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I was leafing through my old Irving Sloane Classical Guitar book last night (hence, the new avatar).

He said one way to bend sides is to soak for 1 1/2 hours in steaming (not boiling) water, and put on a form.
He said it boils alot of the oils and resins out, which I'd think would be good.

Boy, that seems like a long time underwater...

Does anybody here use this method? If so, what do you see as advantages/disadvantages of this process?

(edit) Also if you don't use this method.


T.I.A.

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Horton, MI

The biggest disadvantage I can see is the drying time and the possibility of a board cupping because of the introduction of all that water (especially on woods with wilder figure).

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

It's widely agreed today that we need minimal, if any, water to bend sides. Most of us don't go past a good spritzing. Taylor bends hundreds of sides each day, dry.

Forget the soaking....

I've had problems doing the waist on a stubborn cypress piece. My pipe is quite weak. So in desperation I boiled water in a large pan and soaked-boiled the waist in there. It honestly did not help much, and it also created a couple "delaminations" in the wood, which unfortunately I could not possibly fix.
So I am not going to try this ever again.

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Build log

Sloane was bending on a form without heat. He boiled the sides and put them on a cold form, and let them dry for days. I think most of us use heat now to bend, either blankets, bulbs or hot pipes.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I agree with Mario that we don't need to soak our sides but that doesn't mean that people don't do it. Charlie Hoffman has been building for many years and as far as I know, he still soaks/boils his sides. When I toured the Vancouver Larrivee plant back in 1993 they were steaming their sides in a steam box before putting them on the heated bending form. In "Clapton's guitar" it is noted that Wayne Henderson also soaks/boils his sides in some sort of trough before putting them on his light bulb fox style bender.

I honestly don't think it really matters as long as the side is left to dry at a moderate rate. If the side is supported along its entire length on both sides I don't think you'll get cupping as the moisture leaves the wood.

Having said all this, I've traded in my stainless trough that I used to soak/boil my sides in for a little spray bottle. Both have worked fine for me.

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I used to soak in hot water for 15-20 minutes. I had terrible cupping with curly cherry-wood.

On my last project, I just went ahead and just used the bottle sparingly on Wenge. Best results yet...or maybe I'm just getting better at it???

I think Rod is onto something there. As long as the sides are well supported and the water evaporates evenly, you should be okay.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

I bent sides dry for years on a hot pipe with charcoal. I now spritz and use a blanket.

Thanks alot for the replies.

I do have a heat blanket, but I was just curious if anybody still used that method.

Might still be an option, depending on the circumstances.

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Horton, MI

If sides are thinned to .085 or a little less I know of no good reason to soak the wood. If dealing with hard to bend wood or with high figure us Superfoft II on the a couple days before bending. It is a veneer relaxer really great stuff.