bending wood

[curtis rosche]

any one have any experiance bending wood? i have a peice of wenge that i am attempting to make into a bracelet. whats the best thing to soak it in to bend it? most amount of preassure to bend at one time?, multiple bends or one? how thin should it be?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Curtis, I've never bent wenge, however I've bent a lot of oak.

I don't bend material greater than 3/8" in thickness, and I steam it for one hour per inch of thickness.

A bracelet is going to be a very small radius, so the thinner the material, the better. In addition a steel backer band may be needed during the bending process to prevent fractures.

Regards, Rod.

[Todd Bin]

I would resaw the wenge into thin strips (1/16 inch). Make a form from MDF and press them into the form. I would use urea formaldehyde (plastic resin) glue to bond the strips back together.

I don't think you can steam bend wenge into such a tight radius.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

best thing to soak

high purity Anhydrous ammonia.
If you can get some and keep it from flashing off on you it is the best thing going 'cause it softens the lignin bond and re sets it when it evaporates leaving the piece with no spring back.

However, you can bend thin strips easier in steam and laminate them with epoxy and that won't spring back.

[curtis rosche]

what about blood wood?

[Jim Becker]

high purity Anhydrous ammonia.

But that's not anything that an amateur would want to fool around with, especially a young man still in high school!

[Gary Herrmann]

Curtis, how thick is the wenge and bloodwood? How wide do you want the bracelets to be? If those two dimensions are close enough, you could just turn them.

[julie Graf]

i've done some ribbon inlay with wenge and it is VERY prone to splintering along the grain when bent - this is with just soaking it in H2O to bend along a very slight curve, like a football type shape.

good luck. just warning you. it's a pain in the arse.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

But that's not anything that an amateur would want to fool around with, especially a young man still in high school!

Prolly couldn't get any one to sell it to him if that's the case.

Steam is so much easier to work with, no need to build the pressure vessel and no fire hazard and no lethal gas inhalation risks.

And just to cover the base: Store bought ammonia won't do anything but clean the window on the steam box.

[Mike Henderson]

Wenge is very brittle - I doubt if you could get it to bend enough to make a braclet out of no matter how thin you cut the laminations. I have some wenge veneer (1/42") and I doubt if I could bend that into a braclet. Bloodwood's a bit better but it's not a great bending wood either.

But if you're determined to try, get some veneer and try to use that for lamination bending.

Have a couple of backup woods in case the wenge and bloodwood won't work for you. Maybe walnut and holly.

Mike

[curtis rosche]

the wenge is 1x1 inch thick and 18 inches long, it can be made smaller

the blood wood, i think its bloodwood, but im not sure its red, and its got a little bit of sap wood that is kinda whiteish it cuts smooth with a chisel. its the same length but its about 3/16ths thick and 1 inch wide

[curtis rosche]

it maybe paduak, not blood wood