: I tried the heat gun, but the purpleheart was too dry and brittle, it took
: forever just to get one strip around. The steaming got it all done in 30
: min. including prep.

Heat gun works on purpleheart for some things - some narrow strips near
the shear of my hybrid cormorant had a lot of twist, and with a heat gun
I was able to apply this at just the points I wanted. not quite the same thing
as trying to bend a strip round, however - that would involve a lot more
stress...

Andy