Got wood?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The joy of fitting flooring around stone.........

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[gregj410]

I had to forgo the board stretcher for the board bender

[Rufus T. Firefly]

How many layers in each? What kind of wood(s)?

[gregj410]

How many layers in each? What kind of wood(s)?

Top one is character grade hickory. Bottom is southern yellow pine. Both are landing treads made up of about 22 1/4” strips.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

How many layers in each? What kind of wood(s)?

Top one is character grade hickory. Bottom is southern yellow pine. Both are landing treads made up of about 22 1/4” strips.

How's bending the hickory?

[gregj410]

How many layers in each? What kind of wood(s)?

Top one is character grade hickory. Bottom is southern yellow pine. Both are landing treads made up of about 22 1/4” strips.

How's bending the hickory?

This is my first hickory bend and it’s a bit more difficult than I thought. 3/16 strips may have been a little easier. That’s 10’ plywood and a reasonably fair curve. Tighter bends would be a workout for sure.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Top one is character grade hickory. Bottom is southern yellow pine. Both are landing treads made up of about 22 1/4” strips.

How's bending the hickory?

This is my first hickory bend and it’s a bit more difficult than I thought. 3/16 strips may have been a little easier. That’s 10’ plywood and a reasonably fair curve. Tighter bends would be a workout for sure.

Hard stuff to work with w/o steaming it or soaking it. Few harder to work with types of wood in my experience.

[robert.]

i made a steamer from an empty beer keg and pvc pipe. It works nice for steaming bow staves.

[gregj410]

When you steam wood and glue it together doesn’t it run the risk of shrinking?

[robert.]

I steamed Osage orange. Glued bamboo to the back of it and clamped it into a recurve bow jig. Shrinkage was not something i thought about or worried about. I had days of shaping and tillering ahead of me. After steaming i used resorcinol glue. Works well in wet situations. Then it spent about a month in a long heated box with a fan. 2 light bulbs kept the box warm while the fan blew out humid air. All i can tell you is. " It's amazing how far you can bend hot wet wood"

[gregj410]

Most everything I’m doing is flooring related. There’s no way you could soak down a piece of wood, form it, install it and have it shrink. First it would look horrid and homeowner would not be happy, secondly I would think the shrinkage would weaken the glue joints.

When you steam, soak it, can you form it then let it dry before you final glue and clamp it? Or when it dries does it try to regain its original shape?

I’ve heard many stories of people having success in steaming however I’ve never fully understood the process.

[robert.]

I can't answer your questions . none of them apply to building a bow. i have watched a few videos in the past. Some guys were steaming piece for a tall ship. When the made the boat ribs. They would steam a piece. form it into shape, let it dry. then steam another piece and glue it to the dry piece and quickly clamp it back into a jig. If you get time watch some videos on steaming bending wooden boat parts. When i steamed a piece of Osage it took on a lot of water weight. I probably steamed it to long. that was the first piece i ever steamed. I did some purpleheart wood. i only steamed it for a minute. this was a much thinner piece. Bent real nice. Horrible wood for a bow.

[robert.]

[Rufus T. Firefly]

When you steam, soak it, can you form it then let it dry before you final glue and clamp it? Or when it dries does it try to regain its original shape?

I think that you have to let it dry or at least pretty close to dry held in the formed shape before doing anything else. Once completely dry, it should hold the shape.

I’ve heard many stories of people having success in steaming however I’ve never fully understood the process.

I've tried steaming but ended up actually boiling before forming hot and clamping into and around a form, but that was East African Rosewood for a clock I was restoring - missing the pendulum door and had to make a new one. Pretty sure it was so painful a project that I just tossed the rest of the rosewood.