Soaking The Wood

I'm going to soak the wood this time. I got a letter from an old friend. Here's the conversation edited:


Friend:
Interesting approach. Whenever I have done this (back in high school 30 years ago), I would place the wood to be bent over a form, tie weights to the ends, and apply steam by hand over the course of many days. I would also do it with thin sections and then laminate the sections together.


Me:
You know... I was thinking along these lines:
1. build a form in which I could insert steam
2. make it so I could bend it while it is in the steamed form... e.g. weights or something like that

What I've done so far is not working well. I am planning on using white oak as it's supposed to be good for bending; however, I wonder if the kilned wood is causing me trouble. In other words, I may need to purchase green white oak (green white -- i mean unkilned white oak)

Friend:
I think you want kilned wood, or the shape you form will change again during the kiln process. Slow and steady wins the race for steam bending. And, again, I’ve only done it with thin strips that I then glue together using the same form I used to bend the wood.

...

And for real, I thought about "slow and steady" and wondered if my friend had no concern for wood bending at all, but was saying, "keep it slow and steady".

And I thought about people.

I've heard "slow and steady" in other contexts --- where basically you wear people down, hone them, creep on them until you finally get them --- and use them. That's management 508 --- the advanced owner's manual.