: Ok, I wrote in a couple of weeks ago about having trouble getting my strips
: to bend into shape at the bow and sterm of the one-oceans cape anne double
: I am building. I got back lots of good ideas and suggestions, one of which
: involved the use of a heat gun on the sections of strip with the most
: curvature.

I tried all of the ways of bending wood while building my boat and they all worked to a degree but the one that worked the easiest for me and took the least time was slitting the strips in the middle where the bend was. I was using 8' strips and if the bend was the last two feet of the strip I would clamp a steel straight edge along that two feet and drag a utility knife along it about 5 times until I cut through it. I spread the slit and forced glue into it and clamped and glued the whole strip in place. After doing it this way, I forgot about the heat gun, the steam iron,just soaking with towels, the steam chamber and soaking strips in my pond and I didn't have water all over everything. I was using yellow glue and I noticed that sometimes using water that it softened the glue on other strips already glued into place, that that glue would turn white like chalk and would show up. Take a strip and slit it in the bend area and try it. It only takes a minute.

John