Ash bends well, especially when steamed. Just about any wood will bend if you cut it thin enough and laminate it.

Ash is the best for bending, Oak only if you use White Oak, not Red.  And if you dont want to steam it, a heat gun also works well to bend wood.

thanks for replies - i will defintely try the heat gun (maybe both steaming and heat gun) as I have a pretty tight bend to make.  i also read that walnut has very good bending properties, so i bought a piece of that.  if walnut doesn't work, i'll definitely try the ash.  thanks again. 

fyi, ash definitely bent better / easier than walnut......  thanks again for the advice.

I have bent oak and it works really well.

According to popular wisdom oak is not a very good wood for epoxy coating, but Iain Oughtred claims it is just fine if properly roughed up. 

I understand that Ash is often bent.

Christine