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Hi folks,

Is there any real reason to keep the aluminum foil in the bending sandwich if I’m also using craft paper? Seems like I can drop the foil altogether and remove a step and also remove worry about staining certain woods?

My slats are stainless I think.







Brad


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No need for it. I wrap mine in brown paper. Often an old paper bag cut apart or the paper packing from a package. Never broken a side this way, but I probably use thicker ss slats than you all.

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Jim Watts
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Only paper for me…

Agree with the comments above - I bought stainless slats from Mr Hall so I wouldn’t need the foil. A also use a 6” lightweight painters masking paper to hold a little extra moisture and to help keep any resins in the wood off of the slats.

Cheers, M

From outside in, blanket, steel, paper, wood, paper, steel, form.

I didn't use foil either.

My stack had three slats from bottom up:

1) stainless slat (kept stainless on the bottom so the spring back did not risk cracking a site upon removal)

2) wood wrapped in spritzed craft paper (I never used Super soft or fabric softener mixed in water)

3) spring steel slat

4) blanket from my buddy John Hall

5) spring steel slat.

I also had a second caul and spring set on my bender on the lower bought.

I avoided foil because I made likely built over ten guitars out of Koa and Blackwood was a favorite too. Wanted to avoid the dreaded mean, green staining.

The third slat, spring steel on the top of the stack was to help direct more blanket heat downward.

Worked great I never cracked a single side.

Spring steel will rust really badly if you have it next to wet craft paper. Stainless steel is fine though.

Agreed Barry, I have a set of Spring Steel Slats from Blues Creek from way back....
Have always used spritzed Kraft paper and foil in a sandwich to keep the sides away from the spring steel to avoid the inevitable staining and rusting...

So if you keep your shop or where you store your slats at 45% RH they won't rust even spring steel. Mine never did. Where people may run into corrosion problems is when they have a part time lutherie shop without 24/7, year round humidity and temp control.

It's interesting since I keep my entire condo at 45% RH nothing, none of my tools have ever rusted here and they all look like new. I have around 30 guitars on the walls too and the hardware never rusts either. And as a human I feel very comfortable in 45% RH too.

Our city/commercial shop is the same deal, year around, 24/7 strict humidity and temp control and nothing corrodes as a result.

My slats were also from my buddy John Hall and from way back around 2005ish.

I'll be the one dark horse lol I still like the foil with hard to bend woods, even though I use brown craft paper as well. I feel like it retains the moisture better. If I'm bending a species that is really easy to bend I'll leave the foil out.

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I use alufoil and damp wallpaper lining paper between the my blued spring steel slats and the wood.
I like these slats because the blued slats spring straight back completely flat.
Occasionally the foil breaks/tears a bit but the slats don't rust much if at all, and a quick wipe 000 steel wool cleans it off easily.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

When I made my 'Fox' bender, I has access (and free-of-charge, besides) to 2024 aluminum sheet and made my slats out of that. I don't think there's much difference between that aluminum alloy and SS.

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Peter Havriluk