Tag: Drum Craftsmanship

Today marks a major turning point in Po’s sun-steamed red oak experiment — the moment when softened hardwood, warm from the solar tubes, is guided into its first held shape. After days of heating, coaxing, and patiently encouraging the wood fibres to relax, it’s finally time for the clamp.

Freehand bending is never a one-person job. With red oak especially — two sets of hands are essential. One pair holds the ends together, and the other manages the clamps with steady confidence.

As the camera rolls, Po’s assistant lifts one end of the oak over the other. You can see immediately that the top end doesn’t lie flat; instead, it sticks out stubbornly, like a child refusing bedtime. This is normal. In every bend, no matter the length, one end refuses to behave. The wood always tries to return to straightness — its original memory.

To protect the tender, freshly steamed wood, Po uses two small oak offcuts as buffers. The cut-offs keep the clamp from denting the softened wood, which is especially vulnerable before it dries.

The First Clamp: Where Courage Meets Making

Po tightens the lower piece first, then holds the top piece and slowly turns the clamp. With each rotation, the ends of the red oak pull closer together. This is the first of two clamping stages in Po’s innovative dry-bending technique — a method she has refined through experimentation, intuition, and respect for the material.

This first loop must dry with the clamps on for about two days.
Only then will the wood be ready to release, be cut to size, glued, and clamped again into its final drum frame shape.

What the video doesn’t show is just how lively the wood can be. Even at this stage, red oak is strong and springy. If it suddenly opens, the clamp can fly across the room — a heavy steel reminder that wood is a living material. Some drum makers use ratcheting straps to control this, but Po avoids this method. The hooks and pressure points don’t sit flush, and can scar the damp wood just before it snaps back.

Instead, Po trusts the method shown here — a method that gives her control, precision, and the markings she demands from her handcrafted drum frames.

Freehand bending sun-steamed wood may look simple, but it takes courage, strength, intuition, and sometimes… a little prayer.

And today, with hands steady and clamps in place, Po brings her drum loop one step closer to becoming the finished frame that will hold the heartbeat of future songs.

Check back for Day 6 to see how the bend holds — and what surprises the wood reveals next.

📧 Portia@loveartbypo.ca