How to Bend Wood with Water

Learning how to transform long and straight pieces of wood into curved or bent shapes helps you create beautiful designs for different woodworking projects. This technique is commonly used in making furniture and different musical instruments.

Flickr Image by Dag Halvorsen Photography

While there are multiple solvents that you can use to bend wood, using water is the most popular and economical way to achieve that. I’ll discuss a step-by-step guide that will help you bend wood with water easily.

How to Bend Wood with Water

Bending wood with water is a time-consuming task but it doesn’t have to be difficult. The following steps will allow you to complete this process easily and effectively.

Step 1: Choose Suitable Wood

The first step is to choose the most suitable wood planks for bending because not all wood species work well when bent with water. According to the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture, red oak, hackberry, chestnut oak, and white oak have the best bending qualities.

You can use any hardwood species for bending but make sure that you work with a piece that has a straight grain. Bending perpendicular to the grain will lead to cracking. In addition, the ideal thickness of the wood for bending purposes is 20 to 30 millimeters.

Anything thicker will be very difficult to bend and you’ll most probably end up breaking thinner wood pieces than that. The following chart explains the wood types along with their bending qualities.

Step 2: Check Wood’s Moisture Content

After choosing the right type of wood, the next step is to check its moisture level with a digital moisture meter. 

Ideally, the natural moisture level of the wood you want to bend should be 20 to 30 percent. I recommend you not to use wood pieces that have a moisture level lower than 10 percent.

Step 4: Start Bending

We’ll discuss two different ways to bend wood with water. The first one involves a waterproof container and the second one uses a steam box.

Using Waterproof Container

Now you’ll need to grab a waterproof container that should have a flat base and be wide and long enough to contain your wood plank. You can use a container made of any plastic or metal, but it must have these qualities.

Use the following process to bend wood using water in a container.

1. Fill the container with water and place your wood plank inside it.
2. Place the container in a sheltered spot and let the wood plank soak up water for 24 to 48 hours. It’ll increase the elasticity of wood to make bending easy.
3. If you don’t have 24 to 48 hours, heat the water and pour it into the container before placing the wood plank in it. The hot water will allow the wood plank to absorb water quickly.
4. Start creating the bending mold and set it up while the wood plank soaks if you don’t already have one. A mold is a curved wooden template that will transform the wood into a shape you want. You can make a bending mold/form by cutting MDF (Medium-Density fiberboard) in the desired shape using a jigsaw or router. Make sure the mold has a smooth edge to achieve a smooth curve.  
5. Once the wood has absorbed water and your mold is set up, secure the wood plank to one side of the mold with a clamp and start bending it firmly.
6. Make sure that you bend the wood plank slowly and use clamps to secure the bent parts. Continue the process until you reach the other end of the mold.

Using Steam Box

You can easily buy a steam box from your local woodworking shop or a hardware store to use for this process. You can also create your own steam box if you want.

A steam box should have a small opening on one of the sides that’ll help the hot steam to exit from the box. It’ll also keep the wood piece that you want to bend from warping during the steaming process.

1. Place the wood plank inside the steam chamber after setting up your steam box.
2. Activate the steam generator after closing the box to start adding steam into the chamber.
3. Deactivate the heat source once the internal temperature of the chamber reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). You can place a thermometer on the small opening of the steam box to monitor the internal temperature of the chamber.
4. The duration of steaming wood is one hour for every 2.5 centimeters or 1-inch-thick piece of wood. Calculate the time according to your workpiece and let the wood soak up moisture. Make sure that you don’t move your steam box during this time to prevent the risk of warping.
5. Remove the steamed wood from the steam box and use the same technique discussed above to bend and clamp your wood piece.

Make sure that you wear a pair of heavy-duty gloves while performing this step to avoid burning your hands as the wood will be incredibly hot.

Perform the bending process right after removing the wood from the steam box. Otherwise, it’ll cool down and you’ll find it difficult to bend it easily without breaking it.

Step 5: Let Wood Dry

Don’t try to remove the clamps until the bent wood has dried thoroughly. Typically, it’ll take a couple of days but it depends on the weather and climate of your area. If you live somewhere with high humidity levels, I recommend you wait for at least three days.

It’s very tempting to place your wood (installed in the mold) near a heat source to accelerate the drying process. It’s not recommended because it can trigger a fire accident.

If you really want to speed up the process, use a heat gun or hair dryer a couple of times a day to blow hot air. But still, you’ll need to wait for at least 24 hours.

Once the wood has dried completely, remove it from the mold by detaching the clamps and start using it to complete your woodworking project. Use the same technique to bend as many wood planks as you want with water.

FAQs

Final Words

Learning how to bend wood with water is no less than a milestone for every person involved in woodworking projects. It’ll allow you to create beautiful designs and set your craft apart. I hope this guide will help you understand the right way to bend wood with water to improve your woodworking skills.