Steaming dry oak

[Doug B]

I need to make new rubrails for my dyer dhow. I've got some 5/4 white oak on hand, but it's dry. I"ve only ever steamed green oak. Will this work ?

[michigangeorge]

Doug, I installed new rails on my Dyer years ago with the pre-bent (steamed) bow piece (s) purchased from Dyer along with the rivits. The price was quite reasonable at the time as I had no shop or tools. I do remember how flexible the hull was and how hard it was to get the sheer fair given that the oak had sprung back a bit from the time it was originally bent. I have never tried steaming dry oak for anything near that tight a radius but wet or dry, I would make a form to bend it around and not try to do it on the boat. Good luck :-)

[Thad]

If it's air dry it will work.

[cybulski]

Only one way to know for sure.
I have steamed dry oak for spiral stair rails. Some work just fine, and others, not so much.Give it a try and let us know how it turns out.

[Jay Greer]

Soak the wood in water containing a bit of Kodak Photo Flow for a few days prior to steaming. A narrow visquine lined plywood tank can be built to fit the stock.
Jay

[tapsnap]

There really should be no problem. Just make sure your boiler produces a lot of steam and leave it in the steam-box for about an hour per inch.

[rob]

for those sorts of mild bends you can even use kiln dried in a pinch

[Bob Smalser]

Soaking can't hurt, but I'd just go ahead and steam it.

http://poietes.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/bentwood_walnut.jpg

The factories that make these use kilned wood exclusively. It's the heat that turns the wood's lignin rubbery, not the moisture. Otherwise they'd be weeks waiting for their assembly to dry sufficiently to put a coat of finish on, let alone the reliability problems they'd experience sending an unevenly-dried wood product straight into heated homes.

[Bill R]

Funny you should mention this. I ripped some air dried oak a couple weeks ago for the kids at the Compass Project to do the same thing on the same boat.

If the scheduling gods smile, I am hoping to be there with a camera when the time comes.

[peter radclyffe]

Funny you should mention this. I ripped some air dried oak a couple weeks ago for the kids at the Compass Project to do the same thing on the same boat.

If the scheduling gods smile, I am hoping to be there with a camera when the time comes.
you can back it with a piece of ply the same width when you steam, to give support, if it does tear put linseed oil on it as it cools down, but it needs to be too hot to touch when you steam, if its too dry, 6 years ,it may test your vocabulary, make sure its well supported , you cant have too many cramps & pads

[landlocked sailor]

I steam bent a hunk of 1" kiln dried white oak a couple of weeks ago for a comb back windsor chair. It worked fine. Rick

[Doug B]

Thanks for the advice gentlemen. I,m going to fire up the steam box tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[JeffSteele]

i tried the same thing about a month ago and failed miserably. it was probably due to being to dry or just insufficient steam. i ended up ordering the piece from the anchorage. the lady on the phone said they use oak that hasnt drying for long so im guessing thats thier secret