When it comes to woodworking, woodworkers are always looking to get arrow straight boards, completely flat and true.
Yeah. Right.
First, there are turners, who take nice straight stock and turn it round. Then, there are carvers who – with chisels, gouges and other tools turn those pretty chunks of wood into works of art.
And, then there are the folks who like to bend wood to add flair and drama to their projects.
Bending wood is typically accomplished one of two ways. The first is to steam the wood in a contraption for a certain amount of time to loosen the lignin in the board, then taking it from the box and bending it quickly over a form. The other method is to slice thin pieces from a larger board, then laminate them with glue and clamp them to a form. Both give spectacular results.
So, this week, I want to know if you have ever bent pieces of wood for your projects, and if you have, how did you do it.
[poll id=”84″]
it wasn’t easy
Hey Tom,
I have steam bent wood for boat ribs, for trout fishing landing nets, for rocking horse rockers, and most recently for the legs on my dining table. I have laminated for rocking chair rockers, and most recently for long bows.
For me, the greatest guru of bent wood designs is Michael Fortune, probably Canada’s greatest furniture artist. If you are interested in bent wood projects, you owe it to yourself to get acquainted with his work.
Tom
Guess I had to answer this one – given that is my attempt at kerfing pictured!
It puts a completely different dimension on your woodworking realising that not everything has to be straight and square.
Of course getting wood to bend sometimes is a mission unto itself!
And, Stu… what an attempt it was!
Thanks for responding. I think you did a great job…
The bending I’ve done used a series of partial kerf cuts across the back of the board. Pretty simple to do and effective if the back of the board is hidden from site.