On a related note, I've always wondered if steam bending increased the
rot resistence of wood. I was thinking that when a tree grows there are
all kinds of mold and fungus spores and bacteria that must be in the
wood just naturally. But when you steam it, these little buggers would
be killed. Sterilized.
Any body ever think of this? I wonder if it would reduce or slow fungus
growth.
Also, I don't mind if people don't follow up their questions when others
give a reply. It is a little rude, but who cares if we all can learn
from the exchange?

Stephen Baker wrote:
Old Nick says:


Easy. I get sick of people who come here and ask questions (and the
question was minimally asked) and then can't be bothered to show an
interest in the efrfort people put into replying.


Assuming he's even reading the replies anyway. Most folks with questions like
that just assume they'll be answered by email as we'all have nothing better to
do with our time, being newsgroup junkies 'n'all.

Steve

steveJ wrote:
: On a related note, I've always wondered if steam bending increased the
: rot resistence of wood. I was thinking that when a tree grows there are
: all kinds of mold and fungus spores and bacteria that must be in the
: wood just naturally. But when you steam it, these little buggers would
: be killed. Sterilized.
: Any body ever think of this? I wonder if it would reduce or slow fungus
: growth.

I've never heard of that directly. But there's this:

Using green wood is usually a bad idea in boatbuilding as it promotes
rot. Yet you prefer green wood when steambending.
But the steaming eliminated the tendency for the wood to rot due to
it's "greeness".

So in that sense, steaming helps to prevent rot.

--- Gregg

My woodworking projects:


Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm



"Improvise, adapt, overcome."

Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: (617) 496-1558

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It would be a by-product of steam bending but not generally usefull as
only some of the wood on a boat is steam bent. Unfortunately bacteria
spores are pretty heat resistent. For example, cooking your food kills
bacteria but only puts the spores into a dormant state for about 24 hours
which is long enough for you to digest and expell them (about 10 hours)
before they wake up and mulitply inside you and make you sick. Its the
same when boiling drinking water or treating it with chlorine. After you
put wood on a boat its still suceptable to airborne rot spores. The darned
things are everywhere.

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Gregg Germain wrote:

I've never heard of that directly. But there's this:

Using green wood is usually a bad idea in boatbuilding as it promotes
rot. Yet you prefer green wood when steambending.
But the steaming eliminated the tendency for the wood to rot due to
it's "greeness".

So in that sense, steaming helps to prevent rot.

What people forget is that the heat of steaming actually drives moisture
OUT of green wood. Perhaps that's part of the reason for increased rot
resistance?