I am struggling to bend stripwood for the handrails for my current build. The boat is 1/24 and at least two of the bends are quite sharp.
I have been struggling with 3mm x 5mm mahogany and holding in a jig after both steaming and soaking in very hot water. I achieve the required bend but after a few hours the wood springs back significantly.
Walnut has been suggested as it has a better "memory" than mahogany which has no "memory" at all.
Please any suggestions.
Regards ChrisG
Hi Chris,
My suggestion is once the plank is steamed it must be fastened in place immediately or as you said it will straighten out.
Trev

I have had similar problems and found the best solution is. Once, the wood is saturated and bent, dry it with a heat gun.
Mahogany will retain a shape similar to the bent shape. It can then be CA glued into place. Working it to final shape as the glue sets
Rowen

Thanks gents for the suggestions, sorry for the delay in responding but was unsure of the way this section of the site worked.
Thanks again Chris G

I have used 1/2" softwood for gunwhales, which needed quite a lot of bending - tried all sorts of ways, eventually ended up steaming it with a floor mop steamer that has a detachable steam unit, then as it was heated fixed it to a board with pre-determined blocks for the shape required, steamed again, then clamped to the required shaope and left for a week to dry naturally. Got very close to required shape, so did same treatment and left for another week, and shape held. Luckyduck