Thread: Bending Purpleheart

You play with some mean weapons George.

The bokens I have seen only have a very slight curve in them.

My first thought would be to use a bandsaw. Follow the grain to keep maximum strength.

Bending this big lump of dense timber would be a challenge.
Have you checked the FWW site for the suitability of purpleheart for bending?
http://www.connectedlines.com/wood/wood55.htm

http://www.thewoodbox.com/data/wood/purpleheartinfo.htm


Steam it in a steam box until you can bend it. I would expect it could take an hour or so to penetrate the timber.
This discussion might be helpful:
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...rpleheart.html

Then put it straight into a form and clamp it up tight.
If you can bend it, I expect it would spring back a fair bit once it cools and comes out of the form. So you might need some test bends to see how much bigger curve you need in the form to compensate for the springback.

You might need a couple of your strong mates to help you bend it (or a hydraulic jack)??

George, my inexperience (both in martial arts and woodwork!) may mean that this suggestion is a silly one, but how about lamination? Prepare the purpleheart in thin strips (3-5mm maybe?) then glue together while clamping in a form. That way you could put as much or as little curve into the bokken as a raw square blank, and shape once the curve is in the blank. I would think that laminating would also add strength to an already strong timber?

Thanks for the comments, they mean a lot of help to me.
I have made a couple of bokens before and they were all bandsawn. The experience is that they not nearly as durable as the should be, along some other problems, like splintering.
I hope that with steam bending, I will overcome most of these. The idea is to shape the timber while it is straight, and then put it in the steam box to give it the desired curve. Would be much less labour intensive than my present method.
Poppa, my own piece is laminated from two bits, as a part of an experience, and after a year of hard use, it is still holding up. Made of oak anyway, as I didn't have more suitable wood that time. Lamination is a good idea, but shaping the boken after it gets the curve is a great fuss
Anyway, thank you for the comments once more. I really appreciate them.

Hi George, & welcome. I'm not sure how you'd go steam bending purpleheart as I've never done it. I'd go with laminating, as Poppa suggests, although you'd have a bit more wastage.
How do you shape them? I've never had any problem shaping curved sections using a spokeshave first, then a rasp, then a file, then sanding.

I've got no idea what you are talking about.
What's a boken?
Do you have a photo?

Boken is a practice sword... think ninja stuff

ah! I see.
Try Bunnings. The last time I wanted a straight piece of wood, all the had were bent bits.

haha.. very good.

Very well
Now I have some idea about what should I do. Thanks for the commetns, keep them coming!