: Good morning. I bought a heat gun yesterday, and the ash I'm using for an
: external stem still won't make the bend. Am I doing it wrong?

: The ash was first ripped to somewhere between 1/16" and 1/8" and
: about 5/8" wide. The second attempt, the ash was ripped to just a
: hair below 1/16". Even after heating with a heat gun to the point of
: burn marks, I still couldn't make the bend without it breaking first.

: On my Outer Island, I nipped about an inch off of the pointy tip of the bow
: and rounded it it over, to simulate more of what the stern tip looks like.
: As the ash travels from the keel up the upsweep of the bow, it will reach
: a point where it needs to turn a relatively sharp 45 degrees and point
: straight up into the air -- it won't make that turn without breaking.

: In Nicks book, there is a picture of ash being bent around the tip of the bow
: and heading back towards the stern. I can't get anywhere near that.

: Is there a trick to heating the ash that I'm missing? My new heat gun has two
: settings - 1000 degres and 750 degrees. I'm using the high setting. Is the
: grain orientation wrong (that is, should I rip a 3/4 piece off my board,
: turn it a 1/4 turn, and then rip it into 1/16" strips?).

: Any and all help is appreciated.

: Rick

Your problem is grain run out.

The best stock would be quarter saw wood (cut on a radius from the log
center) which will not have any grain run out, which might cause the
piece to break during bending. Typically, we buy flat sawn boards and
cut strips from the edge. The strips have a consist tight grain, with no
figure to it. This is what quarter sawn wood looks like.

Air dried wood such as white oak, ash and hickory are preferred. Air
dried wood bends much more readily than kiln dried wood. The natural
glue, lignin, that hold the wood cells together can be softened in air
dried woods with heat. The lignin in kiln dried woods has been altered
so it does not respond to heat in the same way.

An important point to remember about wood bending is that nearly all the
bending happens on the compression side of the wood (inside of the
curve) so to use a heat gun effectively you must apply heat to the
inside of what will be a curve.

Again, as with any wood bending clear straight grain is important for success.

All the best,
Rob