West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 3: steam bending the ribs. Total build time so far, about 16 1/2 hours. (Don’t miss that groovy music!)
Here’s the new rib measuring formula in action! It takes about an hour to prep the ribs, 30 minutes to bend them, and usually another 30 minutes to double check the shaping and fix any mistakes before I peg some of the ribs into the gunwales.
My steam bending set up is pretty basic: A wallpaper steamer feeds into a plywood box with a towel draped over it. You can make this more complicated if you want to but it’s not necessary.
After doing some test bends to determine the best steaming interval for whatever wood I’m using, I load the box at one minute intervals until I get to a number of ribs that equals that amount of time. From there I can bend a rib every minute as long as I remember to put a rib in the box each time I take one out.
The secret to easy steam bending is just starting with good bending wood in the first place. With freshly sawn white oak I rarely break any ribs and my students get similar results. Nothing beats green (not kiln dried) white oak, but there are other options as well.
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