Bending Paduk or Bubinga?

[Tim B]

Has anyone tried dry heat or steam bending Paduk or Bubinga for a recurve? I am wanting to use this for a belly lam on a Hickory recurve that needs the poundage kicked up on.

[nickf]

for increasing poundage you will need very little thickness, adding 1/8 of the bow's thickness will make it twice as strong. A 1/12" lam will raise the bow's drawweight alot, and you can bend it alot, even without steaming, so glueing it on a working recurve wouldn't be so dangerous...

if the recurve's angle is too sharp you might want to steam it indeed. But I've heard many exotic bowwoods are hard to steambend.

haven't steamed paduk or bubinga yet, so I can't tell you much. I'd try it for sure, tho.

Nick

[Pat B]

I believe that most of the tropical woods are difficult to bend with heat; dry or wet. You may have to use the kerf method to make recurves in these woods.

[mullet]

 If you cut the lam's thin enough you can steam them. Jesse has steamed bent Ipe into recurve limbs. I would steam bend the hickory and then glue the thin belly lam on. It should be no problem. Make the belly lamb thin as that wood will raise the poundage fast.

[Pat B]

You could probably glue a thin lam to that bow without heat bending it first. That's the way I would go.

[Justin Snyder]

I think you will be OK if you go to 1/8".  I have bent Ipe at that thickness, but it still doesn't bend real well.  These woods will not hold as much recurve when bent on the same form as the hickory even when thin.  You will have to pre-bend them. After they are dry and cool you can glue in the rest of the recurve to make it match the hickory.  You will definitely need to bend them with a metal band on the back of the curve so they wont raise splinters.  I would leave them wide also.  It is very common to have splinters along the outside edges of the wood. You might have to cut 1/8" off each edge. 

Pat, it doesn't work trying to bend them without heating first.  When you try to force a super stiff wood into a recurve the forces at the apex are to much and you squeeze out all of the glue.  Dry glue joints are bad news.    Justin

[Pat B]

That's why I like self bows.

[nickf]

1/8" will be okay, and looking at the recurve, I don't think you'll need any heatbending. But, being a short bow, adding another lam increases the chance of breaking. but hickory should work fine.

Nick

[Justin Snyder]

It takes a lot of steaming to get any bend out of these types of wood.  If you try dry heat you scorch the wood before you get enough heat all the way through the wood.  With a piece of Osage or Hickory it might take 10 minutes to bend a whole bow.  I found that dealing with Ipe it is best to steam these thin pieces at least 15 minutes and I imagine it is the same for these.  Justin