Official Luthiers Forum!

I am in the beginning stages of two builds - and have thicknessed my side plates in preparation for bending.

I haven't worked with these two woods before (Tiger Myrtle and Hormigo) so I'm looking for some advice on bending with my Blue's Creek Fox-style Bender.

Neither of the woods is highly figured. The Tiger has some pretty typical figure for the species. The hormigo is especially straight grained but has about 1.5" of sapwood on one side.

I have bent a few sides with my bender - so I'm familiar with the process - but temps and any wetting or SuperSoft advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Tiger Myrtle is the easiest wood by far that I've ever bent. It won't cause you any trouble at all, and holds the bend with virtually no spring back. I bend without a temperature controler. Just blanket on full wack for 2 minutes on lightly spritzed sides wrapped in al-foil. Bend sides and turn off blanket. Let cool down and hit again with full heat for 2 minutes. Turn off and walk away. Job done.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Paul;
Hormigo bends with NO problems.
I just bent some slab cut sides and they bent easily also on my Fox bender.
I do not know the temp.-I just wait till the water sprayed on bounces off
the slats !
I bent some more slab cut sides over a hot pipe and they bent very nicely.
Just a spray them and bend.
They held their shape great also !
Mike

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Mike Collins

Easy to bend..I heard once that when they're planting out Tiger Myrtle seedlings they need to be tied to steel stakes to prevent them from twisting themselves into guitar shapes as they grow.

Kim, Let me know when your tiger myrtle seedlings are large enough to mill quartersaw billets at 8 1/2 wide.
Cheers, Tasssie, Bob