I decided to first explore the kerfing technique of solid wood
bending that used to produce guitars and boats because I would like to use the
kerf as part of a decoration and discovering how wood can be made to perform in
novel ways by bending and twisting behaviour of wood through kerf making.
I
have designed various kerf patterns and used band saw to cut pieces of MDF wood
to experiment how the wood bends. As MDF is a medium-density fiberboard, there
is no wood grain, which makes it easier to bend. However, in the middle stage
of the project, I use solid timber to produce my kerf patterns. I have to take
the grain direction into account, as wood are more likely to break when bend
against the grain. I then also tried to cut larger kerf, when the wood bends, the
kerf will form a triangle, I pour in coloured resin to make the kerf
decorative. Through these experimentations, I found out the larger and the more
the number the kerf, the more the wood can bend.
