Red oak, set...can you get around it?

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

  Love to try guava.  Maybe in the new year you wanna trade for some pacific yew?  I just pulled in a bunch of logs.

 

I'll trade for YEW anyday,........Yew is by far my favorite wood 

[radius]

okay manny...when i get back from the UK we can sort something out...think next March.

[Innocente]

will one of you guys explain exactly how you dry-heat temper the bow into reflex at the floor tillering stage?
do i lay it on the bench, back down, and raise up the handle portion by putting blocks under it, then heating the limbs?

[radius]

will one of you guys explain exactly how you dry-heat temper the bow into reflex at the floor tillering stage?
do i lay it on the bench, back down, and raise up the handle portion by putting blocks under it, then heating the limbs?

that can work, yes.

go to buildalongs...look for "curly BBO"...i think there's some good photos there.   Also, search "oak recurves" i might have put some heat temper pics in.

BUT!!!!!  Floor tiller stage is too soon, IMO.  Get the thing smoothly drawing to 20 or 24 with a brace height of 4", and THEN temper it flat or into a little reflex.  That is when you retain the maximum benefits from this woodworking technique.

[Josh]

you can just build a form from a 2x6 and use c-clamps and a heat gun to induce reflex.  

heres a linky...

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,15140.0.html

[Innocente]

BUT!!!!!  Floor tiller stage is too soon, IMO.  Get the thing smoothly drawing to 20 or 24 with a brace height of 4", and THEN temper it flat or into a little reflex.  That is when you retain the maximum benefits from this woodworking technique.

i'm WAY to much of an amateur bowyer to not back every bow i attempt.  so i gotta reflex first, then back, then tiller.   i guess i could tiller first, then reflex, then back it, but i'm nervous about bending an unbacked piece at my skill level.

i not only back every bow, i end up breaking most anyways. i'm on #6, and i think i broke 4 so far.

thanks tho guys, appreciate the caul advice, i'll try that.

[radius]

Innocente,

Yes it is a good idea to tiller first before backing.  Perry reflex way.  I know Pat B advised me to do that before when i was making laminates. 

You can also just cook the thing dead straight, and the tempering will take, hold, and give you a reduced-mass bow of greater draw weight and resilience.

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

My take on tempering is that,........ it helps limit cells crushing.

Therefore I like to do my first tempering and reflexing as soon as I feel the limbs a balanced ( I want those wood cells to keep the most integrity possible )

I than temper again at 20" and one more time one inch before full draw, but neither this 2 times I try reflex the bow.


........I did temper TB III cloth backed bows without the cloth coming off

[radius]

don't listen to him, these surfers just got too much time on their hands.

[Barrage]

...but neither this 2 times I try reflex the bow...

Hey Manny, not sure what you meant there.  The 2nd and 3rd time you also temper with reflex?  Or you only temper with a reflex the first time and none the 2 and 3 tempers (ie no cauls or limb bending during tempering at all)?  Thanks for clarifying - I'm a little slow today. 

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

I induce reflex the 1st time I temper, the following sessions the bow is clamped at whatever reflex it has at that time of the tillering process but I don't try to rereflex it, ...at this stage it has taken some set so I don't see much point in forcing reflex to it 

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

don't listen to him, these surfers just got too much time on their hands.

...wish I had more time  , haven't worked on a bow in months

[Barrage]

Great, thanks.  I thought that's what you meant but just wanted to be sure.

On one bow I did retemper one limb as it had took excessive set relative to the other and it actually seemed to hold up ok.  But that was more of an effort to save it rather than a preferred method of work. 

[HoBow]

If I remember correctly TBB4 says something about if a bow takes too much set, you can sinew the belly and make it the back- then retiller. Anyone ever tried this?

[sulphur]

i didn't read every post, so i will risk saying, to limit set you must have red oak tillered very well.  Manny's bow is a fine example.  Just from the braced profile you can see how well its tillered.  I think that has more to do with it than tempering.  I recently found a great red oak board while buying some poplar (arrow wood) at Lowes, it made a great bow and took only about an inch of set with no temping.  I shot basketballs out of the air with it all day.  I have made only a few red oak bows and truth be told its not my favorite.  Those were made when i was just starting out.  Now that i have a better idea of what to do, red oak makes a fine bow.  In fact that one is one of my favorites.  I'll be posting it tomorrow along with a hickory bow.