Today I put in 5 hours. I first cleaned up the glue squeeze out on the three bottom rub guards. I then got a nice clear straight grain rough 1 full inch by 8 inch 12-foot Douglas Fir board. I cut it into four 1 7/8″ wide pieces for my gunwale guards. I ran them through the planer.
I then filled my tea kettle full of fresh water and fired up my make shift steam box. I made my steam box out of 4″ ABS pipe and simply ran a hose to the tea kettle. I installed a petcock on both end caps. My box can take wood up to 12′ long and takes about one hour of steaming per inch thick of stock. After a couple of hours I pulled each gunwale piece out of the box one at a time and clamped it to the sheer. I will leave it over night to take its proper shape. I also plan to put a nice thick coat of epoxy on each of the three bottom rub guards.
