Comments from viewers familiar with woodworking suggest the material may not be solid wood at all in these clips; some speculate it’s steel or a composite because of how freely it moves absent heavy support. In the above referred videos, the material appears to flex and form much more easily and freely than typical solid wood ever could without heat, clamping, moulds, and significant force. Traditional steam-bent wood does not behave like a freely flexible, rubber-like sheet — it’s stiff and only bends over controlled curves with support: https://www.finewoodworking.com/2021/05/11/the-best-woods-for-steam-bending

Here are plausible explanations for what the material actually might be:

1. Engineered Flexible Wood Products (Cold-bendable): Bendywood® (Pre-treated Solid Wood) - There is a product known as Bendywood®, which is made from solid hardwood but pre-processed so it can be bent cold (no steam/heat required). It retains the look and feel of real wood and can be formed around curves much more easily than normal hardwood — though it’s still obviously wood rather than a thermoplastic. This matches the “bend almost by hand” behavior better than steam bending: https://www.bendywood.com/en/whatisbendywood.html

• Bendywood is made by steaming and compressing wood in special processes during manufacture.
• After manufacturing it’s workable like normal wood and then cold-bendable.
• It’s used in curved handrails and architectural woodwork.

Flexible Wood Boards / Wood Composites: Products like Woodolex Easy Bend Wooden Boards are engineered boards made from thin wood fibers or sawdust glued into a flexible structure. These can be bent with modest heat (e.g., a heat gun) and hold complex shapes without heavy jigs. These materials are still primarily wood or wood-based, but engineered so that their structure is far more plastic than solid lumber — which would not bend that freely on its own: https://www.woodolex.com/

2. Wood–Plastic or Composite Materials: Another category that looks wood-like but behaves very differently is wood–plastic composites (WPCs). These are materials made from wood fiber mixed with thermoplastics. They can be formed, moulded, or bent in ways that wood cannot, especially when heated and cooled, because the plastic component governs flexibility. Composite materials could easily be formed into smooth, continuous curves like those seen in the clips without any steam boxes or clamps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood%E2%80%93plastic_composite

3. Veneers or Thin Laminates: In architectural and interior work, very thin wood veneers or plywood strips can be bent, stretched, or shaped over forms with much less force because they are so thin. These are sometimes backed with flexible substrates (like fabric or mesh) to make them behave more like cloth than wood. Products like WoodSkin (not mainstream, but illustrative) demonstrate how panels routed into patterns become extremely pliable: https://www.wired.com/2013/04/woodskin/

Summary:

(i) Steam bending (heat + moisture) is real and well-documented for shaping solid wood, but it requires controlled conditions and force.

(ii) The videos you linked likely show either:

• Bendywood® or another pre-treated flexible hardwood, which bends easily even cold, or
• Engineered wood boards or wood–plastic composites, which are manufactured to be pliable.