Suffolkboy":3e25y3ih said:
My father stores oak timbers for boats underwater in his dock, keeping them submerged means that when they are steamed they go really pliable and rubbery, you could probably tie a knot in some of them. They don't suffer any ill effects.
That's interesting. Presumably he's a boat builder, and I'm guessing it's his business, or he's a serious amateur?
It's a fact that wet wood steam bends significantly easier than dry wood, and the drier it is, the less compliant it wants to be, and that even applies to some extent if very dry wood has been allowed to regain moisture up to FSP prior to steaming. This is because of a hysteresis effect whereby cell walls that have become very dry (say to about the US furniture wood kilning target of 7% MC) never again become quite as supple as wood that's never gone below FSP.
From a furniture maker's point of view, probably the best compromise in terms of dryness, is wood that's been air dried to about 20% MC prior to steaming. This means that some of the drying distortions and other faults that occur during seasoning can show themselves, and if necessary be rejected, but the wood remains that bit more amenable to steam bending than very dry wood.
Of course, very dry wood can still be steamed and bent, but it tends to be a bit harder to execute than with wetter wood, and more likely to show larger crumpling on the concave side of the bend, and similarly, more likely to experience long grain splitting and tearing on the convex face. I've steam bent both dry and wet wood myself several times over the years, although it's never been an everyday practice for me - just as and when needed. And I've more than two or three times demonstrated to learners that it is possible to tie a loose knot in something like steamed beech dowelling that was roughly 12 mm in diameter. Slainte.