Guidelines for Bending, Straightening, or Shaping your stick.

You must use heat and moisture to soften the wood fibers so that they will bend. There are three basic ways of softening the wood fibers.

The first is to heat moisture already in the wood. Use this method for green wood.  Also use this method dry wood that you have soaked to replace the moisture. Use a fire, or other heat source to turn the water to steam so that you can bend your stick. Wear gloves and be careful. I use this method for straightening green sticks. Soak the wood overnight and heat the inside of the curve until it starts to steam and then bend it with your hands. After it cools, it should be straight. 

The second method is to create steam first, and then force the steam into the wood. My brother and I put our sticks inside a 3 inch pipe and force steam through the pipe. This works well for wood that is already dry or partially dry.

The final method is to use boiling water to penetrate the wood fibers. Basically place the stick in boiling water so that the fibers are softened and you can bend the piece.

Bending sticks correctly takes practice. The amount of time to use steaming, heating, or boiling your wood depends on the size of the wood and the type of wood. Generally pieces that are 1 inch or less require 30 minutes of steaming. Be very careful with straight heat as this method can dry the fibers too fast making the piece break.

You do not have much time to bend a stick after the fibers have softened. Work Quickly!

It is best to not use softwoods for bending. Ash, Beech, Hickory, Sugar Maple, Oak, Elm, Walnut, and Cherry are all recommended woods for bending.