Although people have told me that using dry heat is best I have had no success with it and a few cracked/broken limbs.
Maybe it's me but anyway I used steam on piece of Hawthorn and it worked very well.
My question is,
I used the Missus' crock pot, placed wood over that and tin foil on top to contain it. Gave it an hour and it bent beautifully, and it was quite a sharp deflex tip I was doing, but the water left was a beautiful brown colour, which I imagine is the tannin? leaching out. Does that affect the wood at all, as it's something that is no longer in the wood?