Bending thin wood

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Firefyter-emt

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Guys, I have been making some "wave" pens with diffrent wood inlays. Is there a good easy to make the thin strips more flexiable? I lost a blaank because it cracked and moved just slightly leaving a noticable gap that looked poor with CA to fill it in.
Thanks!
 
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bjackman

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I have soaked some of my strips/veneers in water for a while before gluing, definately makes them bend easier and no ill effect on the blank overall, in fact in my case I think it helped, since I was gluing with Poly glue.
 

Rifleman1776

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Soaking will work for some woods but not all. The steaming is not so much to add moisture to the wood as to heat. Wetting is good for bending some woods we might not normally use for pens, like split white oak and hickory.
 
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Originally posted by Huzzah
<br />I wonder if instead of steaming if you could nuke them in the microwave? I would think that for thin strips you would not need much time. I only have one microwave and if I used it my wife would kill me so I am only throwing out a wild suggestion!!
With thin wood I don't think that that would hurt to try. But with some thicker pieces I would think that the wood could explode if it had very much moisture in it.
 

gerryr

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How thin are the stips and how tight is the radius of the bend? I did a cigar pen not too long ago and the strips were 1/16" thick and I didn't have any trouble. I used thick CA and several clamps that applied quite a bit of pressure.
 

low_48

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The microwave will work if you wet a towel, wrap it around the strip, then hit the power. Make sure you have gloves or some protection from the steam. Also the way the wood is cut makes a big difference. The grain should be very straight and run the entire length of the strip. If the grain runs out the side of the strip, or was near a knot, nothing will keep it from breaking through the short grain. You may also just try running hot water over the strip, or hold it over boiling water. When it really seems to be getting hot, start flexing it back and forth. This will limber up the cells and make them more flexible. Don't use the first couple of inches because the cells will not be limbered up because it is tough to flex them all the way at the end. Air dried wood always bends easier than kiln dried. Kiln dried is always more brittle. Grain direction though, is the biggest deal here for success.
 

KenV

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One of my other activites is to make shaker oval boxes. These are normally straight grain cherry, maple, oak, or similar woods that will bend with heat. While bands are normally heated in water, size and even temperature are the primary reason for that method. I have used heat guns too, for small pieces.

Some woods were never created to bend. Small changes in grain will cause breaks, backer boards or mould/forms help, especially as thickness increases. eg make a form of medium density fiberboard with a matching caul. Drill holes for clamps. Clamp to shape before gluing if you want to proof the strips. You can bend several at the same time that way.

Do a goodle search on wood bending and strip forms. Wooden landing nets for fishing are done this way. With different colors of wood, there are lots of conbinations available.

Drop me a PM and I can point you to more resoureces.
 
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I didn't read everybody comments, if I'm repeating what has been said, forgive me.

You didn't say what type of wood you are bending, how thick or what type of curve you are bending to.

To start off, figured wood is hard to bend without cracking, It's best to use straight grained wood. You also need to pay attention to wich way the grain is running.

Wood veneer, which is usally 1/42" thick, bends easy. Most times, just the moisture from yellow glue is all you need to bend a gentle curve.

If you are bending a tight curve you need to soften the wood by either soaking it in water, steaming it or heating it. I have bent cherry that is 1/8" thick on a 7" curve just by soaking in a tub of water. I won't try this with a open grain wood like red oak. But the bottom line is, not all woods can be bent all the time.

There is a write up in the article "Segmented Pen Blanks" about this type of pen blanks which may help you some
 

Firefyter-emt

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Yep, I can do that.. [:D]

I am getting it most of the time, but it is cracking and just bonding togather. The problem is that if it breaks and leaves a gap I can fill it with CA, but it just looks poor when done. I also have some scales of Mascassar Ebony I would like to inlay, but that stuff breaks just looking at it!

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