# Bending Wood in water solution



## debdaz (Aug 29, 2011)

This may not be new to you guys but I gave it a go. 
I wanted to go back in time and try to form a piece of wood using pressure and a tub of water solution. 
I tried many different methods over many months but the one I found that worked was this. 
I took a 4ft length 2” wide piece of regular hardware store wood into a barrel with a salt solution. In this barrel I place a preformed metal template for the wood to curl around. I soaked the wood for 48hrs before placing in the template. 
The wood is then slid into the template 6” -12” at a time every 24-36hrs.

Over 1 week it curled the wood perfectly. .... Ok yeah there were a few splits however OAK is the wood to do this with. Has anyone any experience with performing this art ??
Any tips n advice is helpful


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## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

Did you have any issues with the metal bar rusting (in that salt solution) and transferring that discoloration to the wood  ? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen........:blink:

That is my first knee jerk response......

Fabian


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## Chris86 (Aug 27, 2011)

I don't have any experience bending wood, but I have heard that splits will be minimized if you use quarter sawn pieces for bending. Some people build a steam box out of PVC pipe and some sort of setup to boil the water and pipe the steam into the steam box. Once the wood has steamed for a while, have your bending forms ready and bend the wood as soon as it comes out of the steam box.

The method you used by soaking the piece in water seems to work well for thinner pieces.

I've even heard of taking wood that's still green from the tree and using clamps to bend it around a form, let it sit until the wood naturally dries.


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