Fluted Beams supplies compressed, bendable, solid hardwood for commercial Extreme Wood Bending™ applications. Bendable hardwood (Compressed Wood) bends to extreme radii, well beyond what can be accomplished with steam bending. It offers unique opportunities for restoration of heritage boats, and allows for new and rapid production techniques in new boat building. Fluted Beams bendable solid hardwood is also suitable for curved moldings and curved stair treads in boat interiors. We recommend White Oak for boat builders when decay resistance is required. Yacht interiors can employ any of the compressed hardwoods.
Mast hoops on the USS Constitution are made from Compressed Oak. Compressed Wood is also used to replace broken and rotted ribs in restorations. We are also developing superb new yacht wheels from multiple species of Compressed Wood.
Compressed wood is very flexible when you receive it, and it becomes stable after it is dried and fixed in its shape. A good marine finish will protect it from all elements just like any other hardwood.
Cold Bendable Solid Hardwoods are available in planks up to 1.75" x 5.5" x 102" without joints or laminations. Longer lengths may be joined from this stock. Please see Compressed Wood for additional information on bending Compressed Wood.
Model builders and builders of prototypes can use Compressed Wood for experimentation where parts may be formed and reformed over and over again. Very small sweeping curved parts on models may be produced in Compressed Wood. Novelty items such as nautical knots can be reproduced with shoe lace sized compressed wood ribbons.
Large boat interiors are ideal areas to employ compressed wood. Bend the wood by hand along the curved cabinet or wall on your own time schedule, then fasten it. It will dry in place and hold it's shape as it dries. Once dried, the wood may be finished with any usual finish for wooden boats. Curved railings are another ideal area of the yacht to use Compressed Wood.
Compressed Wood does not suffer from "Spring-Back", which is seen in steamed wood. Spring-back requires wood benders to over-bend the part, and to guess or use experience as to how far it may "relax" or spring back. The over-bending required in steamed wood can easily cause losses such as grain run-out and breaks that would not be experienced with Compressed Wood in tighter bends.
Fluted Beams recommends that you bend to a radius of up to five to ten times the diameter of the board. This will allow for a 5" to10" radius on a 1" board. We often accomplish more extreme bends than this and you will see some in the bow section of the boat illustrated on this page. It has a bend of approximately 3 to 1 with a 1" radius on a 3/8" part. Pushing the bends further, three of these parts are nested during the bend, then laminated together to form one piece over 1" thick, that appears to be bent to a 1" radius.
Keep in mind that Compressed Wood should not merely replace steam bent or laminated parts, but should be employed to produce much more dramatic bends in boat parts that could not otherwise be fabricated. This opens up the use of Compressed Wood to new ideas, experimentation, prototypes, slow thought provoking work sessions, and fast production environments.
Imagine rope made of braided Compressed Wood for your moldings or trim. Better yet, try braiding three species together to make a tri-color wooden rope (Oak, Cherry, Walnut). How about a basket woven grid-shell for the back of a deck chair, or a basket woven lattice partition from thick strips of compressed hardwood? Please take our ideas as a starting point, and explore Compressed Wood in your own projects. It should be a very rewarding experience.
Notes on the pulling boat illustrated: This museum quality original from Chris Mroz is not for sale but is available for loans to maritime museums and institutions catering to North American Design or Arts and Crafts. The boat should be hung indoors, overhead, and upside down to display the innovative diamond grid-shell and fluted rails. The skin boat illustrated here weighs only 28 pounds at 11' 6" in length. It is a completely unique new boat manufactured using Cold Bendable White Ash, basket woven in a diamond pattern, over forms on a strong-back, to form an extremely rigid and light weight interior "grid-shell". The grid-shell is then covered with long stringers of conventional Sitka Spruce from front to back. The bow is also bent from one piece of Cold Bendable White Ash. The very unique side rails in this boat are the prototypes for the original "Fluted Beam", making this craft historically significant. It employs the patented Fluted Beam in an arch configuration with a deep sheer. This Fluted Beam curves in two dimensions simultaneously. Licensing from Fluted Beams is required to construct your own version of the rail (Fluted Beam), but it is simple and economical to license. Working maritime museums and design schools may license the Fluted Beam technologies at nominal cost, with just a little documentation, The compressed wood basket woven grid-shell may be duplicated in your own designs without licensing.
This boat is finished with a Dacron cover (aircraft covering grade), then varnished, along with the wood work. It is applied in the manner illustrated at www.gaboats.com. Heavier ballistic nylon fabrics (12 oz) should be considered since the Dacron is susceptible to puncture by barnacles and sharp stones but it is otherwise extremely strong and light weight. The Dacron is susceptible to UV degradation. Both the Dacron and the wood frame will take a lot of abuse. But after youv'e left it on top of your car for a few days, padled through a rain forest followed by weeks of sun, and forgoten it on a dock for a couple more weeks, store it indoors.
This design itself is reminiscent of a Geodesic Airolite boat, but modified to suit this new building approach which allows for a lighter, quicker to build and more rigid craft for the weight. Although a typical home built dinghy takes about 100 hours to complete, this grid shell design was built in under 40 hours. I expect that the boat could be produced in one weekend by a small team of boat builders, making it suitable for a demonstration craft at boat shows and maritime fairs.
Most of the Geodesic boat designs would suit this grid-shell construction technique and I recommend you seek out their plans and materials at www.gaboats.com. I am looking forward to one of you producing some Kayaks from these new techniques. | 
