Stem plates

A.k.a. breast hooks, transition plates, etc. I went with Morris rather than Cunningham and used thinnish plates. Ash from a scrap at the bow and plywood at the stern.

It is really, a rather minor advance, notwithstanding that it took me quite a while to get the plates in place. So minor it is highly dubious that such small progress merits a blog entry. Well, maybe not by itself. However, the very gentle curve of the ash bow plate was obtained by bending it after 15 minutes in boiling water and that was a first for me. A sort of very, very light introduction to the daunting mysteries of steam bending. Also, installing the plates meant abundant use of the chisel and I have discovered it is a tool I really enjoy utilizing. And the fun didn't end just there. The final shaping was almost exclusively a spokeshave job, probably my favorite tool of all.

But most of all, the finished plates signal that installing the ribs comes next and with it the exciting steam bending, which, of course, has me quite worried.