Stick making bending

[MattF]

I found a nice Hazel branch yesterday with a V in it for a thumb stick it was pretty straight except its now got a long slow bend in it after leaving it in the car over night.
I have put it in to the vice on my wood bench which is now pushing it against the bend will this straighten it back out without putting any heat on it.
Will put some pictures up when I've got it back straight also is there any set length for a walking stick

Thanks Matt

 

[joejoe]

mate of mine makes them ,he leaves his hanging to settle fr 12 month

 

[Andy T]

pm sent .....

 

[adestu]

My mate and I spend weekends steaming yew staves for his furniture business maybe that could be your answer steaming


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[Diving Duck]

I found a nice Hazel branch yesterday with a V in it for a thumb stick it was pretty straight except its now got a long slow bend in it after leaving it in the car over night.
I have put it in to the vice on my wood bench which is now pushing it against the bend will this straighten it back out without putting any heat on it.
Will put some pictures up when I've got it back straight also is there any set length for a walking stick..Thanks Matt

Try to use wallpaper steamer, you should be able to bend it on your knee, the correct height for a walking stick should be your hip bone, turn it upside down [handle on floor] and mark your hip for measurement, try round file on the V if it's too sharp. p.s. no set length for thumb stick as some people hold them by the neck.

 

[dwardo]

Green wood does all sorts of strange things when its drying. Clamp it to something straight for a while or just past where you need it to be to allow for some bounce back.
You can fast dry wood in various ways but the quicker you dry the more chance of ruining it, and the more pampering it needs.

 

[MattF]

Thanks for the replies and pm will try it out

 

[Macaroon]

Just putting the stick in your vice will achieve nothing - you need to apply the "reverse bend" principle. This means that you put exactly the same bend to the stick but in reverse to where it currently is; the only thing you need to think about, though, is whether you can wait for some time for the wood to season. For a piece of Hazel of a suitable size for a stick this is likely to be about a year, ideally. You need to leave it somewhere dry but with a good airflow, and lay it on it's side, not stood on end and/or leaning against a wall or some such.

If you take a piece of 25mm ply or similar, lay the stick lengthways on it, then mark the shape of the stick; cut along the shape you've drawn, seperate the two pieces from each other on a flat bench, then lay the stick into the gap but the opposite way round to the way you marked the cut, then clamp the two tightly together forcing the stick to take on an exact "reverse bend" to that which it had. You can then leave it like that for as long as it takes for the stick to re-shape. I've had very good results from this method for many years, the great advantage of it being that there's no requirement for steaming.

I used to make high-end carriage driving whips and the Holly and Blackthorn used for these needs to be very straight and these woods also take a lot longer than Hazel to season. One method I used successfully with these was to hang them from a beam, thin end uppermost, and then attach a weight to hang from the bottom end for the entire length of the seasoning. This needs to be a substantial weight, circa 15 kilos, I used full and part-full propane bottles for this; it's a great way to ensure perfect stability in the shape of the stick as it pulls all the lignin in the wood into line, but it is a waiting game...............

If you google "steam bending sticks" you'll get a host of useful stuff to read, but it's not always neccessary to use the steaming method - sometimes you can straighte a very mis-shapen stick in minutes by bending across
your knee with the reverse bend...........................I hope some of this helps.................................

 

[MattF]

Hi dwardo

I do a bit of wood turning I like to turn with green wood for some bits to see what shape it will go into just adds interest that you cant get without nature

 

[Laurentius]

I have made some like that, but then I reckon the bend gives it character

 

[Laurentius]

And if you look at the stick on me atavar pic, that is not exactly straight is it, but it does the job

 

[Diving Duck]

I used to make high-end carriage driving whips and the Holly and Blackthorn used for these needs to be very straight and these woods also take a lot longer than Hazel to season.

Blackthorn thorns cut off completely or partly before drying?

 

[Uilleachan]

I'd leave it in the shed for a year, then heat and counter bend straight until you're happy.

 

[uncleboob]

Okay, I have a hazel steaming question that's been making my head hurt!. I wanted to make a walking stick with a bent handle- I was going to make a steam box to put the hazel in to heat it up but does anyone have any idea of timings? How long is it steamed for? I'm assuming it goes in there green?

