[Public-List] steaming teak comment

[Gordon Laco]

That is true… dried or otherwise seasoned timber is very much more difficult to steam bend successfully than ‘green’ or unseasoned wood.  We always used unseasoned white oak for steaming ribs into yachts.

I squinted and made a face when I first saw that… but olde tyme wisdom is that the steaming process is good for the wood with regard to longevity in some undefined way (which seems to be true)… and of course we always sealed ribs in super-thinned varnish to make them waterproof.

One veteran boat builder told me that if one pees into the boil water supplying steam to the box, that’s good for the wood too… but I already knew that’s a traditional trick to play on apprentices in a boatyard.  Boiling piss STINKS.

When we were steaming ribs into Touch Wood a few years ago, a visitor to my shop asked me how long one needs to steam them.  My son Pete answered before I did.  He said ‘well, we put three in, cap the steam box, then stand around sipping beers arguing about how long to leave them in.  When the beer is finished, they’re done.’   So how long is that?  For a white oak rib 1-1/4” x 1-1/4” that’s about 40 minutes (without piss in the water).

The ribs were quite limber and bendable without force for about a minute or so after they came out of the box, so fast work was required.  After  minute, you’re pretty much guaranteed to break the wood if one continues trying to bend it.   We’d have screws with big washers on them ready at hand, and as soon as the wood came out of the box, we’d fix one end with a screw and push it into shape, whacking screws in at long intervals.  Once the wood cooled in place, we’d remove the screws, soak the rib in a 50/50 mix of varnish and thinner which would completely disappear into the wood, then put it back on this time using permanent fasteners.  In Touch Wood’s case those were copper rivets.   The bottom line is you’ve got to be fast with the bending because the limberness goes out of the wood very soon after it leaves the heat of the steam box.

For a toe rail, you’d be bolting it, but the process is basically the same, but because the toe rail will probably be varnished, one would be wise to put a couple of coats of varnish on the underside before that face is out of reach forever.  You don’t need much because no sun beats on that, you just want to keep water from soaking up and blowing the varnish off.

And to finish off… if any of you heard a howl about three hours ago, whose point of origin was somewhere north of Toronto, that was me.  SURPRISE is afloat, she splashed this morning.

Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
426 Surprise




> On May 6, 2022, at 11:52 AM, Kris Coward via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> The drying thing seems to be pretty important; I was doing a bit of
> research on stem-bending when doing my own rail repair a few years ago,
> and found at least a few references telling me to stay away from
> kiln-dried lumber if I was getting teak to bend it. Something about the
> heat of the kiln causing more bonding/cross-linking/whatever in the
> wood's lignin, and teak being dense enough for this to cost even more
> flexibility than it would with other woods.
> 
> -Kris
> 
> On Fri, May 06, 2022 at 03:07:09PM +0000, vinegar joe via Public-List wrote:
>> My luck steaming toe rails has not been good (getting a one inch bend over seven feet was hell, but achieved) and the toe rail on my Alberg 29 as currently patched should really be replaced "one of the days."  Anyway, using black locust for an anchor platform and it does impress me as a good alternative to teak (a little cheaper, looks good, more available and eco-friendly, durable and hard as a rock when dried/seasoned).  Was talking to the fellow I got the wood from and noting my history of difficulty bending wood for toe rails - he suggested that I use black locust that hasn't been dried (green), said it would bend easily, and once dried out on its own, would show very minimal shrinkage over a run of 12 or 13 feet.  fwiw.    Bill in Milwaukee, s/v Vinegar Joe
>> 
>> 'The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.' - Kilgore Trout
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> -- 
> Kris Coward					http://unripe.melon.org/
> GPG: https://latacora.micro.blog/2019/07/16/the-pgp-problem.html
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