The stem has been shaped with a plane, spokeshave, and sandpaper. The reason I used 2 strips of ash and 2 of walnut was to get the dark band of walnut about the same width as the half-strip of walnut I used on the shear and down the middle of the deck. It worked out nicely. The walnut tapers to nothing just beyond the transition to the lower part of the keel, and the ash strips continue on a ways further to cover up the area where I fitted in a half-width strip of white cedar down the keel line. I have just applied the epoxy in this picture, but haven't done any fill coats yet.

Good luck -- it'll turn out beeeeee-utiful.

Dean