About to do some steaming. Have a few questions.

[Judo Point]

Well I just got done making a form like the one Gary Davis explains in the rattle stick DVD and about to straighten and reflex some staves but my question is he uses poly to seal his before steaming and I was wondering what I should do with white woods Im using ironwood and maple and if I seal it before steaming do I need to stain first or remove the sealer after I form it. I guess just wondering how you all steam and shape white woods?

[Del the cat]

I've never put anything on the wood before steaming, never had any probs.
I can't see it doing any harm tho' and it may avoid the wood getting too wet and speed up the recovery/re-aclimatisation time.
Del

[DarkSoul]

I don't see any reason to seal a stave before steaming. I just use raw wood and dump it in a pan with a layer of water! Nothing complicated to that.

[Pappy]

I always seal before steaming,helps hold the heat in and helps avoid check that you sometime get if the wood is a little to seasoned. After the bending is done I just scrap it off [lightly] with a scraper. The water is not what make the wood bend it is the damp heat. You can try it without sealing but to me it's not worth the chance of checking. You can stain before or after,don't guess it matters,I always do it after,no problem.
   Pappy

[Judo Point]

Well thanks I'm kinda leaning towards sealing it because it is seasoned pretty good just wondering Pappy does it scrape off fairly easy cause the first stave I'll be trying is ironwood and with all the grooves and ridges I'm just worried it will be hard to get off.

[Pappy]

Yes IW is a little more of a challenge but it's not to bad,just have to sand it lightly out of the grooves,If I planed on staining ,I would do that before on IW just in case you don't get it all off.It won't take the stain.If you stain first it won't matter if it all don't come off.
    Pappy

[MWirwicki]

I'll second Pappy's reply on steaming.  When Gary and I first started working with steaming wood several years ago, we discovered that the wood didn't cool as quickly when the finish was on it.  Therefore, it gave us more time for straightening and clamping.  And again, we also found that it helped prevent checking.  It was frustrating to see wood that was seasoned for several years, suddenly check after steaming.  When sealing the wood prior to steaming, the checking was greatly reduced if not eliminated.

Yes, you can steam without sealing however, we found the results were better and we had more time to manipulate the wood.  Try thinning your poly a bit with paint thinner.  It may be easier to remove.  Or, I've heard that shellac scrapes off easier.  Maybe someone can chime in on that...

[crooketarrow]

  MW your staves checked because they were seasoned. STEAM ON GREEN WOOD. DRY HEAT ON SEASONED. Put your reflex in while staves are green with out steam. GREEN staves can be either put on a caul or rachet strap down between to points to a floor. To take out stwists and add reflex. A WHOLE LOT EASER.

[Pappy]

It is easy to do and works great, If you don't mind waiting a few months for it to dry and have plenty of room to have several laying around while they are drying. I use to do it a lot,easier for me now to heat or steam as I need them. Lots of ways to skin a Cat  and Judo point you have heard 3 of them,steam /heat/or work green,all will work just fine.
   Pappy

[PEARL DRUMS]

I use 100% dry heat on any and all whitewood moves.

[Judo Point]

Pearl is there a reason ya don't steam or is just cause the dry heat works for ya? The reason I made my form and steamer is cause I have a stubborn maple that didn't want to bend for me but I thought I would try it on my ironwood first even though I did have good results on my first ironwood with dry heat flipping the tips. Anyway this piece of ironwood needs the tips lined up, kink taken out and some reflex put in so figured it might be easier to just steam and clamp it to the form.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Honestly my steam rig is covered in dust and hasnt been used in 15-20 bows. I have made some major moves with yellow and white wood using dry heat and cant seem to to find a reason to stop using it. I do steam static recurves in.  The 10-15 blanks I did steam where simply tossed in to cook, no sealing. My personal experience has taught me that dry heat stays put much better than steam. Again these are MY experineces, not trying to start a brawl or anything!

[Judo Point]

No I apreciate your input! That's why I asked is to get everyone's input and I apreciate everyone that commented. I think right now I'm going to go ahead and steam the maple since I couldn't get it to do what I wanted with dry heat and maybe try the heat gun on the ironwood again since the ironwood responded real well last time. Well thanks everyone Ill show the results when I'm done. It might be awhile since work has been getting in the way alot lately. Well thanks again everyone.