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I was wondering any tips on bending Malaysian black wood in a fox bender? Temp and thickness? Im thinking of building one of my crossover nylons with it Any advice would be great.
Thanks
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

I've bent one set at about .070-.075 I think as it was quite heavy. Just spritzed and brought up to over 300F. No probs.

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Pat

I bent a few sets at .085 no problems in my bender.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hi again,

I am a little worried about bending this nice new black wood for my two mirrored guitars, lefty and righty. These are both classical cut aways. Any advice from you would be appreciated. Since the last run of emails, I purchased some super soft 2 and think this would help. Any recipes would also help for using this product. I have never used it. Thicknesses and temp for the fox bender, blanket layering would also help. John from Blues creek is putting the heat blanket directly on wood covered with paper and then the stainless steel sheet over top of the blanket. Idealy he feels he can heat the wood better at a lower temp. I think that is a good idea as well.

Thanks

Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Super Soft is pretty easy to use. Spray it onto both sides of the timber, then let it dry. Get it really dry by placing the wood between sheets of absorbent paper and place weights on it. Then bend it using your preferred method. It does seem to reduce britleness and cracking. I don't use it on every set of sides, but I will use it for highly figured timber, and especially for ebony bindings which are really uncooperative a lot of the time.
Mark

If I have a set of sides I think might be tricky I spray them with Super soft and wrap them in a plastic bag. I let the sides sit over night and bend the next day.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
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I would expect considerable variation in the way "Malaysian Blackwood" responds to bending. This common name (used only by tonewood dealers) is applied to a number of Diospyros species traded in Malaysia as "Kayu malam" (literally "night wood"). This is also why you see so much variation in colours and figure.

Having said that, they are all true ebonies and one shouldn't be much more difficult to bend than other ebonies. In my own limited experience with Malaysian Blackwood (3 sets, all purchased same time, same dealer), I've used the same approach as I use for virtually all dense tropical woods: I sandwich the wood (thicknessed to 0.080 to 0.085") with wet kraft paper and SS slats, with heating blanket and 3rd slat on top. Start bending around 230-250°F, start with waist to within 10 mm of mold, then set the lower bout, followed by upper bout, and finally bring the waist down to line. Pay attention to the sounds you hear and resistance felt. Let the bent sandwich temperature rise to 320-330°F, then lower to 310 and cook for 20-30 minutes, then switch off and leave to cool. The sapwood may be less pliable than the darker heartwood, and more prone to fibre blowout and splitting.

PS: I've never used Supersoft but I've always been curious about it.

I have bent a variety of woods using the same procedure and have not had a break (now I will having said it out loud!). My sides are always about .085". I use spring steel slats and 2 blankets (blanket, steel, wood in brown craft paper, steel, blanket - thanks John Mayes). I use a router speed control as a heat control and I have it mounted on the side of the Fox bender feeding a duplex outlet where I plug the blankets in, also mounted on the bender. I spray both sides of the wood with water and I'm not too picky about how much. It may drip just a little in places but an even coating is what I'm after. The heat control has a 3 way switch - variable (rheostat), off, and full on. I start at full on to heat up quickly and when I get to 220 degrees I switch to variable with the knob about 1/3 of the way to full on and start bending. The heat creeps up to about 260 while I bend - maybe a minute or so. After it's bent, I switch back to full on up to about 320 degrees where I switch back to variable and let the temp fall back to about 300 or so. I leave it there for maybe 10 minutes and turn everything off.

Good luck,
Chuck

Has anyone ever bent a cut away in any of the tropical ebonies?
Thanks
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

I bent this reasonably tight one a few years ago... had no problems in a Fox bender

How thick were your sides on the cut away side?

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

I don't recall... probably about .080. I do recall it didn't misbehave at all.

Wonderful I will do the same although I will use super soft 2 as well
Thanks again
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

So recommendations are to bend with a .080 thickness for my cut away or to thin it down to .070
Thanks
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Hey Blake, did you source the supersoft locally?

Thanks
Brian

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

No I ordered from the US
Thanks
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.