Bob Cleek

Defying all attempts to dispel it, the myth that hot water or steam is required to bend wood in modeling sizes refuses to die. As Jaager explained, it is heat that softens the lignin and allows the bending. In full-sized construction, wood is steamed in a steam box because, given traditional technology, steam is a good way to transmit heat to the piece to be heated. Moisture has no effect on the process of "steam bending," which should  properly be called "heat bending," I suppose. It is beyond me why, in this day and age, modelers are still trying to soak wood in water in order to bend it! Do it however one wishes. It's your model, as the saying goes, but there's simply no point to it.
 
Very simply, here's how bending wood works: Think of a bundle of long straws stuck together with wax. The bundle is hard to bend. If you melt the wax holding the straws together all the way through the bundle, the bundle is easy to bend because the individual straws can slide against each other to accommodate the differing radii inside and outside the curve created by the bend. If you melt the wax, bend the bundle of straws, and then hold them in place so that the wax hardens again, the bend stays in place and the bundle has the new curved shape you've given it. Now, you could melt the wax by throwing the bundle in a pot of boiling water or you could simply blow hot air on it from a hair dryer or heat gun, or apply heat from contact with a soldering iron or clothes iron, or by even putting it in a microwave. The choice is yours, I suppose, but there's an awful lot of bandwidth being consumed by discussions about the problems people have trying to bend wood with hot water or steam. It would be a kindness to put them out of their misery once and for all, but I suppose that's not to be.
 
Read Chuck Passaro's excellent planking tutorials and learn how to do it correctly. You'll be glad you did! They are the best tutorial on planking ever done.  https://modelshipworld.com/forum/98-planking-downloads-and-tutorials-and-videos/

Absolutely! The "green stuff" really does the trick better than anything else. 
 
If one takes a piece of 3/4" MDF, cuts a disk to fit on their bench grinder, and charges the edge with polishing compound, those 200 passes on each side can be replaced by ten or twenty seconds on the edge of the spinning MDF disk. No need for leather on the disk. The smooth edge of the MDF disk with the polishing compound is fine. 
 
If one wishes to get fancy and has money to spare, there are also many different store-bought options, such as ready-made leather or cardboard stropping disks for bench grinders and leather stropping belts for stationary belt sanders. YouTube is full of videos on making your own stropping disks for mounting on bench grinders, wood turning lathes, or drill motors. 

Defying all attempts to dispel it, the myth that hot water or steam is required to bend wood in modeling sizes refuses to die. As Jaager explained, it is heat that softens the lignin and allows the bending. In full-sized construction, wood is steamed in a steam box because, given traditional technology, steam is a good way to transmit heat to the piece to be heated. Moisture has no effect on the process of "steam bending," which should  properly be called "heat bending," I suppose. It is beyond me why, in this day and age, modelers are still trying to soak wood in water in order to bend it! Do it however one wishes. It's your model, as the saying goes, but there's simply no point to it.
 
Very simply, here's how bending wood works: Think of a bundle of long straws stuck together with wax. The bundle is hard to bend. If you melt the wax holding the straws together all the way through the bundle, the bundle is easy to bend because the individual straws can slide against each other to accommodate the differing radii inside and outside the curve created by the bend. If you melt the wax, bend the bundle of straws, and then hold them in place so that the wax hardens again, the bend stays in place and the bundle has the new curved shape you've given it. Now, you could melt the wax by throwing the bundle in a pot of boiling water or you could simply blow hot air on it from a hair dryer or heat gun, or apply heat from contact with a soldering iron or clothes iron, or by even putting it in a microwave. The choice is yours, I suppose, but there's an awful lot of bandwidth being consumed by discussions about the problems people have trying to bend wood with hot water or steam. It would be a kindness to put them out of their misery once and for all, but I suppose that's not to be.
 
Read Chuck Passaro's excellent planking tutorials and learn how to do it correctly. You'll be glad you did! They are the best tutorial on planking ever done.  https://modelshipworld.com/forum/98-planking-downloads-and-tutorials-and-videos/

Presently I am using a discarded kitchen rice steamer (the wife wanted a new one so I snagged the old one).
 
 
 

Hi there,
 
A normal hair drier or variable temperature hot air gun will do the job perfectly well. No need for hot water at all.
 
Dave.

From the point of view of a home sawyer and saw miller, much time is involved in getting water out of wood and getting it equilibrate with atmospheric water concentration.  Soaking a plank is undoing all that, if you even could get water deep into the interior.  The natural glue that holds wood fiber together is not soluble in water in any case.  It is heat that loosens the bond enough to allow the fibers to slide as individuals and then rebond when the heat as dissipated,  Steam is more efficient than air at heat transfer. The hotter the steam the faster is the transfer.  Liquid water does not exceed 100 degrees.  It is probably a bad thing to actually cook the wood.
 
There are more than a few threads here concerning the various methods and devices used to bend planking.
 

The sails are simply spectacular!
 

