Trims, from furniture upcyclers, to interior designs and everyone else in between – the WoodUbend trims have proven popular. Let’s take a little closer look at these bendable wood trims and discover the how best to use them.
It’s only bendable wood if used correctly
This goes without saying really, and rings true for all WoodUbend, but it’s especially important to use the trims correctly. All the WoodUbend trims are 2.1m long and come coiled up, much to the relief of the post man who might struggle with a 6′ 9″ parcel. As the trims are coiled up, the first port of call is to uncoil them.
How do we go about uncoiling them?
Well, as with all WoodUbend appliques when cool they have all the properties of wood, they can be sanded, stained, painted, distressed, waxed – whatever you can do with wood, you can pretty much do with WoodUbend. This means, in their cool state, the bendable wood trims are, well, not bendable, they’re hard and will snap if you try to uncoil them when cool. The answer is simple then, heat them up!
A heat gun, hair dryer or even a griddle will be just fine, if you are using a hair dryer, keep in mind that it will take a little longer than if you were using a heat gun. If you’d like to learn a little more about how best to heat up your mouldings, there’s a handy guide right here or your local stockist should be able to provide you with information.
So the flexible wood trim is warm, and the bendable wood is bendy so it’s time to unroll it and get to work, right?
Wrong!
WoodUbend mouldings take roughly the same amount of time to cool down as they do to heat up. Once cool they revert to their hardened state again – don’t worry, though, you can heat and cool WoodUbend mouldings as many times as you need. As these bendable wood trims are nearly 7ft long, you’ll find that they will be become rather unruly if unravelled to their full length and left to cool.
So, to avoid this only unroll as much as you need, keeping the rest in the coil. Doing so ensures that it’s much easier to handle and it retains the heat far better, meaning your flexible wood stays flexible for longer.
Precision is not a prerequisite with WoodUbend trims
Picture the scene, you’re in the middle of an interior design project and you’ve cut your wood beading to size, you go to stick it down and…too short!
Traditionally, working with wood would mean that you had to be extremely precise with all your measurements, as the old adage goes, “measure twice, cut once”. Now, this isn’t strictly true with WoodUbend trims, we can consider them flexible wood but it’s also important to remember that they are very forgiving.
When warm you can easily slice WoodUbend trims with a craft knife, which is infinitely easier than using a saw! What’s more, if you’re like me and not the most precise of people then these the bendable wood trims may just be a lifesaver for you. When warm, the trims will stretch up to around 10%! The magic doesn’t stop there though, stretching the trims will not distort the design, winner winner!
Speaking of distorting the design, I’m often asked whether the design will be affected if pressure is applied to it, the answer is no. We’re not working with putty or clay here, we’re working with bendable wood! The design will just spring back into its original shape, so don’t worry about pressing down too hard when you’re gluing it to the surface.
Once your trim is on the surface, has cooled and hardened again you may notice that you have some overhang. When cool, the trims can be shaved with the same craft knife you used to slice it when the it was warm. Shave it flush to the surface and give it a quick once over with some medium grit sandpaper to neaten it up, hey presto, you’re back in business!
Glue your surface
As the title suggests, it’s often much easier to apply glue to the surface rather than the back of the moulding when you’re using the WoodUbend trims. The reasoning is simple, as we’ve discussed, the bendable wood trims become very much not bendable when cool, therefore you’re going to want to keep it coiled up when using them; it would simply be too fiddly to try to apply glue to the back of the trim as you went along.
As with all WoodUbend mouldings, you need to use a good quality wood glue, something like Titebond Quick & Thick works perfectly with the mouldings. Once your bendable wood trim is in place, give it another blast with heat and really press it onto the surface – remember – you’re not going to distort the design. When you’re pressing the trim onto the surface, you will probably find that some glue is squeezed out from the sides. Don’t worry about this, it’s a good sign, it simply means that the WoodUbend adhering well. Just remove the excess with a wet paint brush, cotton bud (Q-tip) or a baby wipe.
The reality is that WoodUbend trims are really easy to use, all you have to do is keep in mind a few of the above points and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a WoodUbend trim expert. As with everything practice makes perfect, so I’d highly recommend diving in and giving them a go!
