I was able to bend laminating strips (.125" X .5") around the front by using ash or walnut that I had soaked for a few days in household ammonia. I got a pipe the length of the strips and sunk the strips in the ammonia then after they were well saturated wiped them off and used the heat gun. I clamped them in place (lots of clamps), let them dry out a while and then glued them. It took me a lot more than 4 hours though.

Ric

: Laminating the combing per Nick's book was my weekend project; it
: went fairly well. About halfway through I realized that the
: sharp front bend was looking pretty bad - even with heat my
: strips (.125" X .5") had some air gaps and cracks here
: and there. So, I cut off the front bends at the apex of the
: cockpit opening, and am gluing on a separate piece there made
: out of leftover strips.

: The method works pretty well - after I gave up on the front it went
: very easily because I could wrap a U-shape hoop strip from the
: back and work my way forward without worrying about the heat gun
: or scarfs. I did some shaping today - this also went well and
: the rough results look pretty decent. The only trick I'm running
: into is the need to fill in some of the end grain of the riser
: strips as there was some tear-out when I trimmed them flush.

: Total time was around 4 hours of actual work to cut the strips and
: get them in place, plus a few hours of thinking about it and
: cussing myself out over the bad results on the front bend.