Cold Bend Lumber uses thermo-mechanical compression on ten different hardwoods for adjustable and bendable lumber.
As a woodworker, it’s a pretty safe assumption that you work with wood. And you thought you knew it pretty well, right? For instance, you might have a project that would be just perfect if you could twist and bend your wood at just the right angle — but you knew wood just doesn’t work that way. Guess what? With Cold-Bend™ Hardwood Lumber from Fluted Beams, LLC, it does.
Cold-Bend hardwoods are manufactured using an intense thermo-mechanical compression that creates a bellows-like effect at the cellular level, allowing the hardwood to stretch as it bends. This means it can bend into shapes with a thickness up to one-fifth of the board radius (in other words, a 1″ board can be bent around a 5″ radius circle). It’s real hardwood, too, available in 10 domestic species. No chemicals or glues are used in this process, and the Cold-Bend lumber, which comes in thicknesses up to 1-3⁄4″, looks the same as “regular” versions of maple, walnut, etc. and has the same ability to take finish. Prices vary according to species and dimension selected, with a 15-pound sample pack available in most species for $150 as of 2009.
