That's a long answer--- let's see:

4 years ago 3 of us build SOF's. We used green ash w/o soaking for the ribs & broke most of them. We then soaked more stock and broke an even higher percentage. We tried some stuff we had cast aside & let dry. That bent OK, maybe 80% sucess. I vowed not to use ash again- the slightest run out led to a failed rib. It was hard stuff to bend, we had sore arms. We tried steam times from 3-20 minutes. Different times changed how the wood failed, but they were always mean to bend. We tried both 1/4 sawn & flat.

This year we used green white oak. 4 days from standing tree to the start of our rib bending. It bent like a limp noodle. Little effort to bend. As long as good stock was used, our failure rate was close to zero, even with complete novices doing the bending. Of course if they picked a piece of nasty wood, it broke.

Towards the end of our build, I was afraid we would run out of the oak. I soaked some 4 year old left over ash rib stock. It has been air dried for 4 years. After about a 4 day soak(with softener), the success rate with the ash was 100%, and it was very easy to bend. A little run out was no problem. We used both 1/4 sawn & flat. Much easier to bend than 4 years ago when it was green. This befuddles a feeble mind like mine. We are using exactly the same steamer & bending jig.

I'm going to try bending some of the ash without soaking it. I don't have a moisture meter. (hmmmm- there is a tool I don't have......)

: BUT- how does your experience with the ash compare to the oak you hacked off
: from that fresh log?

: If you use the right stock you will have very little breakage, if any, even
: if you don't soak it. Soaking kiln dried wood is akin to soaking unpopped
: kernels of popcorn after they've been cooked. Some of them might pop.
: Maybe. But- nobody would buy a bag of kernels that went through the oven
: and didn't pop and expect to get nice fluffy popcorn out of it.

: The info I've read on steam bending says that you should use stock at around
: 25% moisture content. I borrowed a meter and checked my straight-grain QS
: air-dried ash and it was at about 18, so I soaked it until it was 23%, but
: I didn't soak enough stock and ended up using some stock that I hadn't
: soaked. When I bent it I didn't break any of either the soaked or
: unsoaked. I won't bother soaking it next time.

: m
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