I spent yesterday helping a student steam bend the ribs into a couple canoes. Normally I don’t teach in person anymore because of health issues but I do make exceptions for people who also struggle with limitations!
Greg here is kind of a bad ass because he can barely see due to macular degeneration but he’s building a pair of nesting canoes for his family anyway! He also lives less than a mile from me.
Greg actually did just fine, mostly I just stood back and loaded ribs into the steam box and gave encouragement. If you’re working with good bending wood it’s just not that hard. The system itself takes care of the shaping and the keel and stringers smooth out any wobbles with the lines.
It’s been about nine months since I did a canoe bend so it was good to get my hands on the process again. Looking forward to adding some major updates to the system with next months canoe build.
I’m also looking forward to checking out this particular pair of boats when they’re done. These are also new sizes and each new size gives me more examples to test and add to our library.
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