How do you bend marquetry purfling?

[MaineGeezer]

Does anybody know of any techniques for bending marquetry purfling"? I've tried heat, with poor results. I tried boiling it, planning to disassemble the strip and reassemble the pieces in a circle. It turns out the glue they use is not water soluble. I tried shaving off one side and bending the remainder. That didn't work very well either.
Any ideas?

purfling-bw-brown-white-framed.jpg

[banjopicks]

Can it be forced into a groove? Maybe you could make a test piece and try it.

[Stray Feathers]

Are you using a bending iron or something like a side bender? I've had difficulty bending almost anything on a pipe, but the silicon blanket and slats I got from John Hall have worked way better so far (I made a Fox-style bender). I've not tried anything thicker than guitar sides or binding. And is this for purfling, or maybe a tighter curve like a rosette? That would be more challenging.

[MaineGeezer]

I sent an email to Robbie O'Brien, the guy who does the how-to videos for LMI. I didn't expect an answer, but he responded to my question about jhow to bend marquetry.

"Those examples you gave are not intended to be bent into a radius as tight as a rosette. If you want to make a rosette out of a pattern like that then you need to bend it in pieces. What you have is a pattern that has been laminated with several layers. In essence you are trying to bend plywood. Try bending the chevron or other pattern and then add purflings to that after it is bent and as you install the pattern into the rosette channel."

At the moment my plan is to construct a 12-sided rosette out of straight segments. Maybe. I may decide to forget the whole thing.

Here's a slightly out of focus picture showing the general idea. I need to center things better, of course.

DSC04825.JPG

[jread]

Your channels are very good. Everything looks good when it's sanded flush and finished.

[tippie53]

if you want to bend it as a rosette I make the groove in a piece of plywood
then I run it under hot water and work it into the groove you may get some breakage but that
hides once you get it dried and when you glue it in .
on guitar shapes , again hot water and tape it to the sides or bender with binding on both sides