On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:04:33 GMT, "Don Dando"
wrote:

I made up a 10 ft length of 4" plastic pipe with the end cap cemented on one
end, the other end is removable. I have put various species of wood in it,
filling it with water and let it soak prior to bending the wood. It work
well.

I have not tried bending mahogany using this method. I need to bend two
pieces of 1 X 3/8ths mahogany for seat rails in a lap strake dinghy. Just
spent $38 on the mahogany right after trying to bend other pieces dry only
to break them.

Does anyone have an opinion?

Only a note that wood is usually softened with steam in order to bend
it. That way the wood doesn't absorb a lot of water. There are books.
There is this magazine, Wooden Boat, that is devoted to that kind of
thing. I do prefer aluminum myself, as a boat building material. It is
easy to drill and rivet, and doesn't need paint. Maybe antifouling
bottom paint, but it doesn't need to be protected from sea water.

Casady