Putting them in the form

Aside from being outdoors, I really enjoy carpentry. I’ve made quite a few things, mostly furniture for my family and the workshop I built to make them in. I don’t usually take photographs of the process, but this time I made the effort and took photos (when it was safe to do so!). So thought I’d share a project that I’ve been working on. Apologies for the pictures, I used my GoPro as I didn’t want my Nikon to get dusty or wet from the process!

I’d seen a couple of coat racks on the internet made from wooden skis, so I’ve been wanting to make one for quite a while. It isn’t the first time I’ve tried making wooden skis – my dad and I made a pair when I was in school, so I had a bit of an idea about the process.

Planing

First off, I marked out the pieces of timber with the profile I wanted – the skis will be thinner at the tips and tails, this will make steam bending the tips much easier. Then I planed the wood using an electric plane to get to this profile.

Getting ready to cut the boards in half

After planing I cut each of the boards in two using the table saw – there will be two skis from each piece of wood. I then planed the cut edges to make them smooth. They were then ready to be steamed and then bent.

Four blank skis ready to be planed again – the pile of sawdust beside is from the first round of planing

Making the sides smooth

I made the steam box previously and forgot to take photographs. It’s pretty much a plywood box with dowels inside to support the pieces of timber being steamed. There’s a hole in the base where the steam comes in.

The blank skis in the steam box

I let the skis steam in the box for about an hour. This gave me time to make sure that the form to bend them around was ready. Again, I made the form before deciding to take photographs of the process, but it was pretty simple to make.

Putting the first ski into the form

First ski secured

After letting the skis steam, I took them out one at a time and carefully bent them around the form.

The first blank ski taking the shape of the form

When all four were in place I slid a baton through the form to keep them all in place, and hopefully make sure that they all keep a similar shape.

All four skis in place and secured by the baton through the form

All secured and ready to try out

I left them in the form overnight to make sure that they had dried out from the steaming process.

I’m still in the process of making them, so I better get on!

© RockiesOutdoors 2015.