Bending spruce gunwales

[ticonderoga]

The canoe that I am finishing up is a closed gunwale OT 50 lber. I need to replace the outer gunwale and the rail cap which are made of spruce.The material is only 1/4" x 1 1/4" x 17' at its largest. I have bent ash before for in/out gunwales and have my formula for soaking/steaming per inch of material. My question is this the same for spruce or does it need less of each and if so, how much less? Thanks

 

[Dave Osborn]

I steam spruce and ash with the same process.

 

[ticonderoga]

Thanks for the info, that makes it easy.

 

[Woodpile]

Did this OT 50 # last year, spruce gunwales. The two things that made it easy we're a scarf joint in the middle as my steam box is only 9' long and the taper on the ends where the most curvature is.

 

[dtdcanoes]

A 9 foot steam box ? Oye, I could steam the splash rails for the ARK with that....why the scarfing .....I have a 5 foot box and steam almost anything. Now, only one person's opinion, I admit, but....

 

[Oldad]

there is the option of steaming in place, you can find tube videos of the process. I plan to use it when I do the out whales on my OT