Mike Daugherty
Curious about Wooden Canoes
My first canoe. I did a practice bend and it went well. My first attempt for real ended up with cracked pieces.
After carefully cutting new pieces to 1/4” x 7/8” I decided to soak them for an hour in hot water before steaming. It went much better and both sets of inner and outer stems are bent and drying. However, I noticed that as one might expect the pieces swelled slightly. The overall thickness of both stems has changed from 1.5” to 1.625” inches. An increase of 1/8”. So now I am concerned. As they dry will they return to near the original size? Is it going through be stable at whatever size it stabilizes at? After they are glued if the wood changes shape again could they warp?
After carefully cutting new pieces to 1/4” x 7/8” I decided to soak them for an hour in hot water before steaming. It went much better and both sets of inner and outer stems are bent and drying. However, I noticed that as one might expect the pieces swelled slightly. The overall thickness of both stems has changed from 1.5” to 1.625” inches. An increase of 1/8”. So now I am concerned. As they dry will they return to near the original size? Is it going through be stable at whatever size it stabilizes at? After they are glued if the wood changes shape again could they warp?