Heat Bending Osage

[bowbender68]

When you guys use a heat gun to put a little reflex in an osage stave, do you grease the wood first, or just put the heat gun to the bare wood?  If you grease, what do you use..crisco, etc.?

[JustAim]

l apply heat to the belly so l dont use any grease or anything. l just make sure l'm careful so l dont burn the wood. This is how l do it...l'm not sure if its the right way or not but it works for me.

[yazoo]

I make sure the bow is coated with shellac, and spray a little oil on it to,

[sailordad]

i rub in crisco,add heat,more crisco,more heat,crisco,heat ya get the idea
i might use a little more crisco than others,but i like the smell of it in my work shop

[El Destructo]

Yep....reminds me of Deep Fried Food............aint nothin better than some good old Artery Clogging Grease to make Your Stomach Start to Growl!!!!

[Olschool]

Any kind of cooking oil will work, vegitable, peanut, olive (don't tell my wife  )
The oil helps to keep the scorching down, and from drying out the wood too much

[sailordad]

Any kind of cooking oil will work, vegitable, peanut, olive (don't tell my wife  )
The oil helps to keep the scorching down, and from drying out the wood too much

not too mention it help spread the heat more evenly and can also help prevent scorching(but ya still gotta keep the heat gun moving)

[ricktrojanowski]

I usually have the back already coated with shellac.  I've used Crisco, and olive oil.  I prefer the olive oil it was a lot cleaner and didn't spread around to the back of the bow.  All I did was put a light coat on the belly and slowly brought up the temp of the wood.  If you work slowly you can get by with little oil.

[Pat B]

I use olive oil with the heat gun. Any oil, grease, fat, etc will work.   

[Adam Keiper]

I keep the wood bare.  I used to use boiled linseed oil to keep the moisture in and help distribute the heat.  But the oil was a mess to remove later with sandpaper since it soaked into the wood, and it created issues if I wanted to glue a snakeskin backing on.  I haven't noticed any ill affects by heating the bare wood.  The wood will scorch either way if you get it too hot. 

If I think I need to blast the wood that badly to make a serious bend, then it's time to just use steam.  Dry heat is great for adding reflex, bringing a mildly off-kilter handle alignment straight, and other subtle corrections.  But to remove serious kinks, make major bends, or add reflexed or recurves tips, then steam is much safer as the wood isn't nearly as prone to tearing apart.

[Eric Krewson]

I own a lot of nightmarishly crooked osage and use my heat gun a bunch, never use oil.

I use a reflector to evenly distribute heat.



I also wrap the bend to retain the heat after the bend is made. I do this on initial attempts on thick areas like handles.

[DCM]

Two means to the same end may be a) oil b) use moderate heat for a longer period.  Idea being you want the inner wood to get hot too, without scorching the outside.  That was my biggest mistake starting out.  Now I challenge myself to get the correction I want with the least amount of "color."  I think it can make wood brittle.

[Ryano]

Yep, I'm on the no oil crew also. Tried it both ways and see no need for it.

[Timo]

Gotta side with the last few posters here.No oil for me.

[knap_123]

no stick spray for me. i think it adds to the heated color as well when heated.