Greetings.

I am currently building a skin-on-frame kayak using the standard
(classic) text by Chris Cunningham. I have just reached the stage of
putting in the steam bent ribs. I realise that this stage is tricky,
especially given that he recommends that you get 50% more timber for
breakages.

I have a specific question which he does not deal with in his book.

Cunningham recommends that you start with timber 5/16 inches thick,
and that you thin the ends (maybe up to a third of the length of each
rib, depending on its length) by 1/16 inch. His instructions tell you
to take all of the 1/16 inch off one side of the rib. (In addition to
this, the ends of each rib need to be narrowed in order to fit them
into the mortices in the gunnells).

This means that when you bend the rib after steaming you have a choice
of bending it towards the thinned side or away from the thinned side.

It seems to me that it would be more likely to split if you bent it
away from the thinned side. That is, it would be better to have the
thinned side on the inside of the curve.

I have not yet broken enough ribs to know the answer to this. Does
anyone have an opinion? Or is this likely to be such a minor matter
that it will make little difference in the long run?

Yours

Norm