Bulwark twisted, can I soak them a second time?

[MangoFox]

Hi all, 

 

Bent my bulwarks for a HMS Lady Nelson on a template I made with some nails in a board. Let them dry for a day or two. This morning I put them up against the deck/bulkhead horns and noticed some issues. 

 

The port side turned out not so bad, but the starboard side will clearly need some adjustment. 

 

I think the best course of action would be to soak these in water again and try to bend them into the correct shape. My question is, is soaking them again going to cause me unforeseen problems like swelling or something. Please note I don't have much (if any) woodworking experience and this is my first build, therefore the newbie issue/question. 

 

This time I plan to cut out the shape in a piece of timber and clip it down flat to that instead of using the nails in a board method. I'm hoping that will eliminate any twisting. 

 

How would you all go about rectifying this for a better fit?

 

See reference photos and notes below. Let me know if you can see something I haven't noticed contributing to the issue. 

 

First, notice the pretty obvious kink at that first (gunport? cannon hole?)  

If you look down the length you might notice its a bit wavy too. 

 

 

 

There is an obvious twist at the stern too. The template was nice and straight so not sure how this one happened? 

 

Similar issue on the port side but not nearly as pronounced. 

 

 

 

The port side at the stern married up a lot more flush though. 

 

First and second bulkhead horn on the starboard site might be a bit proud. 

 

Again notice the waviness/twisting 

 

Appreciate the advice here. Is soaking and putting on to a new, hopefully better bending template the way to go? 

 

Cheers,

Mango.

[Dr PR]

Mango,

 

With wood strips you can soak them multiple times. However your bulwarks appear to be plywood Soaking might cause the plys to delaminate.

 

The kinks at the bow gun ports are a problem. The bulwark strip is much weaker at the ports and that causes the kink when the strip is bent. One way to correct this is to place another strip of wood without holes outboard to the bulwark strip. This shouldn't be glued to the bulwarks, but just bent along with the bulwarks and clamped to the bulkhead extensions (the posts inside the bulwark strip). You may also need to clamp the bulwark strip to this outer piece at each side of the gun port to eliminate the kink.

 

You shouldn't have any waviness down the length of the bulwarks. If you do the frames have not been properly faired. Use a long sanding block to shape the outer edges of the bulkheads to remove any materiel that is too "high" (causing outward bulge)s. You can glue thin wood strips to any bulwarks that are too low (causing inward curves in the bulwarks).

 

The normal method to test the fairing of the bulkheads is to use a thin strip of wood what is pinned/clamped to all bulwarks and look down the hull length for waves along the strip. Keep removing or adding material to the bulwarks until this test strip has a smooth (fair) curve along the entire length of the hull.