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?

Don Dando