Steam bent arm bow in bending jig

 

Good Morning,

A little more snow today, but it looks like it will stop. Wishful thinking on my part. I am posting three photos showing steambending arm bows for miniature sack-back Windsor chairs. The ash bow is a shade over 1/8 inch thick, a 1/4 inch minus a 1/32d wide, and 13 1/2 inches long. Whenever I bend bows, whether miniature or full sized, I leave the bow stock over length, and only trim it shorter when I am ready to to fit the bow to the chair. Dispite every effort, each bow is a different beast from its fellows. And, its best to plan on individually adjusting the final bow length one at a time. When you remove a steambent bow from the bending jig the curve of the bow distorts subtly (well you hope subtly). Frequently, one side of the resulting semi-circle can be a 1/4 inch longer than it's other half. Some of this is due to the steamed blank being hotter when you form the first bend, By the time you start to bend  the opposite end of the steamed bow blank the wood is cooler and doesn't stretch as much. To help keep the bows consistant after I take them off the primary bending jig, I clamp them  together (see one of the following photos) and let them dry on a second jig. I leave a batch clamped up for about a week. But each bow remains an individual and this is readily apparent if you lay one on top of another.