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Bending wood in steam

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Tom Dulaney:
The bog-'standard method of bending wood is to put itnin a steam environment for a few minutes, remove it, place it on a jig, and then bend.

But could you reduce the risk of a delamination by creating a jig that allowed you to bend the wood with steam or vapor actively hitting it?

Wood seems to cool down rapidly upon being removed from a steam container/submersion. Every little degree counts when you're doing an extreme bend, as in the Scythian bow tips. Even when you get it on to the jig quickly, delamination can happen.

Has anyone ever used such a device?

JNystrom:
I've seen here some thick plastic/fibre bags that people have used. They have used them while bending too. I would be interested also about this. I've soaked the wood in water for days, then used a heatbox and veritas strap.

bownarra:
Green wood of the correct species will bend into any shape you need. For sharp tips bends I prefer to use naturally bent pieces. Another way is to bend two thinner sections and then laminate.
I soak for a day or so (if green) then boil under water, 45mins per 1/2" thickness then straight onto the form. When I do this correctly there are no problems now but it took a lot of practise!

DC:
 If you are properly set up with everything ready and nothing goes wrong normal steaming works almost as well as steaming in a plastic bag. The bag has the advantage of you being able to continue steaming after it's bent, I think that helps a bit. That said I find that the plastic bags are very slippery and can make clamping difficult.

JNystrom:
bownarra: Problem with that is finding the green wood when you need it. For me it was much much easier to get a stockpile of fresh maple that i will be using for some time still to the future. In a perfect world, yes, use fresh wood and everything is easy.

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