Cold-Bendtm hardwoods are highly engineered, solid, cold bendable hardwoods, that are uniquely suited to the most demanding Extreme Wood Bendingtm projects. It is indistinguishable from clear, straight grained hardwood because that's what it is. It has just been subjected to carefully controlled, but intense, longitudinal thermo-mecanical compression (approximately 100,000 lbs). The hardwood has been engineered to be extremely flexible (as long as it is moist). It is shipped to you as planks wrapped in plastic to maintain it's moisture for long periods of time (months to years) so that it can be kept on hand for current and future projects. It may be re-sawn and dimensioned with your usual tools except for planers, and routers, which often cause grain tear-out when applied in the direction of the grain. The moist wood can be abrasive planed, cross-grain planed, turned on a lathe, routed after it is dry, and sanded or sawn in any way.

Once cold bent by hand (or with jigs, clamps and fixtures), Cold-Bendtm hardwood is then dried to fix the shape permanently.

Use Compressed Wood for Extreme Wood Bendingtm to a radius of curvature as small as 5 times the thickness of the plank without steam, without heat, without backing straps and without springback (1" thick board bent to a 5" radius).