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Air vrs Kiln Dried
By:Dan Caouette (CSCWC)
Date: 1/4/2014, 7:20 pm
In Response To: Re: Heat gun (Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K)

If you want sharp bends, using straight grained, quarter sawn woods which bend well naturally, like ash, white oak, walnut and northern white cedar will give the highest success.

All very true. Cherry doesn't bend too badly either. Not like ash or white oak but not bad.

One thing to add: Try and get air dried lumber if at all possible. It can't be too dry though. Preferably you do not want wood that has been dried below 10% moisture content and, preferably, you should get wood that has about 20% moisture content. Wood that has been kiln dried will not work nearly so well. The lignin in the wood has been permanently set during the hot, dry kilning process. No amount of steaming or soaking will weaken the lignin bond sufficiently for successful bending.

A great instructional booklet on steam bending was produced by Lee Valley. You can still get it as a PDF on their website.
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?c=&p=31161&cat=1,45866,45867

Messages In This Thread

Tools: steamers
Joe Wuts -- 1/2/2014, 7:03 pm
Re: Tools: steamers
ancient kayaker -- 1/2/2014, 11:05 pm
Re: Tools: steamers
Mike Hanks -- 1/3/2014, 9:58 am
Re: Tools: steamers
Joe Wuts -- 1/5/2014, 9:17 pm
Re: Tools: steamers
Mike Hanks -- 1/5/2014, 10:16 pm
Re: Tools: steamers *PIC*
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 1/3/2014, 10:46 am
Re: Tools: steamers
ancient kayaker -- 1/3/2014, 12:03 pm
Heat gun
Jeff Horton -- 1/4/2014, 9:18 am
Re: Heat gun *PIC*
Marc Upchurch -- 1/4/2014, 10:02 am
Re: Heat gun
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 1/4/2014, 11:39 am
Re: Heat gun
Marc Upchurch -- 1/4/2014, 4:48 pm
Re: Heat gun
Jim Farrelly -- 1/4/2014, 5:09 pm
Re: Heat gun
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 1/4/2014, 5:12 pm
Re: Heat gun
Marc Upchurch -- 1/4/2014, 6:20 pm
Re: Heat gun
Bob Ten Eyck -- 1/4/2014, 8:30 pm
Re: Heat gun
Marc Upchurch -- 1/4/2014, 8:48 pm
Backing Strap
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 1/6/2014, 9:53 am
Air vrs Kiln Dried
Dan Caouette (CSCWC) -- 1/4/2014, 7:20 pm
Here's the direct URL for the booklet
Brian Nystrom -- 1/6/2014, 7:33 am
Re: Heat gun
Ancient Kayaker -- 1/6/2014, 1:10 am
Re: Heat gun
ddaniels -- 1/6/2014, 8:18 am
Re: Heat gun
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 1/6/2014, 9:37 am
Re: Heat gun
ddaniels -- 1/6/2014, 11:02 am
Re: Heat gun
Bill Hamm -- 1/7/2014, 12:53 am
Re: Heat gun
ddaniels -- 1/7/2014, 5:40 pm
Re: Heat gun
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 1/8/2014, 2:23 pm
Re: Heat gun
ddaniels -- 1/9/2014, 5:00 pm