Cold-Bend™ Hardwood - Compwood® - for Extreme Wood Bending™
Custom Order Page and Species List (see bottom of page for species)
Sizes and Pricing: Sold to the trade by the linear foot in widths of 5.5 to 6" and up to 8' long. Minimum custom order (this page) is $250 ($75 minimum on retail orders - see samples/small orders). Ships FedEx Ground or freight.
5/4 Cold-Bend™ Hardwood - net 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" thick x 5 1/2" to 6" wide. Priced per linear foot Use quantity to specify number of linear feet and notes to specify species and plank lengths Available 5/4 Group 1 Species: Ash, Red Oak, Sassafras, White Oak Available 5/4 Group 2 Species: Hard Maple, Hickory, Sycamore Available 5/4 Group 3 Species: Cherry Available 5/4 Group 4 Species: Walnut (limited - shorts mostly)
6/4 Cold-Bend™ Hardwood - net 1 3/8" to 1 1/2" thick x 5 1/2" to 6" wide. Priced per linear foot Use quantity to specify number of linear feet and notes to specify species and plank lengths Available 6/4 Group 1 Species: Ash, Red Oak, White Oak, Sassafras Available 6/4 Group 2 Species: White Oak, Black Locust, Beech Available 6/4 Group 3 Species: none Available 6/4 Group 4 Species: none
8/4 Cold-Bend™ Hardwood - net 1 3/4" to 1 7/8" thick x 5 1/2" to 6" wide. Priced per linear foot Use quantity to specify number of linear feet and notes to specify species and plank lengths Available 8/4 Group 1 Species: Ash, Red Oak, White Oak Available 8/4 Group 2 Species: Sweet Gum Available 8/4 Group 3 Species: Cherry, Honey Locust Available 8/4 Group 4 Species: none
Knots in Beech, Maple, Cherry, Red Oak and White Oak, Not all species always available as knots. If your preferred species isn't immediately available, we'll email you.
Species Engineered into Compressed Wood... shown bent of course (these are snare drum shells, 1" thick, 12" id)
Image:
Species Notes:
We offer 14 Extreme Bendable species. These are all temperate forest hardwoods. Softwoods and exotic hardwoods do not bend (or compress). Our best extreme bending woods are Red Oak, White Oak, Ash, Elm, Sasafras, Sycamore, Cherry, Walnut, Hickory and Black Locust. Maple is slightly behind with Beech in last place (but not by much). Osage Orange was added in 2010 but we don't have any to ship at this time. Honey Locust and Red Gum were added in late 2011 and are also outstanding bending woods.
Since compressed wood is shipped at a relatively high moisture content of about 20% MC, some of the species can begin to grow mold in warm environments. Where cool storage is not available, quatities ordered should reflect short term needs if storing over a summer season. Maple and beech are the worst for mold growth, though some of the others can grow mold too when the weather is right for it (walnut, sycamore, maybe others). This can be prevented by wrapping the unused pieces in kitchen wrap to exclude oxygen, and stored cool. We have stored compressed wood this way for many years without loss of moisture, flexibility, or mold growth. We have even stored some compressed wood in very unfavorable conditions (warm and dry, but plastic wrapped) for many years that lost very little flexibility. Mold spores are naturally present in the environment. Dry wood is not susceptible to mold growth.
We are always running experiments with new wood species and expect to be testing Alder, Birch, Koa, Hackberry, Catalpa, Persimmon, Kentucky Coffee Tree, and Rainbow Tulip during the next year. None of these are in stock for sale yet but could be by late 2011. Tests with Ipe and Purple Heart have failed (quite spectacularly) - placing them in the list of "not bendable", along with all softwoods and exotic hardwoods tested so far.
Please Note:
Compressed Wood is a natural material and as such will have variation in grain pattern, and color. Though compressed wood starts with clear hardwood, there may be minor defect introduced by the compression process, or from unseen, natural qualities within the plank. Iron tannate stain from the engineering process sometimes occurs, but this is a surface stain only. Just as in planning a project with any lumber product, you should count on ordering about 15% more material than you expect to need to ensure you have a consistent and adequate supply and in case of breakage, or shape deviations during drying. You should also order extra length so that you have leverage on the parts when bending. Bent parts will need some surfacing after they are dried, and this should be factored into your size needs. Compressed wood is usually not completely straight when you receive it, often quite bowed. It should not be straightlined, you are going to bend it after all. Use a band saw to dimension it and place the bow against the fence (and table).
Many applications you can think of to use Compressed Wood in will be new or only partially tested. Compressed wood is best employed by the inventive and experimental craftsperson who is willing to go beyond some of the conventional wisdom commonly used in woodworking. This includes restricting your surfacing of the wet wood to sawing and sanding, no planing or moulding, though abrasive planing is very effective. Early experiences may be immediately rewarding, or may require some re-thinking and additional attempts. Our user information provided on this site is not complete, and is evolving as we and our customers push the product into new and ever challenging projects. Please plan on a test project to gain some experience with compressed wood before commiting to a customers paid or finished project.
You are invited to share your experiences, pictures and videos with us and we would be pleased to include certain works in our galleries.
