: I am going to put stems on the bow and stern on a strip yak. I've
: read up on doing it. I've never seen a kayak with a stem. Never
: been out paddling and seen a wood kayak in my parts. And I can't
: find a pic of a stem where it ends on the hull. Seems to be
: something taken for granted all of us are supposed to know. Is
: the end tapered? Ends abruptly? Imbedded?

: Thx
: Kim

Sounds like an external stem. I taper mine to match the hull sides taken to a fairly small radius at the ends around 3/16" radius (3/8" wide - diameter).

I make mine from laminated thin strips around 1/8" thick, use whatever will easily make the bend, and I use alternating colors. On the Disko Bay I had ash and mahogany so I used that, outside is ash as it's more impact resistant than the somewhat softer mahogany (I think, boat's in storage so hard to go look).

Bill H.