My attempt at bending wood

I decided to try bending wood.  So, I got a piece of maple.  It is a 1 by 2, so it is 3/4 inch by 1 1/12 inch.  I cut a piece about 10 inches or so.  Then I soaked it in water for a week. 

 

Then I built my form.  I want to bend it into a good shape for spoons.  Here is my set up (ignore the bent piece of wood at the top for now).  

 

That is just three pieces of plywood cut to shape and screwed together.  There are 4 screws on the other side.

After the wood soaked for a week, I microwaved it for 2 1/2 minutes.  Then I clamped it on to the form.  It is fun watching a piece of maple bend.

I left it to cool and dry for a week.  Here is the result:

The top two photos show the cracking on the back of the bend.  I don't know what to do to prevent that.  The wood was very waterlogged and very hot, so it has to be a problem with the wood just being too thick.  The good news is that the cracking only extends down less than a 1/4 inch, so I could still use the piece for a spoon.  I think.

The bottom photo shows the crack at the top of the piece.  This happened because I didn't have a piece of wood between the clamp on the top and the wood.  If I did, it would prevent that crack and the circular impression from the clamp that you can see in the second photo of the post.

So, I will definitely try this again.  Next time I will put some scrap wood between the wood and the clamps to prevent marking and to distribute the pressure more evenly.  And when I do, I will post photos of it here. 

a couple of butter spreaders

After Laughter posted pictures of butter spreaders, I got obsessed with them.  Here are the first that I am willing to share publicly.  The small one on top is maple.  The larger one on the bottom is sycamore from my back yard.  The grain on that it gorgeous, so I had to show you both sides.

As for Laughter's thoughts about creating, let me say that his 3-part division of hobbies is brilliant.  He needs to explain it more, the way he explained it to me a little while ago.

Creation, Experience, and Consumption

I think a fair bit about how I spend my discretionary time. Mostly, it is with some measure of despair and self-loathing, as I fear that time could be better spent. It is after all, the only truly finite resource we have. So, these things we call hobbies take a greater importance in the whole of our lives than the word usually calls to mind. It may seem silly to make kitchen utensils, when it consumes so much of a precious resource and leaves so little to show. But, I think it fills a place that needs to be filled for every person. The need to create. To organize or shape something into something new, different, useful, beautiful. That divine urge is in us all, and squelching it, or belittling it, kills something divine within us. How much easier it seems to have a hobby that is consumptive. The world does not belittle the person whose hobby is shopping or collecting. Somehow, acquiring the fruits of others' creation is  a normal, reasonable, rational thing to do. But why waste and wear out your life pursuing more when more will not satisfy? Try this, if you have not already. Make something. Then give it away. Paper airplane for a kid. Paper hat for a kid. A hot pad. A quilt. A spoon. It is not just fun- you are doing something that you were born to do. You are creating. Be a creator.