Steam Bending Kiln Dried Cherry

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska


 

 Well, as you can see, less than stellar results.  I kinda sorta thought this would happen, or maybe at least I wasn't totally surprised.  I think a few things made this happen.  One, and most obviously, using kiln dried wood.  Usually I use split green ash, and it bends beautifully.  Second, I think I placed the clamps in the wrong place, on the ends.  I should have started on one end and worked my way up.  And lastly, I left the door of my steam box open in an attempt to keep the tenons out of the steam.  I stuffed a towel around gaps, but there was a fair but of leakage, so I think the temp never really got high enough.  The piece seemed "dry" when I took it out, and not really all that hot.  If you can't hold it in your bare hands, it's about right.  

I should back up and say that I am building a cherry rocker and the only cherry I have is kiln dried.  If I can't get these posts bent, I may have to see if Matt can get me some green stock, or at least air dried.  When wood is kiln dried ( and a lot depends on how it is dried, the temps of the schedule etc.) sometimes the lignin can become set, meaning it can't be bent.  This is why kiln dried wood is stiff, whereas air dried is more flexible.  

Because there is no cherry growing around here, if I can't get these bent this chair is dead in the water, so I have to come up with something.  I remember reading an article years ago where Russ Philbeck, a chair maker in So. Cal. used k.d. wood but he soaks it in water with a little fabric softener in it ( it allows the water to soak in better by reducing the surface tension).    So I filled up a PVC pipe with some water and am soaking the new posts til maybe Sunday, then I'm gonna steam them for at least 1.5 hrs with the door closed, and be very careful, and quick, with the clamping....pretty much everything I didn't do the first time around.  We'll see, hope it works, cause if not this chair is done.

It amazes me how few parts it takes to build a chair.  These are all the parts, save for the the spindles and the rockers.  The spindles are already drying after steam bending.

The other problem of the day.  I had the second coat of a multi-layered paint job, and I noticed a timber break that I somehow missed in the assembly of this chair.  A timber break is when a tree is felled over another tree and breaks, but not in two, rather it creates internal breaks that rear their ugly heads later in the assembly.

As upset as I was, better to find it now than later, believe me.  So I flooded a little epoxy in the back break and some super glue on the front, a couple hours later and some sanding, good as new.  It does set the painting back but like I said, better now than years later in a clients house.  So, a good bad day, I guess.

Here are  the two chairs, before the painting.  One is gonna be a brownish, and the other, the one with the break, is gonna be more black.

This shows the importance of using green, riven wood to steam bend.  It makes everything else easier. 
Easy to the point where it's easy to get complacent about bending, and then you try to bend kiln dried, and, well, see above.