[Thomp]

Somewhere back among my remembered thoughts i think i remember hearing or reading native Americans use to hang rocks off of prospective cedar limbs to straighten them while still growing for arrows so they would grow straight...

like i said i dont know where i heard or read this,
but thinking along the same lines i was thinking of using this method to form the crooked handle on walking canes, by tying on a weight and forcing the prospective limb over a rounded form so it would slowly give and grow with the goose neck bend you would need to make a stronger cane, of course several months of retightening the bindings or increasing weight would be necessary to obtain the crook...

or is it better just to boil a limb and stem bend it to the goose neck?

i never bent solid wood under steam, (just laminations) so i dont know how flexable it would be or how long it would have to be steamed to be flexable..
any suggestions?

[Earl]

You can bend solid wood with a heat gun as long as it's not kiln dried. So walking sticks you cut yourself bend fine. Just heat and apply pressure, make sure it's in the position you want as it cools.

Veritas makes a steamer I want to buy. They show it with a box for the wood, it looks like a nice setup. Has anybody tried that? Also, I thought about putting some walking sticks in the shower with only hot water on....

I have read about people bending growing limbs but I guess I'm not that patient. Look around when you are in the woods, there are a lot of cane handles nature has already made for you.

[stickman]

I too am interested in binding a tree to conform to the shape I want.

this spring I am going to try binding some trees in my yard(every young trees 2-3yrs old I'm guessing.)

Why couldn't you make a jig that you put on the tree when it was young kind of "s" shaped that you would snake it through and it would grow that way would take a while but if you babied them(made sure they got enough water sun etc.)you could possibly speed up the growing rate significantly

I even thought of wrapping a rope around a young tree to get a sort of spiral effect.

Again this spring I plan on experimenting !!!

I never bent one with steam is it hard to do ?
and how long dose it take(hours or days)?
do you bend them after or before they are cured?
can you bend all types of wood or only certain types?
How thick can the wood be?

Mike

[Thomp]

Sorry fellers i been away from the computer bout 2 weeks and didnt see the posts, i wasent ignoring ya's,,

yes im sure you could bind twist or form early sapplins about any way you want them, if you take it in stages,

one of the weekend shows on tv couple years had a segment where a feller weved a tree by topping a sapplin then finding or making grafts of 8 limbs growing he weved them into a basket that continued to grow and they were grafted its self back into a single trunk, amazing, but ill bet he had lots of chemical help...

i had a sapplin growing up under the frontporch railing that got stuck under the hand railing and formed a "s" shape ... easiest cane i ever made. cut, peal and use...

Another thing for a younger feller, or a grandpaw expecting to be around a while, to look into is grafting where the tree is implanted with some of its own stock,
this way you could make grafts on the end of a cut off sapling with good root growth, and braid or bend the young tender ends to shape what you wish.
any plant nurseryman can tell you what you need to do for making grafts.. or look it up on google should be on botinical sites englands Q garden site has lots of plant info..
but with extra care weeding, insect prevention, watering and feeding you chould be able to harvest many preformed sticks within a couple years. for an industrious feller.


STEAM BENDING IDEAS.

We made some dinner chairs at the votech, ball and clar cadederel legs
The chair backs needed to be bent we ran the 3/4" mahogany stock for the chairback through the bandsaw cutting it to an 1/8th inch slabs, then using a hotplate and teapot and a wooden chamber blowed the steam from the teapot boiling through the box for about 2 hour an a half the slabs could be bent easily and using clamps to a premade form they were clamped for a week (we forgot them) then glued up..

i was thinking of the same idea on the last foot of a cane handle to use a special made "v" block, (with clamping device) to keep the staff from spinning, on my scroll saw becuse of the thinner sawblade kerf is smallest on the blade, and ripping the staff to 1/8th " slabs, wedging it open then incerting it into a section of pvc schedule 80 thick pipe and steaming it the same way, after plyable use polyurithane glue and bend the handle to form the shape intended, sounds feasable.

thin wood steams quicker, bends easier, (by allowing the fibers to slip past wach other) the polyurithane glue is activated by moisture. kinda an all in one thing,
the section being bent and glued would have to be wrapped in 80mil visqueen plastic (like breakfast cerial inner bags..) to keep it from adhearing to the clamping devise table and the cat... that glue is a mess...

just some thoughts..

[mark yundt]

Over time I've see several homemade contraptions for bending wood,,one guy not far from me can bend 2" oak, 3" wide into a perfect 90% angle,no splitting or tear out,would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. He got into it to make parts for old woodie cars,and bent wood steering wheels. Part of his trick was to add some Downy fabric softener to the steam,,to soften the fibers,, and then use a 10 ton press like the ones for bending exhaust pipes to actually bend the wood.. or use a form he made . Some of the steam chambers are nothing more than pvc pipe,, connected to a source of steam,,a little hot plate and an old kettle. All the specifics of time,thickness,,temps,,etc, are lost on me now for the ones I have read about,,,anyone try Google? It can be done,,just don't remember all the details..sorry.If I do find it , I'll let you know.