# Steamed beech



## Saintsman (30 Apr 2008)

Hi guys,

I want to build myself a new bench and was planning to use white beech. I've been offered steamed beech at a decent price: what's the difference as regards workability, stability, durability (and any other words ending in ....ability !)? All comments gratefully received.

Cheers,

Paul


----------



## Benchwayze (30 Apr 2008)

Hi Saintsman, 

As far as I know, beech is steamed to give it a pinkish colour. So if you want a pink bench.. 
Well, not that pink of course, more like a pale cherry. 

Beech was always used for the work-benches at schools when I was a kid and in most of the workshops I was employed in. I doubt it was steamed beech they used, because like most old beech benches, they were usually a golden honey colour 

Fresh beech soon mellows when you oil it, or give it a coat or two of wax polish! 

If it's nice timber you've been offered, I see no reason not to use it for a bench. But someone will doubtless pop up and put me right, if I am off track. I'd buy the stuff anyhow. Store's no bore! 



Regards 
John


----------



## woodbloke (30 Apr 2008)

BenchW is on the money here, nothing at all wrong with steamed beech and it would make an excellent new bench. If you can get hold of it at a decent price, then go for it - Rob


----------



## Steve Maskery (30 Apr 2008)

My understanding is that beech is seamed for two reasons.

1. The colour can vary considerably so steaming allows the dyes to run and blend the board

2. Beech is hard, yes, but also quite unstable. It's not unusual for a board to open up wildly as it is ripped, resulting in a pair of bananas. Steaming stabilises the timber, although I have no idea why or how it does so.

Steamed beech ill be ideal for your new bench, just make sure you sharpen your tools first!


----------



## Saintsman (30 Apr 2008)

Thanks for the responses, guys. Much appreciated.

I think I'll go for it on the basis of your replies: obviously, if it turns out wrong it will be all your fault and nothing to do with my lack of skill !

Paul


----------



## Benchwayze (30 Apr 2008)

Welcome Paul. Go for it.

John


----------



## Digit (30 Apr 2008)

I noticed here that Steve comments that Beech is quite unstable. He's dead right and it's for that reason I've often wondered why it's so prized for benches etc. I think the reason it has been used so extensively for planes and so on is its hardness rather than its stability.
It's a nice timber to work with though.

Roy.


----------



## Steve Maskery (30 Apr 2008)

Digit":1y98heno said:


> I've often wondered why it's so prized for benches etc.



Yes,Roy, sounds daft doesn't it? But beech was traditionally widely available as a native hardwood, hard and cheap. If a bench top is laminated, then it is going to be more stable than a plain board. Also, traditionally benches had to be flattened from time to time; presumably that was reflection of its instability.

Anyway, from a traditional point of view, what else are you going to use?
1 Oak? Expensive and doesn't like iron and steel, so leaving your plane on the bench is going to do neither any favours.

2 Ash? Strong but quite flexible Its flexibility is great for steam-bending, but a bench needs to resist flexing, not be made out of a material noted for it.

3 Sycamore? Cheap, but soft.

4 Elm? Used to be cheap, but no longer so. Hard to work, but would probably be good a a bench material. Sadly not as common as it used to be.

So, unless you are going to splash out on imports, beech it is!
S


----------



## Lord Nibbo (30 Apr 2008)

Both Benchwayze and Steve Maskery are spot on, can't really add anything useful. 

I expect the beech in my bench was kiln dried and as Steve suggested it did move a lot as the tension was released when ripping it to size, so allow at least 1/2" of bend or twist on a six foot length if ripping it down the middle od any boards. Does steamed beech have less stress because it was steamed?

I don't think steamed will look any different after a year or two of use, here is a pic of mine taken only a week or two back.






and what it looked like when new





Quite a difference in colour don't you think.


----------



## beech1948 (30 Apr 2008)

Hi,
Steamed Beech will be fine but even so you must expect the beech to move around some as it takes on and discharges moisture during the seasons. Beech is likely to continue to move about for some time to come once made into a bench. 

I work on an old bench, about 85 years old as far as I can prove. Its beech which was oiled ( I clean and oil annually) but not steamed ( judging by colour mismatches). It stays pretty level and only need to level it every 5 to 6 yrs but I check it monthly....I'm obviously paranoid about flat benches.

The secret to this flatness is that the bench is made of 3 planks each about 4.2 inches thick and these planks seem joined by two small ash tongues about 1 inch x 1/2 inch. I think the thickness itself is a major deterent to movement due to mass and interconnected planks. There are no breadboard ends either.

regards

Alan


----------



## Digit (30 Apr 2008)

Oh I agree Steve, but I said 'prized', it was certainly the best of the available options years ago and looks lovely. But with tropical hardwoods now available there are better choices today. Bench flattening was the original reason that I built my 24 inch jointer, now I just use a sub bench for any flat work and let the bench wander where it will!

Roy.


----------



## Anonymous (30 Apr 2008)

Mine, detailed here

is made from steamed beech and hasn't moved in any measurable or noticeable way since I made it. The wood is a nice deep colour and not at all pink once finished


----------



## Benchwayze (30 Apr 2008)

beech1948":19bys17y said:


> There are no breadboard ends either.
> 
> 
> 
> Alan


Quite agree Alan. 
Breadboards have been known to casue some heartache! 

John


----------



## TheTiddles (30 Apr 2008)

I can't remember which make it is, but there is a bench manufacturer that advertises that it's tops are so good as they laminate them then steam the whole top. If you get offered decent cheap hardwood, buy now, store and keep it in mind for future projects. I used beech and iroko for my bench as it was available, if it was ask ash and mahogany on offer then it would look different. It's all pretty semantic these days as you can have any timber you can afford from anywhere in the world. A long time ago it was based around what you could get (back in the good old days, when people got polio...). Often tradesmen on a large job away from home would make a new bench on site with what wood was available with simple cleats as vices. I'll take the quick-release cast iron version I think!

