cocobolo binding

[Dave Bagwill]

Going to bend some over a pipe this week.

Any hints as to temperature to use?
Could I soak them overnight?

[John Parchem]

I have not bend cocobolo by hand. I had no problem bending it with my fox bending machine.

Rightly or wrongly I have been using less and less water when I am bending by hand. I generally just spirtz the wood to help start the heat transfer. I found if the wood is too wet it never gets hot enough on the pipe because it is boiling water, stays around 220 degrees. I hand bent figured koa bindings on my last cutaway guitar dry. My pipe is as hot as it goes. Dry I felt the wood get plastic very fast and was able to bend the very tight bends in the cutaway.

Good luck and hope you get more relevant advise than mine.

[Dave Bagwill]

Sounds good, John, thanks.

[ken cierp]

I believe its important to use a backing slat to compress the material against the pipe. I machine all my bindings to less than .075"

[Dave Bagwill]

Good info, thanks.

[Kevin in California]

Dave. when I was bending on my pipe, I bent a set of cocobolo sides. I had no issues, using a wet rag laying over the pipe to generate the steam. I just kept it wet with a spray bottle.
Bindings may be different.

[Herman]

Don't leave the wood too thick, otherwise it is hard bending, Dave.
herman