Twist and Shout!

A little while back we were twisting the 3/4" thick by 2" wide by 34" long white oak slats to make up Dining Table No 1. We were doing this with kiln dried wood, which typically speaking doesn't steam bend all that well, but given that the most extreme twists for the table are around 45 degrees we tested it out, and it seemed to work without any problems. After one long day and some 70 slats twisted and clamped to the metal base to dry we decided to "test the limits" with the few that remained in the steam box. The slats were steamed for roughly 2-3 hours at 200+ degrees fahrenheit, the results were pretty incredible, to watch the bending happen check out this video.

Steam Twisting

First post on the new blog, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Reed Hansuld and I design / build custom furniture.

I plan on using this blog as a place to spotlight the process of making my ideas reality. Enjoy! I am going to start with a video we shot last week of a kiln dried white oak blank being steam twisted. Dimensions are approximately 3/4" x 2" x 34". We were steaming and twisting 60+ blanks over the weekend in preparation for a dining table that will be constructed over the next couple weeks. Stay tuned for updates of the process.