. is this guy
: right? do i have to constuct a steamer and steam this stuff? i'm hopeing
: that this guy at the store is correct, 'cuz building a steamer seems like
: it would be a pain. any advice? oh, btw...its 1\8" x 6" x 59 1/2
: basswood and 1\8 x 4 3\4 x 64 1\2" walnut. i want to alternate the
: two woods and make a nice coaming rim. any help would be greatly
: appreciated.
: brett the hitman hart, south bend, indiana.
: hello to fellow builder and hoosier john munfoe