West Greenland Kayak build, Frame number 3, steam bending the ribs.
Bending day ended up being a lot more work than I planned. I started out with a quick test bend of 8 ribs just to make sure the rib measuring formula still worked with with the new deck shape. Then I cut up the good bending stock and got to work.
When I was finished I realized that the bending formula really wasn’t working any more. There were high spots and low spots, and I spent the better part of half a day tweaking the system so it would produce the rib heights that I needed.
When I was finally done I bent in new ribs and made a clean copy of my new measuring stick. The formula is no longer elegant, but it works, and that’s what matters. I’ll post a picture of the new measuring stick tomorrow to give you an idea of what I’m talking about here.
Steam bending is a lot easier than it looks, if you’re working with good bending stock and steaming for the right amount of time sometimes even first time builders can make it through a frame without breaking any ribs!
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