As you will see in the photograph below, the stem is made up of a nice solid iroko central core, with the strip planks glued and screwed to either side. The keel curves down from the top (with hull upside down) to join it. In order to provide protection for the soft strip planking, the design includes capping the stem with 6 layers of 3mm hardwood.
3 mm hardwood strips proved to be unavailable everywhere I checked. All the veneers are too thin and the timber merchants said that the thinnest they could thickness to was 6mm. So I bought 6mm strips with the thought that I would try and reduce the thickness by running them through my thicknesser. However, a trial proved that the 6mm strips could be coaxed into the curve required – with some imaginative clamping.
The photograph below shows the first layer being glued into position.
For some reason, the second layer took a bit more persuasion to fit the curve without gaps, but clamps and wedges do the job.
And the third and final layer goes on. As usual, I learn as I go, and the clamping gets easier.
The photograph below shows the cap in place before planing to shape.
Here, I have planed the capping to the be fair with the strip planking. I still need to make the front surface into a nice round shape so that the fibreglass will wrap round nicely – but I have put that job aside while I finish off the stern section.
