Heritage maple veneer bentwood lost its appeal after 3 builds

I was all in on bentwood face frames last spring, thought curved fronts were the future... then the third one blew out at the grain while pressing and I spent a whole Saturday fixing it. Anyone else gone back to plain flat rails after chasing a trend that looked good in photos but fought you in the clamps?

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laurabennett21h ago

Sounds like the veneer itself might be the real problem here, not the bentwood shape. Heritage maple is pretty brittle stuff and it doesn't like getting steamed or bent much without cracking along the grain. Maybe a softer species or a thinner veneer would've held up better in the press.

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