Bendywood® is steam-treated wood that is compressed along its length and subsequently dried in this compressed form. In order to maintain this compressed length, no water should be able to penetrate the wood. If it does get wet, the wood will expand in length and will also shrink again when it dries. The wood surface will roughen up, it will need to be sanded and varnished again. Therefore:

DO NOT USE BENDYWOOD® OUTDOORS,
AS BENDYWOOD® IS NOT WATERPROOF.

Since Bendywood® is compressed wood, it is more compact than normal wood. For this reason, we suggest to comply with the following instructions when WORKING Bendywood®:

Sawing and sanding:

• Saw and sand as with normal wood. 

Planing and milling:

• Only dry Bendywood® can be milled (at a moisture content of about 8%), as moist Bendywood® can tear out.
• Do not plane and mill against the grain: first try on the surface planing machine in which direction the wood can be worked best. 
• Mill at a high rotation speed, if possible at 12.000 rotations per minute.
  Ideally use HSS-tooling, in order to avoid tear outs. 
• Small profiles are best milled on the edge of a board and subsequently cut off at the circular saw. 

Gluing and jointing:

• Use D4 vinyl glues, polyurethane adhesives and synthetic resin glues only.
• When Bendywood® needs to be glued/jointed in length, as it is the case, for instance, with handrails:
  
  • Never use normal butt joints, as they will open up in the long term. 
  • Butt joints must be made safe using long and strong dowels to prevent shrinkage in length of Bendywood®
  • Where possible glue/joint by means of diagonal cuts:
     

The length of a diagonal cut should equal 2 - 3 times the cross section of the parts that need to be glued/jointed.


Painting after Assembly:

It is recommended to use:

1. synthetic paints or oils, such as "Danish Oil" (Rustins) or, LOBA LOBASOL® 2K ImpactOil Hartöl 750 ml - Dose, transparent kaufen (hygi.de) with hardener 
2. Hydro-oils with hardeners for wood with waxy effect, such as the “Renner wood-oil YS---M009 with 5% hardener YC M402” tonet AG Webshop - Wasserbasierendes Holz- und Möbelöl YS---M009

Technical data: WT IP 0418 (tonet.ch)


Final assembly of curved parts:

• The optimum moisture content for bending tight radiuses is about 12%. Prior to the final assembly, Bendywood® should be well dried to about 7-8%. As it has already been artificially dried during the production process, Bendywood® will not suffer any damage during this final drying process. 
• Important: Bendywood® will shrink in length as long as its moisture content decreases! Especially when mounting long handrails this needs to be taken into account!

See also: 5. How to mount handrails