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how do you bend wood into the boat shape?
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. |
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