Many thanks, joab

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[mountainm]

Okay, I have a hazel steaming question that's been making my head hurt!. I wanted to make a walking stick with a bent handle- I was going to make a steam box to put the hazel in to heat it up but does anyone have any idea of timings? How long is it steamed for? I'm assuming it goes in there green?

Many thanks, joab

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Cant answer your question as I tend to guess it. Re. Making a box I find an old steel hoover tube does the job nicely. Wear gloves though.

 

[Macaroon]

Just cut the top third off the thorns, otherwise they can shrink back quite a long way into the wood and are sometimes the way in for fungal and other infestations during the seasoning............and cover all the cuts you make with wax or even oil paint to stop 'em drying out too quick.............

If you only have one or two sticks to bend you can soak a towel, wrap it around the stick and cover with tin foil (shiny side in), then hit it with a heat gun for a good while 'till the steam from the wet towel gets into the wood; then bend to your will!

You can make a jig for the handle shape you want by drilling holes to fit 18mm or bigger dowel, drill into a piece of scrap ply either side of a drawn outline of the shape you want, steam the stick and bend/manouvre it into the channel you've created with the dowels............another thing that works well is to fix a pulley wheel of suitable size onto a flat surface, and bend your handle around that to the desired shape. A decent selection of clamps will be your friend, but it's amazing what you can achieve with wet cotton string, it tightens as it dries and so holds things in place very well.

There are almost no circumstances with sticks where "this will work; this will not", you have to mess around and learn as you go, it's as much to do with having a feeling for the stick in your hand as it is to do with hard-and-fast rules. But it's a huge amount of fun and satisfaction trying and you won't be long about finding some little trick to post here that nobody else has thought of.

 

[Diving Duck]

Just cut the top third off the thorns, otherwise they can shrink back quite a long way into the wood and are sometimes the way in for fungal and other infestations during the seasoning............and cover all the cuts you make with wax or even oil paint to stop 'em drying out too quick.............

If you only have one or two sticks to bend you can soak a towel, wrap it around the stick and cover with tin foil (shiny side in), then hit it with a heat gun for a good while 'till the steam from the wet towel gets into the wood; then bend to your will!

You can make a jig for the handle shape you want by drilling holes to fit 18mm or bigger dowel, drill into a piece of scrap ply either side of a drawn outline of the shape you want, steam the stick and bend/manouvre it into the channel you've created with the dowels............another thing that works well is to fix a pulley wheel of suitable size onto a flat surface, and bend your handle around that to the desired shape. A decent selection of clamps will be your friend, but it's amazing what you can achieve with wet cotton string, it tightens as it dries and so holds things in place very well.

There are almost no circumstances with sticks where "this will work; this will not", you have to mess around and learn as you go, it's as much to do with having a feeling for the stick in your hand as it is to do with hard-and-fast rules. But it's a huge amount of fun and satisfaction trying and you won't be long about finding some little trick to post here that nobody else has thought of.

..........

 

[uncleboob]

Cant answer your question as I tend to guess it. Re. Making a box I find an old steel hoover tube does the job nicely. Wear gloves though.

Do you use green wood or seasoned? I'm thinking that both will steam but due to the lack of moisture in the seasoned wood it might take longer to be bend-ready?

many thanks

joab

 

[mountainm]

Do you use green wood or seasoned? I'm thinking that both will steam but due to the lack of moisture in the seasoned wood it might take longer to be bend-ready?

many thanks

joab

I'm impatient and use green, I'm no expert tho' and tend to make it up as I go along.

 

[Macaroon]

When steam bending sticks the difference between green and seasoned wood is as you say, green will steam just from the moisture that's already in the wood; the trouble is that it produces different results each time you do it green. I've found the sticks I've bent green are often not as stable as the seasoned ones, and the problems from "springback" are often more severe. But don't forget' you can re-steam a stick, it's not a one-shot
thing.

The other thing to note is that with a green stick it's very easy to damage the bark, as it's a seperate part when the wood is green but consolidates and becomes very stable and hard when the wood is seasoned.