: Ian if you are reading this then I have a question... after looking
: at your pic you were on your sixth strip when you did this pinch
: as I am on the fifth, question is how did you proceed? Cheater
: or no? Since you went through the same recently I really find
: myself hanging on your advice. Thanks.

: Thanks again
: Dave

Hi Dave

I didn't use cheater strips. The cedar was ok to bend to fit instead (I thought). But in hindsight I would rather I had used cheater strips, or a heat gun to make bending the strips easier.

Much later on (like, almost a year later), a couple of the strips at the bow had separated from the adjacent strips. When I glued them, the strips obviously were a little distance apart, so the glue never properly set to glue the strips, and a year meant they slowly separated. Cheater strips (or using heat gun) would have avoided this. I was quite worried at first, but in the end, the fix was simple. I grabbed a japanese pull saw and carefully chopped out a triangle shape above & below the split, and shaped a piece to fill the gap. MUCH easier that forcing the two to join! I actually rather like that I can point out the fix, and explain why I had to do it, since this is my first build! After sanding and glassing they're barely obvious anyway. I carefully lifted the end clear of the forms just to make cutting the slot easier too. It meant the ends were quite delicate, but then I put ash strips on as an external stem, and that strengthened it up enormously. Now that it's been glassed in & out it's super stiff and I've got no concerns about structural integrity. (He says, speaking as a novice.)

See here:
http://ianjohnsonz.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/stripping-repairs/

So next time I'd use heat gun (which, by the way, was a fantastic way to bend ash to make the external stem) or use cheater strips.

Cheers, Ian