Absolutely! The "green stuff" really does the trick better than anything else. 
 
If one takes a piece of 3/4" MDF, cuts a disk to fit on their bench grinder, and charges the edge with polishing compound, those 200 passes on each side can be replaced by ten or twenty seconds on the edge of the spinning MDF disk. No need for leather on the disk. The smooth edge of the MDF disk with the polishing compound is fine. 
 
If one wishes to get fancy and has money to spare, there are also many different store-bought options, such as ready-made leather or cardboard stropping disks for bench grinders and leather stropping belts for stationary belt sanders. YouTube is full of videos on making your own stropping disks for mounting on bench grinders, wood turning lathes, or drill motors. 

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Absolutely! The "green stuff" really does the trick better than anything else. 
 
If one takes a piece of 3/4" MDF, cuts a disk to fit on their bench grinder, and charges the edge with polishing compound, those 200 passes on each side can be replaced by ten or twenty seconds on the edge of the spinning MDF disk. No need for leather on the disk. The smooth edge of the MDF disk with the polishing compound is fine. 
 
If one wishes to get fancy and has money to spare, there are also many different store-bought options, such as ready-made leather or cardboard stropping disks for bench grinders and leather stropping belts for stationary belt sanders. YouTube is full of videos on making your own stropping disks for mounting on bench grinders, wood turning lathes, or drill motors. 

I recently read where some carvers are now using thin cardboard (cereal Box) charged with compound and backed by a hard surface as a strop.  

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Surely, you jest! You must be a young man.   Seriously, though, they are excellent videos. It's not rocket science and he keeps it simple. It's amazing how much ink and pixels have been consumed on the subject of sharpening edge tools in recent times. IMHO, this seems to be the consequence of our educational system's abandonment of manual arts training as part of the core curriculum in middle and high schools. Mention "wood shop" or "metal shop" these days and the kids give you a blank stare. Time was, learning to sharpen an edge was a skill every boy learned by age eight or ten and no more remarkable than learning to tie their shoes. To make matters worse, today's parents are so overprotective, a ten year old is lucky to have had much of any real experience at all with an edged tool, let alone been taught to care for it. I casually gave my ten year old grandson one of those tiny Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knives with a two inch blade that are made to put on a key chain and his mother went apoplectic, taking it from him and saying, "We'll have to use this under strict supervision!"  Sheesh!  (I should have known better... My giving him a store-bought Daisy sling shot and a bag of dried beans for ammo precipitated a family crisis a few months previously.) I suppose he'll probably join the rest of his generation and buy cheap knives which he'll throw away when they dull, unless, of course, I can instill in him enough appreciation for working with his hands and he acquires the need to learn how to sharpen a blade on a stone from some old YouTube video!

Derek,  Thank you very much for posting the videos.  I learned more about sharpening chisels in 30 minutes than I had ever learned before in all my years.   
Allan

The 1950's era Craftsman 8" table saw is a better "old 'arn" option. They don't make 'em like they used to. The 8" saw is a fixed table with a tilting arbor. The smaller "Companion" tilt-table model was originally their "second best" line below Craftsman. The tilting table gives many concern regarding safety of operation. 

The 1950's era Craftsman 8" table saw is a better "old 'arn" option. They don't make 'em like they used to. The 8" saw is a fixed table with a tilting arbor. The smaller "Companion" tilt-table model was originally their "second best" line below Craftsman. The tilting table gives many concern regarding safety of operation. 

It looks very similar to iroko which can have the white streaks in it, if you take a plane shaving of and its lighter in colour ,then could well be Iroko, as it darkens on the surface in light, regards Phil

The 1950's era Craftsman 8" table saw is a better "old 'arn" option. They don't make 'em like they used to. The 8" saw is a fixed table with a tilting arbor. The smaller "Companion" tilt-table model was originally their "second best" line below Craftsman. The tilting table gives many concern regarding safety of operation. 

The photo below shows wood species from my wood pile.  From the top of the photo down: Holly, Lilac, Buckthorn.  
 
Relative Hardnesses:  Basswood. 410
                                      Buckthorn.  1040
                                     Hard Maple. 1450
                                     Lilac.   2350
 

 
Both Lilac and Buckthorn have tight, fine, and unabtrusive  grain structures.  According to the Wooddatabase both can be us d for small carvings.  When cut and planed both had a polished surface.   Lilac could be used for carvings and turnings.  Buckthorn in larger sizes could be used for POF structural members.
 
The small clump trees in the next photo are Buckthorn growing on the edge of my yard.
 

 
I have some experience with Chestnut.  In 1960 my parents had a pile of wormy Chestnut lumber milled into tongue and groove paneling.  It was quite soft, had a very pronounced grain structure, not unlike Oak, except that it has very dark bands between adjacent grain sections.  It made a nice backboard for a half model but I would consider it to be unsuitable for other ship modeling uses.
 
Roger
 
 

That was back before they had to put a sticker on it that said " Don't use this in the bath tub..