Bending Guitar Sides

Tatt3r's knitting is stepping aside so Diametrag can see J's progress on her acoustic guitar. This afternoon J is bending the sides. He soaks the wood in water, so it is pliable and not flammable. Then he bends the walnut around a tube that is heated by a bunsen burner.
The burner is lit, so the wood, the vise and the metal tube are all pretty hot. J has calluses on his hands, so it doesn't seem to bother him much. I don't smell burning flesh or smoldering walnut, so I assume everything is okay.
J is working on the second bend now.
He carefully checks his bends for accuracy, he has a template nearby for comparison. See the bandage on his left thumb? That's the one he put a chisel through. This is not the thumb that was surgically repaired when he built his first guitar, this is the other thumb. The only thumb that has any feeling, the only thumb that doesn't ache in the cold....you get the idea. I told him he'll have to take lessons from the dog, Life Without Opposable Thumbs.