When steambending timber is it the heat or the steam that is needed?
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Answers:
as the name implies: steam
well its both cause its hard to have steam without heat, lots of steam as i have found out...
The steam softens the wood and allows it to be worked and formed.
Moisture is the key. Some people bend wood under water.
Heat in itself with dry the wook and make it harder to bend. Heat with water is much faster than just water to make wood more pliable. Immersion in water with ammonia added aids bending. Steam bending is ideal but requires extensive equipment and time. Other methods have been used in the past, such as covering timbers with wetted covers and placing over a pit fire was used in centuries past to steam bend timbers for ships. If what you are bending is small, certainly not anything near to what is defined as a timber, minium dimension of six inches, you can use a soldering iron. Soak wood in water for a time to wet it throughly and hold it against the vice held soldering iron to heat the wood and it will become bendable if thin.
Both, otherwise they wouldn't have gone to such great lengths for centuries to do it that way.
Steam is needed as heat alone would cause the wood to dry out and crack.
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