: My SOF project was going really great...until today. I'm building based on
: Cunningham's book. I'm really happy with the deck so far - all those
: mortises and tenons at odd angles really do work.

: Then there are the ribs. I ordered a piece of bending oak. Ripped it down to
: the right size for the ribs. At that point, even before I'd cut them to
: length, I had one or two of the 8' long pieces that seemed like they
: wanted to break.

: I plunged on, hoping it was just a minor problem. I soaked all the pieces for
: a couple of weeks. Cut them to length, thinned the ends as recommended in
: the book. But now that it's time to bend them I just can't get them to
: bend without breaking. My steamer seems to be doing the right thing,
: putting out lots of steam - and the ribs are soft when they come out of
: it, not brittle. But every one of them is breaking.

: I suspect the problem is grain runout - I've attached a picture of one of the
: broken ribs.

: I don't think I want to go through the time and expense of ordering another
: piece of bending oak - I'll probably just go to a local hardwood supplier
: and look for ash or oak and try that.

: Does that sound reasonable? Which is better, ash or white oak? Does this
: sound like a problem with the grain? Is it more likely my milling of it or
: just the particular board I used?

: Thanks for any input you might have - I really want to get past this part of
: the process.

: Chris

From the looks of that bottom picture your grain is running off about 4 or 5". Not good The growth rings should run from one end to the other, or as near as possible. When they run across the board like that, it will split along that line.

Try to find something that will run true to the length of the boards.
Either White Oak or Ash should work, but try to find something that's air dried rather than Kiln dried.

Hope your luck changes... rib bending is fun... and you should be getting much better results than that.

Rehd