Vine Maple Stave

[bluegill68]

Friends,

I have a Vine Maple stave that I received a decade ago. It is crooked to say the least and will need a pile of straightening. My question is should I be looking at the steam tube or the heat gun? both?

I have never worked this species before.

Thanks for the guidance

Sean

[sharpend60]

I have had better luck with steam.
I actually sorta boil. Works better for me.

I dont like to manipulate the wood much so I go for high impact, big changes.

[Shaun]

I've had good luck with dry heat, much better manipulation than expected. Stuff I worked with was more like 2 or 3 years dry.

[doulosparachristos]

I haven't use the dry heat yet with VM, however, Im working a stave now that was pretty crooked; it was easily workable with steam.

[Gordon]

Vine maple responds well to steam. You can also bend it with dry heat, but you have to go very SLOWLY.

[Bryce]

Steam works good on the kinky parts, but if it just needs a little straightening and I'm feeling a little lazy ill use dry heat. Good results with both.

[dmenzies1950]

I agree with Bryce, Both work well. I'm lazy, I use the heat gun when I can get by with it.  Dale 

[bluegill68]

Thanks for all the replies. I will post pics of the stave when I return home. I may use the steamer to get the major kinks out then use the heat gun for finesse.

Sean