restoration advice- building a form

charltons

Curious about Wooden Canoes
My Kennebec is getting totally new stems (splayed cedar), and I thought I could just put the stem on, attach the gunwales, and then new ribs, but the springback is pushing the stems way down. The gunwales are ash, but they only bend so far in a tight upsweep before cracking.

So here is my solution, and I wanted to get advice before trying:

Using the stem molds, I'm thinking of building a form, and making stations for the end sections only (the first 4 ribs on both ends are going to be replaced, the rest look good) and run ribbands from the 4th rib to the stem mold. That way all the pieces stay in place while I work on it.

Any suggestions/pointers?

thanks.
 
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