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Get Bent! OK, I Will

Steam-bending wood is awesome, but I've never been a big fan of having a potential bomb in my house (or in the office). So I've worked at mastering cold-lamination bending, but I've found there's a lot of prep work (resawing, drum sanding, etc.), and the plastic resin glue is nasty stuff. It's the only glue that has ever gashed my arm.

So yesterday I pleased to see a big box propped up against my front door. Inside is a chunk of ash Compwood that I purchased from FlutedBeams.com. Compwood sounds like magical stuff – you can bend it cold, put it in your form and it retains any shape when it dries down to 6 or 7 percent moisture content.

There is no steam box. No plastic resin. Just cut the stuff and bend it.

How does it work? It is kind of like a flexible drinking straw. The wood is heated and then compressed along its length – so it's about 80 percent of its original length. This compresses the wood fibers like an accordion. As long as the wood is a little wet (20 to 25 percent MC), you can bend it in any plane. When it gets down to 12 to 14 percent MC, you can take it out of the form. When it reaches equilibrium, you can work it just like normal wood – rout it, plane it, glue it, sand it.

If you want technical details, including a manual on how to use the stuff for cabinetmaking, visit the official Compwood Products web site.

I'm going to be building a couple more Windsor chairs this summer, so I'm going to give the Compwood stuff a test run for the arms and the bows of the chairs. And I'll definitely post some video of the process.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Wood Bending Resources to Investigate

• "The Complete Manual of Wood Bending" (Linden) Lon Schleining. It's a good introduction to the concepts of wood bending that I read years ago.

• The Ultimate Steam Box from The Windsor Institute. This is a nice system that we used to bend components during a chair class.

• February 2004 issue of Popular Woodworking. I wrote an article on cold laminations that I used to make an Eames coffee table.

• October 2005 issue of Popular Woodworking. Robert Lang demonstrates how to use cold bending to make contemporary shelves.

Find yourself a great general lathe online.

Ceramic studio change-over

There's an interesting difference between being a potter and being a woodworker that most people don't consider. Woodworkers switch materials all the time, from job to job. Right now, I'm working on a cherry piece, but the next one I'll start is in oak. There isn't a significant difference; the adhesives and finishes are much the same, and it's not as if I have to change my sawblade if I've switched wood. Just a little cleaning with the air compressor and the changeover is complete.

But clay poses a different problem. For the last six years, I've used a deep brown clay body called Black Mountain. I love the way it fires to a chocolate brown color. But just as all things must change, I've started mixing some new glazes, and the bottom line is - the glazes I like simply look better on a lighter clay. I'm switching to a buff stoneware called Long Beach, which I've thoroughly tested and find works perfectly for my glaze palette.

Now many potters switch back and forth, but to me - it's a hassle. That means I have to clean everything from my canvas mats to my throwing tools, to my wheel. And since there is such a drastic color difference in the two clays I use, the slightest cross contamination really pops out.

So it's with some sadness that I used the very last of my Black Mountain clay this week. I've probably gone through several thousand pounds of it; not much by most potter's standards, but for me, that's a fair amount. I threw three pieces - two small pitchers and a tumbler, on the wheel, as my final farewell.

And now the changeover begins! Time to pack away all the old glaze tests, using that clay body.

A clean wheel!

And clean tools!

The plaster molds needed a little scrubbing and organization.

And the glaze area needed some straightening out. There were all sorts of slips and unlabeled mixtures, all of which went into the trash.

As long as I've giving you a tour of my clay studio, here's something that most people ask about when visiting. Call me silly, but I save my cone packs. I just think they look cool.

And finally, my current sketch wall. Whenever I'm working on a project, I sketch it in full-size, or print it with my computer. At times, the wall can be crowded with dozens of drawings, but right now - the the new clay being introduced - most of the older drawings have been retired, and new ones are being added daily.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour!

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