Replies

1. 
   jackiechan | Jan 29, 2003 07:33am | #1

   Dave,

   Macassar is a very difficult wood to bend.  This is due in part to the fact that it is a very dense wood with a notably brittle heart wood.  As you've already found out, this wood is difficult to glue, and tends to resist the standard glues and glue-up techniques.

   I do extensive bending work in my shop, with 90% of it done with steam bending.  Even though Macassar is a straight grained wood, it responds very poorly to steam bending. 

   The only way to effectively bend this wood is by laminate bending using the appropriate epoxy adhesives between the layers.  The down side is that this method leaves visible glue lines.

   This wood can be bent.  I have seen this wood made into beautiful and curvacious sides for acoustic guitars.  (Done with laminate bending).

   If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

   Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.

1. 
   cudavid | Jan 29, 2003 03:36pm | #2

   Thanks, I am thinking about using either a cherry front band or a multi piece ebony front, possibly 4/5 pc so actual bend of each piece is minimal,  I THINK I can blend joint and fill as needed w/ shellac and ebony dust mud. What is your opinoin, try it or waste of time? thank you, Dave

1. 
   jackiechan | Jan 30, 2003 06:30am | #7

   Dave,

   The cherry band is a good idea.  But - (and there always is one) you'll want to make the band thick enough to give the visual of a contrasting wood, which may put you back to square one - trying to bend wood that doesn't want to bend! 

   A segmented ebony curve will work if the right joints are used between each piece.  End grain gluing of a joint isn't even an option, as it's almost guaranteed to fail.  Your goal is to prevent any visible end grain throughout the curve, as it will never look like the long grain when finished.

   I would recommend - before cutting everything into segments - slicing one oversized (in length) thin veneer (w/ table saw or band saw).  Then when all of the segments are glued in place (and dry), you can use the long piece to band over the edge, thus camouflaging and grain irregularities that might be visible.  If you ease the top and bottom edges of the veneer to where it meets the segmented pieces, the glue line will virtually disappear.  (Be aware that even if the outside edge is a smooth curve, the grain between segments will be at slight angles to each other.)

   Using a shellac and dust mud filler on tends to work best on dark woods.  I would recommend that you do a trial run on some extra scrap pieces (if you have some) before everything is cut to pieces.  That way, if you don't like what the final result looks like, you won't have sacrificed all of your stock!

   Definitely send along any additional questions that you might have.

   Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.

2. 
   UncleDunc | Jan 29, 2003 04:54pm | #3

   Is the ebony going on the edge of the table top or on the face of the apron? If it's on the apron, where the glue line will normally be out of sight, you might have better success gluing a thinner piece of ebony to a flat piece of some other, more flexible wood, and then bending and gluing the composite to the apron.

   Otherwise, you might look into the anhydrous ammonia method described in Bruce Hoadley's book Understanding Wood. That would require only a few thousand dollars worth of equipment to make any wood quite flexible.

1. 
   cudavid | Jan 29, 2003 07:57pm | #4

   Hi it is on the face of the table top. BTW, can you lend me a few thousand dollars? I PROMISE to pay you back!

1. 
   UncleDunc | Jan 29, 2003 08:23pm | #5

   So this is like a 1/8" by whatever inlay in the table top, with the 1/8" face showing? It might still be worth trying to laminate four slices of eboney, each 1/32" thick.

   I should add that everything I'm proposing here is speculation. I've never tried bending any kind of ebony.

   I have a couple ideas about shorter pieces. First, I don't think shorter pieces will be easier to bend. If you're bending to the same radius, you're going to have the same stresses. I do think you might consider cutting the inlays out of a wider piece of wood, if you have any wider pieces left. Don't try to bend them at all, just cut curved pieces and lay them in the groove. The other idea is instead of trying to conceal the butt joints, feature them with a little block of some contrasting wood, maple or holly, or something else very light.

   Regarding the anhydrous ammonia, first buy the book or get it at the library and see if you think you'd be comfortable with the process. I'm not sure if I'd want to try it in a home shop. Hoadley implies that you couldn't do it in a home shop, but I'm not convinced that it would be out of reach for someone with modest mechanical ability. And the possibilities are eye opening. Some of the bent pieces he photographed for the book are quite remarkable.

3. 
   mike4244 | Jan 29, 2003 09:02pm | #6

   Dave, I am not familiar with this wood but have had success bending wood with water softner and hot water. I add a bottle of Downy water softner to 5 gallons of water. I immerse the strips for at least 30 minutes, adding hot water when the water cools.Some woods like pine , 1/8' thick and 1 1/2" wide can be bent into a pretzel using this method.