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I use Tassie oak all the time and have found soaking the wood for extended periods in water with some fabric softener allows me to bend much thicker sections. (Obviously strapping is a must, reducing amount of tension stress on the outer fibers). My understanding is that the soaking revitalizes some of the lignin’s that have been impacted by the kiln drying and assists in transferring heat.

2 years ago
You need to support the back (exposed) of the timber with a metal strap.  Bending wood compresses the inside curve but stretches the outside curve very little.  Small radius bend (< 4") require metal band support to enable the stretch without cracking.  You also require more clamps, 1 every couple of inches, especially if a band is not used to prevent cracking.


While building boats I learned from the pros to wrap the wood in old terry cloth (or Similar cloth) and slowly pour rapidly boiling water  (hotter than 100 degrees celsius) over it repeatedly for fifteen minutes.  It worked well for bending wood much thicker than this. The wood was wet and saturated with steam and bent well. Very hot and requires good gloves to handle.  It cools a bit slower due to saturation.  But dries completely in a couple hours after.    .....