To complete the strongback, I still had to build and position the bow stem. The stem - perfectly cut The plans call for laminating two pieces of 22 mm timber to form a 44 mm thick stem. Since the stem is essentially triangular, I realized I could cut a rectangular blank from one of my boards and then bisect it diagonally to obtain two matching pieces for lamination. This required careful measuring and allowing enough margin for final trimming, but it made efficient use of material. One rectangle = Two triangles At the same time, I was using a borrowed circular saw to cut my stringers (more on that in the next post), so I took the opportunity to use it for the diagonal cut. I built a simple straight-edge jig to guide the saw, and the result was clean and accurate enough for lamination. After gluing the two pieces together with thickened epoxy, I ran the blank through the thickness planer. My stock was 27 mm thick, so planing it down to the specified 44 mm ensured I met the final dimensi...