Not bitter and now not twisted
A few weeks back we reported that we had recovered the pair of 9"x3" oak sole plates for the final section of the carriage. These had been gently seasoning for 4-5 years in our workshop and whilst not expecting them to be perfectly straight (oak rarely is) one of the two was quite badly warped and twisted. One of the lessons learned from earlier sections was to ensure the scarfing joints between sections is manufactured prior to erecting the previous section. So we needed to attempt to straighten the timber to allow the joints to be made. Our previous experience steaming these big timbers has proven quite successful provided the process is given plenty of time. So out came our 12' steaming box originally designed for making roof hoops and the necessary steam supplies by way of 2 paint strippers plugged in and set in action. The offending piece of oak added and left for 5 hours to gently warm. The above picture shows the extent of the twist After 5 hours the twist had sub