Rodney Myrvaagnes wrote:

I suspect that it would be difficult to get even heating of a 1/4" thick
kayak rib, but it might be worth a try. However, steam bending is so
easy that I'm not sure if the experiment would be worth the effort.


How even does it have to be? As I posted earlier, the curved sides of
Flemish harpsichords were bent over a hot iron, probably the top of
the shop stove, for about 2 centuries. The bent side started over 1/2
in thick. It is a little thinner at the area of greatest curvature
because they had to scrape the charcoal off before they could paint
it.

Well, I wouldn't want to be scraping any charocal off a rib that's only
1/4" thick to start with. Burning the outside in order to get the inside
hot enough to bend seems pretty ridiculous when you can steam the part
and have it bend with no damage. Perhaps the harpsicord makers couldn't
do this for some reason or perhaps there is something about the wood
they used that precluded it?