Rick,
I am not to the point in my boat where I need to bend the stems. However, I have done a fair amount of wood bending when making wooden fishing nets. I now use one of my aluminum flyrod tubes to soak the wood before trying to bend it. I describe the process below.

I first cut the strips between 1/16 and 1/8 inch thick. (The sharper the bend, the thinner each strip needs to be.) I then put the strips in the tube, fill the tube with boiling water, let the strips soak for 20 minutes or so, take them out and immediately apply them to the form. (in this case, I would apply the strips to the bow and stern to shape them.) Don't glue them yet. Let the strips dry for a day, then take them off the form. Oh, before you take them off, put some reference marks on the strips so you can put them back in the same order and orientation. When you take the strips off, therfe will be some springback. No big deal. Put glue in the strips and put them back onto the bow and stern. Duct tape the whol mess and let the glue dry.

This has worked well for me in making nets. I hope it helps.

Chuck
: 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.

>
: Rick