Wood for steaming (stems)

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Sawdust
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Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:36 pm

Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Sawdust »

Hi,

Today I learned that steaming kiln dried mahogany isn't a great success (snapped all three plies of my outer stems twice), so I'm thinking of thinking again and using something that steams better for my outer stems. The basswood inner ones steamed nicely, if you don't count the 5 minutes of fiery excitement when the primus stove sprang a leak.

I steamed for 15 minutes on 1/4" strips, the second time I soaked them 24hrs beforehand - perhaps got a little more bend before it all went wrong..

I was thinking of ash because it's available locally and a lot of people seem to use it, but I was wondering, does it steam better than the mahogany or am I going to encounter similar problems?

Thanks,
Rob.
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Glen Smith
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Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Glen Smith »

Ash steam bends well. I had a problem once that was caused by bad grain in the section of lumber I was using. I cut out more pieces with straighter grain and it worked well.
I have used it on several boats.
Sawdust
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Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Sawdust »

Thanks, I'll try the Ash..

Rob.
Ben
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Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Ben »

I have also had great success with cherry...just watch the grain.
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Glen Smith
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Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Glen Smith »

I forgot to mention something: if the board you are cutting the laminations from has face grain on the wide surfaces, do not rip your laminations off the edge. You should rip a piece as wide as you want the stem to be then flip the piece 90 degrees and rip the laminations from that. This will give face grain on the inner and outer faces of the stems and the wood fibers bend more easily this way.
alick burt
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Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by alick burt »

Hi
Ash really is very good timber for bending and has been used for centuries along with yew for the bent parts of many windsor chairs.Mahogany often has spiral and or curly grain that makes good bending difficult.when selecting timber for bend components also beware of using any pieces that have grain that wanders off the side of your piece so to speak.
regards
Alick
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Adamv
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Location: Owen Sound, ON Canada

Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Adamv »

I have also found it helpful to bend three plies at a time over the stems, and putting the more breakable pieces (in my case, white cedar) in between the more easily bent pieces (again, in my case, mahogany). With three (or four) pieces bent at once, the outer plies seem to keep the inner ones from snapping.

Cheers
Adam
Who travels not by water knows not the fear of God --- 17th Century Sailor
Sawdust
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Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:36 pm

Re: Wood for steaming (stems)

Post by Sawdust »

Thanks for all the pointers, steaming wood is very much uncharted waters for me at the moment.

I changed my mind again and ended up going with cherry as I'm going to have quite a lot of ash (gunwales, thwarts seats) already - unless the plans change along the way, which judging by past experience is quite likely! I figured if cherry is working well for other people it should for me, and so far it has - I've got one of the outside stems steamed up already and I'll be doing the next this morning. Hopefully then I can get the barbecue back out on the deck where it belongs.. :smile

I do wonder if perhaps in the light of what Glen said I might've tried ripping my strips the wrong way, though I really can't tell - the grain on the mahogany looks exactly the same whichever way you look at it! Anyway, with the cherry there's no mistake..

Rob.
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