Stem After drying, the inner stem is
attached to the real stem mold and
beveled to accept strips.
Glued stem The three WRC inner stem
pieces were glued together under the
three ash outer stem pieces with Gorilla
glue and left overnight to dry.
Station Molds After tracing, all of the
station molds were cut and sanded to
final shape. Here they are stacked in
pairs.
Lofted Station Molds Using the tables
in Canoecraft, I lofted all station molds
onto one piece of poster board.
Lofted Stem Mold Sheer line and
water lines are visible.
Strips Cut We used western red cedar
with a few redwood strips as accent
milled to 5/8" width, 1/4" thickness.
Forms aligned, levelled and attached
to cross-pieces on strongback.
Held in Place A long strip on top of
forms prevents any movement during
stripping.
Stem bent After steaming, strips were
easily bent then clamped overnight to
dry. A wider (3/4") stem mold was
used for bending.
Routing bead and cove Guang
showing the setup for routing each
side of each strip.
Steaming stems Twenty minutes of
steam applied to 7 1/4" ash and WRC
strips with a simple stove and
aluminum downspout.
Building the Prospector Ranger
|
Building Preparation