Rear Stem

I've been soaking the piece for the rear stem for about a week now. I've had it wrapped up in a wet towel. Bending the stem around the form is always a bit crazy - I've done a few of them. So without any other excuses (I got the squirrels out of the attic, fixed the flat on the Echo, made a storage box for the chainsaw, opened a discount brokerage account and reinvested my RSPs, sorted my sock drawer (I'm definitely stalling now)), I gather my materials and begin in earnest.

I get the hot-plate, kettle and PVC pipe set up. The piece of ash for the stem goes in the pipe for a 45 minute steam bath. While waiting I get the clamps preset and ready. The first attempt goes south in a hurry. I can't get the first clamp on fast enough and the ash cools down quickly. Back in the steamer for 20 minutes. Time enough to learn a Steve Earle song on the uke. 

Out of the steamer and onto the form - this time things go a little smoother. At the apex of the curve, the wood starts to split . Fortunately, it's in a spot where a clamp goes, so I can stop the split from getting too big. Once it's cooled down I'll glue the split together. There are a couple of places where the wood isn't tight to the form and no clamp holes to tighten it, so I use some straps with ratchets to cinch it down. Time to sit back, take a few pics and let things cool.

Spring is here finally

Last fall I attempted to glue the front outside stem to the canoe. The glue didn't hold and the cold weather made me decide to wait until spring to try again. So with some warm weather and sunshine it was time to get back to it.

I pulled off the half glued stem, cleaned up the glue surfaces and tried again. I used an entire tube of slow setting epoxy (4 hour set time). There were some existing screw holes from previous stem attempts. I would use a few of these, but mostly relied on straps to hold the stem in place while the glue dried. The stem had straightened a bit over winter, so i needed to get enough pressure to bend the stem to the form of the canoe without bleeding the glue joint.

While waiting for the joint to dry, I milled another piece of ash for the rear stem. Previously I had been looking for a piece of wood with straight grain throughout. After bending the last stem, I realized I only needed straight grain in the section that gets bent. I cut some 5/4 ash down to 3/4 and used a 1/2" round over router bit to round the edges.