Stephen Baker wrote:

Brian Nystrom says:

Soaking didn't seem to make any difference in the bend-ability of
the wood.

The old man always used to soak white oak before bending (24 hrs in the
bathtub), whether to see if it had a natural inclination to bend in a
particular direction, to help with bending, or some other reason I am not sure.
He was the builder, and I didn't question it.
He bent a lot of white oak ribs in his day.

If you're interested, try this test. Take a strip of whatever wood you
want to bend and soak it for 24 hours. Then, take a plane and see how
many strokes it takes on the surface to get down to dry wood. I scarf
thin stock for kayak coamings and the most penetration I've seen in red
oak or white ash is ~.010" on the sides and edges after soaking for 24
hours, with perhaps 1/4" penetration at the ends. I find it very
difficult to believe that this could possibly make any difference in the
bend-ability of the wood, since steaming alone will create similar
penetration in only a few minutes. As I mentioned previously, I found no
difference in bending between soaked stock and dry stock from the same
board, so I don't bother with soaking any longer. It strikes me as one
of those things that seems intuitively correct, but really doesn't help.