It's important to choose the right wood for edge bending. Mahogany and walnut want to split. Bass wood is soft but can edge bend pretty well. Linden wood also bends well. Bending birch is the most flexible, and you can even tie it into knots. The trick is applying and much support as you can to prevent puckers form occuring. Tere are many jigs people have made that can do this. Also, if you bend it too far, wood will splinter, so don't bend it any farther that it can take. In extreme cases, where you need a very sharp curve, use an extra-wide plank and spile it (cut it the shape of the curve). Even on hulls with the most bluff bow, the planks should not need to be curved so much that they begin to splinter, if your edge mending technique and tooling is good.
