Synopses & Reviews
Enhance Your Woodworking with the Beauty of Curves For many furniture-makers, the art of bending wood presents a daunting challenge, so they stick to what they know: straight lines, flat planes and right angles. But with just a little woodworking knowledge and a few basic tools, anyone can create beautiful designs with graceful legs, a serpentine front, a winding base, and the delicate curvature that takes ordinary work and makes it extraordinary. In this comprehensive book, Jonathan Benson, a prefessional furniture builder, demystifies the secret to bending wood and presents four different methods for bending everything from green wood to veneers. Best of all, these bending techniques can be mastered by woodworkers of all skill levels. Inside the Woodworker's Guide to Bending Wood, you'll learn everything you need to know to make sinuous designs, including: -The history of bending wood -A checklist for choosing the right bending method for the job -Basics of bending green wood; bending with heat, water, steam, and a microwave oven -Cutting and bending laminations -Using a vacuum press -Bending panels with veneers And, to ensure you've mastered the expert information provided, you'll find a series of Demonstration Projects and Step-by-step exercises that, when followed, will result in the construction of a beautiful shaker box, a recurved bow for archery, a rustic chair, the body of a guitar, and bent panels for a table and pedestal.
Review
I’m sure we’ve all looked at the gentle curve of a chair leg or the severe bends of a violin’s sides and wondered how it was done. This book by Jonathan Benson takes the mystery out of wood bending and reveals to the woodworker how it was accomplished.This isn’t a book on furniture making or a collection of projects utilizing formed or bent wood elements. Rather, it focuses primarily on the mechanics of bending wood. Whether it be for the curved leg of a table, the side of a guitar or violin, the spring of a bow, the oval of a Shaker box and more, this book probably describes how it was done.Strictly speaking, it isn’t a project book because, although Benson does include plans for things like a Shaker box and a willow wood chair, other projects focus only on the bent elements of larger items like the sides of a guitar or the legs of a chair. The real strength of this volume lies in its excellent overview of the whole topic of bending and forming wood. As such, the author covers the physics and mechanics of bending wood, the problems one might encounter when bending, when to bend, the options available (bending around a form, vacuum bending, microwaving, etc), the uses of steam, water and heat, the bending characteristics of 82 wood species. the equipment and tools one would need, panels, laminations and adhesives and demonstration projects.The book relies heavily on color photos and they are excellent. In fact, the text is there primarily to support the photos; a picture is definitely worth a thousand words and there are plenty here. However, like many facets of woodworking, there is no substitute for experience. My own experience is limited to bending the thin woods for the sides of musical instruments. I have found that even within a species, each piece of wood is different when it comes to bending and developing a feel for the both the wood and the process is critical. Only through experience can you develop a feel for how much pressure can be applied while staying just below the breaking threshold, how much heat can be applied without scorching the wood, or how severe a bend your wood can withstand before fracturing. That said, even if you have no intention to bend wood, The Woodworker’s Guide to Bending Wood makes for an interesting, informative read. Benson does an excellent job of presenting the multi-faceted topic of bending wood to the average woodworker and taking the mystery out of those curved elements we all marvel at in good furniture design and musical instruments. - Carl DuGuay, ToolReviews.ca
Carl DuGuay
Synopsis
The art of bending wood confounds most woodworkers, yet it is surprisingly easy to do with the four basic methods in this complete guide. The techniques are presented in step-by-step photo sequences that leave nothing to the imagination and show woodworkers exactly how it's done: bending green wood or twigs, bending with heat or steam, and bending panels or laminations. There are seven step-by-step projects presented, including shaker boxes, a bow for an arrow, a rustic chair, the sides of a guitar, and bent panels used for tables and pedestals. All the necessary tools and equipment are discussed with an eye to budget and practicality, making this appeal to both amateur and professionals of all skill levels.
Synopsis
Learn the basic methods for bending wood in this comprehensive guide that includes bending green wood, bending with heat or steam, bending panels and laminations. Demonstration projects will take you through the process step-by-step, and include shaker boxes, a bow for an arrow, a rustic chair, and more.
About the Author
Jonathan Benson is a professional furniture maker whose contemporary furniture and wood sculpture has been featured in national publications, such as American Craft, Niche Magazine, Workbench Magazine, as well as in the book, Wood Art Today. He is an instructor of woodworking and furniture design and conducts numerous workshops and lectures. He lives in West Des Moines, Iowa.