Aidan


----------



## Duncan A (1 May 2008)

Hi Guys

I don't know much about beech or benches but this link is quite interesting:
http://www.emir.co.uk/pages/beech_bench.aspx

Thanks for the forum, it's great for someone like me who is very much in the early stage of learning about woodwork.

Duncan


----------



## Philly (1 May 2008)

Roy
The Beech used for handplanes was always cut quartersawn, the most stable way to cut timber.
Hope this helps
Philly


----------



## Benchwayze (1 May 2008)

Welcome Duncan. I hope the bug bites deep 'cos once it does it's there for ever! There's no teacher like experience, but this Forum is always here as a extra.. 

Happy Woodworking 

John


----------



## Sgian Dubh (1 May 2008)

Steve Maskery":3k9da5fp said:


> My understanding is that beech is seamed for two reasons.
> 
> 1. The colour can vary considerably so steaming allows the dyes to run and blend the board
> 
> 2. Beech is hard, yes, but also quite unstable. It's not unusual for a board to open up wildly as it is ripped, resulting in a pair of bananas. Steaming stabilises the timber, although I have no idea why or how it does so.



Neither of your statements are quite correct Steve. Here's a slightly more detailed discussion of steaming wood extracted from a manuscript I'm working on, how its done and why it's done. Slainte.

In Europe pink coloured steamed Beech is available, and Black Walnut supplied by large commercial North American drying operations is another species that is sold after it’s been steamed. In the case of walnut the purpose of the steaming is to make the sapwood the same colour as the heartwood. Many woodworkers believe the steaming spreads the pigments from the heartwood into the sapwood, but the following quote argues against this. “The process does not involve diffusing pigment from heartwood to sapwood.” (Tindall, 2007, p 32.) He goes on to describe the process using purpose built steamers after the kilning operation. The boards are close stacked* and loaded into the steamer, the doors closed, and the inside of the steamer flooded with hot wet steam. As long as the wood rises to the temperature of boiling water, the atmosphere is very wet, and these conditions held for a couple of days the sapwood will turn dark and closely match the heartwood. According to Tindall, when the wood leaves the kiln it looks as if it’s covered in soot, but this planes off to reveal a uniform purple colour throughout.

_*Close stacked aka ‘dead packed’ timber describes packs of dried boards or planks stacked tightly together with few or no spaces. A couple of advantages of close stacking are: boards maintain their dried MC better through prevention of air circulation, and take up less space during storage and transport._

Many furniture makers object to this steaming process because of the uniform colour. They prefer the richer and more varied colours of air dried walnut. Whilst I agree that air dried walnut has these attractive characteristics initially, it’s my experience that within a few months, and at most within a year or two of a piece of walnut furniture going into service, it’s usually almost impossible to tell the difference between air dried and steamed walnut. By that time nearly all walnuts seem to mature into the soft honey browns we’re used to seeing in furniture that’s seen some service, or indeed, many years or decades of service.

The driving force behind the common practice of steaming American black walnut is the main market for the material and the American grading system. Sapwood is not a fault in American grading, and the clearest, least knotty planks come from the outside of the tree during the milling into boards. Naturally, these boards from the outside of the tree contain the most sapwood. The biggest buyers of the wood are big furniture manufacturing businesses, either in North America or, increasingly, overseas with China being one example. Unlike the small furniture business, or amateur woodworker, the big furniture makers generally cut up larger planks to remove defects, rearrange them and glue them back together to make up required widths, and even lengths. So to these businesses, long, wide and clear boards of walnut aren’t their primary concern. If the small furniture maker requires long, wide and clear walnut planks with all the interesting colours to start with, their only recourse really is to seek out specialist suppliers: this almost certainly means paying a premium over the commercially kilned material.

Steaming Beech evens out the colour of the boards much as steaming walnut does and the process makes the wood easier to work than unsteamed White Beech. Recently I’ve come across steamed north American Birch for sale in timber merchants and the process gives the wood an even rich chocolate colour.


----------



## Digit (1 May 2008)

Oh agreed Phil, and it's amazing just how much more stable quarter sawn timber is. I made a post box of quarter sawn Oak some years ago and it withstood all that the local weather could throw at it without the slightest distortion. I was amazed!

Roy.


----------



## Benchwayze (1 May 2008)

Digit":2mlvwm9y said:


> Oh agreed Phil, and it's amazing just how much more stable quarter sawn timber is. I made a post box of quarter sawn Oak some years ago and it withstood all that the local weather could throw at it without the slightest distortion. I was amazed!
> 
> Roy.



If you find a co-operative timber mill, who 'stick' through-sawn boards just as they come from the log, you can always ask them for a 'centre board. They are a little more expensive than the outer boards, but the grain is just the same as quartersawn stock and they are always wider, because they are still through-sawn. Venables, in Stafford, before they moved to the factory-park, always co-operated here, as long as you did the mauling and put the boards back again. So I always took a couple of mates with me, to do the mauling, for the price of a couple of pints! 

Cheers
John


----------



## Digit (1 May 2008)

I'd have found a couple of tee totallers, they're cheaper! :lol: 

Roy.


----------



## Benchwayze (1 May 2008)

Good idea, but I don't know any TT's., well enough, who wouldn't expect payment in otherways, so I enjoy a pint with them,    . I live thirty yards from a pub.

Regards, 

John


----------



## DaveL (1 May 2008)

Hi Duncan, 

Welcome to the forum, pleased you like it here .

Your link was caught by our spam trap, this will stop whe you have a few more posts, here it is:

http://www.emir.co.uk/pages/beech_bench.aspx


----------

