Fig. 466.
It usually produces the best effect not to carry this beading to the extreme ends of an edge, but to stop a short distance from the ends and with a chisel cut the beads to a square and abrupt end (Fig. 305). See Plane.
Fig. 467.
Bending Wood.—To bend a piece (without steaming or boiling) which is to be fastened so that but one side will show, make a series of saw-cuts of equal depth (Fig. 467) across the piece, and partly through it, on the back side (the side which will not show), first running a gauge line along the edge (see Gauge), that the cuts may be of equal depth. This will practically, so far as bending is concerned, make the piece thinner, and it can readily be bent and fastened in position. The nearer together and the deeper the cuts are the more the piece can be bent—that is, up to the breaking-point. Hot water can be used on the face side. Such curves can sometimes be strengthened by driving wedges, with glue, into the saw-kerfs after the piece is bent to the desired curve (Fig. 468).
Fig. 468.
To make a small piece of wood pliable, so that it will bend to any reasonable extent (which, however, depends much upon the kind of wood), soak it for some time in boiling water, when it can usually be bent into the desired shape. It must be securely held in position until the moisture has entirely left it, or it will spring back to (or towards) its original shape. This drying will take from several hours to several days, according to the size of the piece and the condition of the atmosphere. There is almost always a tendency to spring back a little towards the original shape, so it is well to bend a piece a little more than you wish it to remain, except where it is to be fastened so that it cannot spring back.
Wood which naturally bends easily (particularly thin pieces) can often be made pliable enough by simply soaking in cold water, but hot water is usually more effective. Anything which you cannot manage with the hot water you can take to a mill or a ship-yard and have steamed in a regular steam-chest, which is really nothing, in principle, but a big wooden or iron box, with a steam-pipe running into it, in which the pieces are kept until the steam has made them pliable. Wood is now bent for many purposes by "end pressure," but this is impracticable for the amateur.