Bending thicker wood with bending blankets

[Quickstep192]

I split my time between this forum and a banjo building forum.
Lately, the banjo building forum is busy with discussions on various methods to steam bend wood into circles to make banjo rims.

These discussions have lead me to wonder if bending blankets would successfully bend 1/4" thick by 2-1/2" wide strips of maple into an 11" diameter circle.

For those that have experience with blankets, do you think they'd bend the thicker wood?

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

These discussions have lead me to wonder if bending blankets would successfully bend 1/4" thick by 2-1/2" wide strips of maple into an 11" diameter circle.

For those that have experience with blankets, do you think they'd bend the thicker wood?

It's a good question. Partly, it will depend upon the species of wood you are trying to bend. Serge de Jonge stated that, over a hot pipe, a specific type of willow can be bent in single-piece solid linings: other woods can't. (The linings are 3/16 to 1/4" thick.)

I've only started using blankets in the last few years. I also use solid - rather than kerfed - linings. I've been making them by laminating thinner bent pieces. At some point I'll have to try bending a single piece of the final thickness.

If the 1/4" thick banjo rims are being bent now by heating with steam, I'd expect a blanket would work as well. Ultimately, it is about heating the wood to plasticize it. Heat is heat. If moisture is a factor, the wood could be wetted prior to using a blanket and then wrapped in foil. That's my guess, anyway.

[mirwa]

I bend up Banjo rims, typically I make them 3 ply, total 18mm thick.

Heating blankets are great for thin wood, but they do struggle with maple of a thickness of 6mm, I use for banjo rims just a small steam box, I find it allows the steam to penetrate deeper.

Steve

[B. Howard]

Having made all manner of bent wooden things from stair fails to chairs I think the answer is not very well. You have two things against you here, cross section dimension of the wood and a very tight radius. It takes steam to palsticize the wood so that the cells can stretch and compress on their respective sides of the shear line. Thinner sections like guitar rims do not have enough wood on either side shear line to matter.....

[murrmac123]

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Cool. I'd like to make a mini version of that jig for rosettes.