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Any tips on doing this effectively? Just curious on temperature/moisture levels that make it work well. I don't have a cutaway or sharp bends in the shape I need.

I haven't bent birdseye but I'd say it bends easily like most maples, quilt can give problems with the facets tho.
Maples bend with fairly low temps and scorching can occur with higher temps so for me, between 250 and 300 deg.
and not above. No need for a lot of water, just spritz the craft paper, wrap the wood, start the bending when you see steam.
For no cutaway I'm usually done as the temp gets to around 275 deg.

I have only used Birdseye Maple on mandolins, but it bends easily, no different than any other Maple.

Depending on the grain pattern, too much water can cause some side-to-side warping, bulging or other weirdness. And, of course, scorching is problematic on lighter woods like maple. So, too much water is a problem, not enough water is a problem, too much heat is a problem, etc.

How are you at hand bending? I think that helps you keep an eye on the above potential problems better than with a Fox bender. A Fox bender is awesome, but your ability to monitor for problems is limited.

I have built several Birds Eye OMs. They were all double sides with Rosewood inner sides and sounded great.

The Maple was about 0.060 and I treated it with Super Soft II first and bent it in the conventional manner with a light spritz of water and the dampened brown paper and two blankets top and bottom. I usually start the bend when a lot of steam is rolling off (around 260), take the waist halfway, then lower and upper bouts, clamp them snug, and complete the waist. Usually around 300-320 at the end. Good bends and no scorching. I was worried though.

I do bend both profiled sides together for double sides.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

.075 THICK
less water more heat
bend at 275 to 350 F

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks for the information John and others!



For my building I've decided to learn to hand bend and not use a bending machine so the problem monitoring will be constant. Plus I just can't fit a bending machine in my apartment.

I hand bent my archtop with a tight cutaway out of lightly figured maple. It isn't as wide as a regular guitar (3 inches), but I did it with a tiny violin rib bender with a horrible profile even for violins. I started with the tight curve first. Sprinkled with water when it dried to keep from burning. Very slight concavity in one spot on the lower bout, but the bending iron wasn't big enough to help it. I only noticed it while scraping them smooth.

You shouldn't[t have a problem without a cutout. My cheap iron has no temp gauge. I plug it in and wait half an hour or more.

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Why be normal?

I hand bend figured maple, very light spritz on the wood but I also put a cloth (usually doubled over T-shirt) on the bender and spray it - that provides steam and also keeps the wood from scorching.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"