You can go to Harbor Freight or Northern Tool and get a cheap heat gun, less than 20 bucks.

You probably know the drill;  keep the heat gun moving while you are bending your wood strip into the desired shape.

On compound bends I used a heat gun and clamps  to position the strip into place.  I left it overnight for memory retention, before gluing into place.

I usually use clamps or any method I can to dry fit the strip until I reach the difficult area; and then, I  use a spring clamp to grip the end and twist the strip into the desired shape while applying heat.

I hope this helps!!

For my Wood Duck 10 hybrid, I bought some PVC pipe and a cap from Home Depot.

Tilted, put in strips and added really hot water. Within an hour they were ready to bend.

Good luck.

RichMPL

Thanks for the info....might try both to see what works best for me...

happy building!!

I have been using a clothing iron, as shown in Nick Schade's videos.  I had to make a pretty radical bend for the Petrel, and it works quite well.  Moisten the wood, the use the iron, moving it back and forth until the wood is hot.  You will feel it realax and take the twist and bend.  I then clamp it any possible way, do something else for a little while, then put in place.  The heat gun can scorch the wood if held in one place for too long, and soaking in water slows down the time until you can glue the piece, in my opinion.

Don't know how drastic the curve in your bend is, but for my Guillemot bow I have been gluing the strips in at the front and then once it dries I can bend the rest of the strip where it needs to go. If you are dealing with extreme curves then the heat gun or steam will probably be best.

Soaking the wood should not be a problem since you will be nailing or stapling the strips to the deck forms.  By the time you are ready to glue, they should be good to go.  If you need to tack glue, CA works with wet wood.

If using the soaking technique (PVC pipe), I recommend heating cold water on the stove to avoid possible chemicals from the hot water heater.

RichMPL

Just a word of warning when using stapples/nails with wet wood, it does not take much time for nails to start rusting. On my build water from sprinkers landed on my boat and dispite removing them within a couple of hours I now have some lovely dark hole marks in that wet area.

I thought about the clothes steam iron also.  Had one that I used for hot waxing snow skis.... filled it with water tacked down the center of the strip then worked out from there....like they said you can feel the wood relaxing and you can tack it down....I also am going to leave it sit then glue...

thanks for all the suggestions....

I have been trying to bend strips for the bow and stern of my Guillemot using the steam iron/sprayed water method shown on Nick's video with no luck.  10 minutes of heating and twisting, almost to the point of breaking, and when I unclamp the cedar strip it snaps back to its original shape or very little twist at all.  I must be doing something wrong as it seems others are having good results with this method.  I'm changing tactics and will experiment with a series of cuts into the inside of the strip to weaken it and allow for the twist.  It won't be seen and I'm thinking it won't compromise the strength in the end.     

   I have steam bent strips by building a steam box and feeding it with a pipe fed into a tea kettle or other metal container (with overpressure relief) on a camp stove. The last time I drilled out the "whistle" hole and installed a copper tubing from tea kettle  to the steam box. I used a pipe and plug arrangement as discribed above. Vent the top cap so steam vapors flow to the other end of the box.

Once the wood, think thin, was plyable/flexable I clamped it in place and let it dry. Once really dry, ie tomorrow, I removed clamps and glued and screwed the wood. Hot wood drys faster. There was always some spring back but the glue and screws were able to draw it up.

If it is structural avoid kerfing the inside of the stirps.