Kiln dried or not for steaming?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 12:13 pm

Sorry to ask this, because I know it's been talked about already, but when steaming for stems, do you want kiln dried or not? Also, how would oak bend when steamed as compared to ash? Is there a better wood?
A friend of mine wants to put new gunnels on and he wants to run one piece of wood along the entire inside keel length of his old fibreglass canoe, to add strength and stop the oil-canning. He wants it to curve up inside the ends as well. So, on a 16' canoe the piece of wood would be about 19' - 20'. (Approximately)
The ends of this old canoe have way more recurve than even the Redbird. Any suggestions on what kind of wood he should use?

Erik, Belgium · Post by **Erik, Belgium** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 2:19 pm

hi Mr Guest,
Various woods are suitable to be used for bending, but ash certainly is one of the preferred ones.
If you can get air dried wood, it will bend easier then kiln dried wood. But even with KD, if you let the wood soak for an hour, and apply heat with a hot air blower (not a hair dryer), bending your ash won't be a problem. Steaming the soaked wood is even better, take approximately an hour per inch of wood thickness.
I 've had my first attempts with steaming and bending KD ash and KD walnut earlier this year (only KD woods are available in Europe, because Europe doesn't like the spiders and other small creatures that come with air dried wood) , and had some bad results until I had the wood soaked in water.
Erik

Juneaudave · Post by **Juneaudave** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:19 pm

Interesting retrofit. Gunnels shouldn't be a real problem, but think hard about whether you can run a single piece of wood along the inside of the keel all the way to the decks and make it fit to the shape of the inside v-shape of the hull and the curvature of the stem. If that was what I was going to do, I might consider three pieces...one for each stem bent over a scribed mold and a third piece scarfed to the stem pieces. If the stems are sound..maybe a keel fastened to the outside bottom might reduce the oil-canning to a more acceptable level. Good luck!!

Todd Bradshaw · Post by **Todd Bradshaw** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 5:39 pm

There are much more efficient methods for preventing oilcaning on fiberglass or plastic hulls. Nearly every boat that has used such a system in the past, from the Hyperform "Familia" model of the 1970's, through the pogo-stick We-No-Nah boats to Coleman's rotomolds has had to brace the center-rib keelson from the thwarts and/or seats in order to maintain reasonable stiffness. A piece of oak or ash (unless it's huge) will simply change the frequency of the oscillation, and going up into the stems will do nothing except add excess weight to the canoe. You would be better off laying in flat foam cross-ribs (maybe 1/2"-3/4" thick by 2"-3" wide with beveled edges) every foot or so across the wide portion of the bottom and glassing over them. The fiberglass itself does the stiffening, the foam does the spacing and there is nothing there which rots or which needs to be screwed to the hull. It can also be done with balsa or softwood half-round, but really needs to be sealed to prevent rot. Clear plastic tubing stuck to the hull and glassed-over also works. A center-rib, like an inner keel from either wood or glassed foam (better) will work, but you would at least need to brace it vertically off of the center thwart and that brace should be spring-loaded. Otherwise, somtime, someplace you'll hit something and break the keelson, the hull or the brace.