Bending Wood: Tips and Tricks

One really necessary thing to this boat building project was bending wood, and since the instructions we used didn't elaborate on techniques for that, we wanted to say a bit more about it here.

We used two main techniques, the first of which allowed us to bend the gunwales.

The gunwales run along the top of the boat's sides, and to bend them, we steamed long pieces of 1x2, using a steamer box like this one on Instructables.

The setup we used was a little different: two teapots and a Coleman stove heated the boiling water, and the steam traveled from the teapots to the box through shortish pieces of bicycle inner tubes that attached to a rectangular piece of wood with two pieces of pvc in the end. This wood piece fit snuggly into the end of the box.

After steaming wood ourselves, we have some tips for you:
- it takes a while to get the box filled with steam and to adequately steam the wood before it is ready to bend. Fill up the pots so you have enough water, and read a magazine or something while you wait.

- if you're building you're own box (we borrowed ours), make sure you make it long enough to hold the longest piece of wood you want to bend. Sort of obvious, but just to be thorough...

- it's nice to tilt the box up away from the stove, so that the steam travels up through the whole box. Stick a rag in the top so that the steam stays in the box.

- you've got to act fast when the wood comes out, so be ready with your clamps, etc. Wear leather work gloves to handle the steamed wood.

- if you're doing this in your backyard, don't set the stove right on the grass - you'll get a rectangular burned patch, like we did!

We'll post some pictures shortly so you can get a better idea of how the steam box design we used differs from the one on instructables.

And also coming soon... the Spanish Windlass! The way you take two pieces of plywood and bend them, evenly, into the shape of your boat.

Summer Boat Reading

In the time-honored tradition of summer reading lists, here here are some sailing and boat-related books we've enjoyed (or look forward to enjoying), perfect for reading on land or at sea:

Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea, by Steven Callahan
An amazing survival story told by the sailor himself. Somehow, knowing that he makes it doesn't make the tale any less gripping.
(on Amazon)

The Brendan Voyage, by Tim Severin
St. Brendan was an Irish monk who, legend has it, built a boat out of leather and wood and sailed it from Ireland to Newfoundland in fifth century. Tim Severin and friends set out to recreate the voyage in a replica of Brendan's boat, using a similar design and only materials that would've been available to Brendan, to see if their voyage was possible.
(on Amazon)

Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built, by John Pollack
In this book that explores the limits of creative boat design, Pollack tells the story of how he built a boat entirely out of corks, which he proceeded to sail down the Duomo River in Portugal.
(on Amazon)