Quote Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone View Post
My game plan is to do whatever I can to make it possible to bend thicker laminations. No way I'll be able to bend 1.5" kiln-dried white oak, but also not looking forward to the prospect of having to laminate 24 strips of 1/16" either. 1/4" would be great. 1/2" (not-likely I think) would be awesome. So if soaking can get me to 1/4", that's real progress.
You could do it without any steam if you were cutting the lams down to 1/16" - simply bending them around the forms with a backstrap to control them would work. 1/8" with kiln dried, you likely need the steam for the curves you're after - but it's just as much to make sure that the lams set in something approximating their final shape. Beyond 1/8" with quarter sawn white oak, you're going to want them steamed up to temp and to use a backstrap as Bradley says, to prevent tearing on the outer radii (but also note, that since you're laminating them with glue, other than needing one really nice one for the outer bit, a small bit of tearing in the tight bends isn't going to compromise your build in any way, structurally or visually.

For a clue as to how tight you can bend steamed 1/8" lams, look at the narrow end of this basket. This is, to be sure, air dried red elm, so not as prone to breakage as your kiln dried oak, but then, that's a tight bend, too.
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(Just to brag on my beloved, since I'm here - the yarn in the basket is all hand spun, hand dyed with natural dyes, wool from our flock, and the hanks of fiber are stricts of unspun linen she processed from flax that she raised).