[Rustic]

Started working on a Diamond willow chair, I have been peeling the bark off with a little difficulty, some have said to soak the limbs in water to loosen the bark a bit. I had some concerns over this and needed some expert advice. Also read in the forum about steaming limbs and wanted some advise about this topic also (what do you use?) Any help would be appreciated.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

The willow I have worked with, the bark comes off easy when fresh, not so easy later, I have heard you can soak it in a tub overnight and it softens up.....I always coat the ends of all my sticks with parafin, the greatest moisture loss is out the ends, so actually peeling the bark doesn't seem to affect them...imho

[Rustic]

Have you ever heard of steaming the saplings so they will bend for use on chairs

[AlArchie]

You can by professional steam boxes for steming and bending wood, but you can also make one quite easily out of PVC pipe and a tea kettle. Cut the diameter pipe you need to the length yyou need, cap both ends and drill a few vent hole in each end. Drill a hole for the tea kettle spout somewhere around the midde. Support the whole thing over a hotplate, put the kettle on, uncap one end and insert your wood. Steam it till it's gflexible. You will need to "over bend" t a bit because it will most likely return some after drying. Make your bend and clamp it till it's had plenty of time to dry.

It works, but it's messy and time consuming.

Al