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I just received two sets of woods that went through a Torrefaction process. One is a very tightly curled set of maple the other a curly cherry. I intend to do experimental builds. Both will be 000 12 frets, no cutaway. I intend to top both with Sitka.

My question is directed to any builder that has successfully bent "cooked" woods. Actually, several questions:
1. Recommended side thickness for each species.
2 Temps for each.
3. Super Soft or no.
4. Heat/ bend wet or dry? Will be using a Bluescreek side bender with blankets....not an iron.
5. Where are the " gotchas" with cooked woods.

These two sets are stellar....sure hope I can do them justice.

Thanks
Tom

I will be interested to see your results. There's good research out there that shows heat treatment of wood compromising bending strength, and the higher the temp the lower the resulting strength. A temp high enough to change the color of the wood is well over the temp that strength degradation starts to happen... at the extreme: charcoal isn't nearly as flexible as maple.

If it were me I would go very thin, be very careful, and take it very very slow. Of course this is conjecture on my part as I've never tried to bend cooked wood, but it's an educated guess. I hope you can prove me wrong... whatever your results please post them here.

Roasted maple sides are now bent. Thinned to .082, spritzed, foiled and then blanket bent at 300f. The first side had a minor gross grain stress crack on the inside only at the waist. This was easly fixed with some CA glue. The first side was spritzed sparingly. I used mor h2o on the second side and it bent perfectly.

I will bend the cherry sides later this week and report results.

Just a curious question.
It is my understanding that Torrefaction and baking was done to guitar tops to "supposedly" give them a tone of a vintage guitar.

What is the advantage to doing that to sides?

Not trying to be a smart A#s because I really have no opinion for or against it, I guess you could call me agnostic on the topic.

Cheers,
Bob

To me, the advantage is the deep brown colour of the wood. I'm doing a cabinet job with roasted maple, and you can't get the same colour with stain on maple. Any curl in the grain really pops with a clear finish on it.

Alex

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