Last Friday was coaming day in the shop.  I'm installing a ash coaming on the front of a large deck for a 15 ft square stern boat for Mr. Harri Kaiser for his camps near Moosehead Lake in northern Maine.  He also is having 2 twenty foot E.M. White canoes restored.  This ash coaming is about five feet long.  It starts out at about 6 inches wide but by the time I get done shaping the arch in the curve it will be about 3 to 4 inches wide.
Peter is working on a Shell Lake Mallard King.  Shell Lake was a company in WI. and the Mallard King was a model of a duck boat.  This boat is for Craig Carter all the way out in Leawood KS.  The ash coaming for this boat goes all the way around the cockpit of the boat so it looks something like a very open kayak. This coaming is close to 16 ft long so its done in two pieces that are spliced together after they have been bent. 
Both of these coamings had to have custom jigs built to bend the coamings over. The jigs are built to the inside shape of the curve so the coaming can be bent over the outside of the jigs.  We do not try to bend the comings in place on the boats because in trying to bend the coaming  inside the boat its way to easy for the hot wood to kink  where the clamps are placed.  Bending the hot, steam softened wood coaming over the outside of a smooth form is much easier and safer even  if it does take a bit of time to make the custom forms.