: Ian,

: Your bow stem looks really good, I like the way that it flares out
: towards the top of the deck.

: Greg

: :

Thank you. Completely unintentional! I planed off a little more of the bow than I intended. But I think it looks good too.

It was hard to shape with a plane. It didn't occur to me to layer the strips so that the grain was consistent. I didn't, so the grain was all over the place and very hard to work. Plus the hard wood was a lot slower to trim than the cedar strips.

So I gave up and used a sanding disc chucked into a high speed drill. That worked extremely well (apart from making a royal mess of the garage) and made short work of the excess. Then the sander, before finally finishing it by hand. I didn't bother trying to pinch the stern stem, just contoured both to match the shape of the hull.

Cheers, Ian