Heat treating benefits

[Mangeur de lard]

I just lightely toasted the belly of an ash flatbow I'm working on. Wow! got rid of 2'' set and picked up a few pounds. It wasn't even a full out teempering, just did over the stovetop with just a little browning.

Them white woods sure benefit from a trip to the toaster, just thought I would share.
If you've never done it, you gotta try it!

Cheers
Matt

[Elktracker]

Good to hear I have some ash im drying and have heard it can take excesive set if design is wrong, what length is your bow and how wide are the limbs?. I will give heat treating a try on some of my ash when its ready, its Oregon Ash but I have heard it has allot of the same qualitys of white ash. What type of ash are you working with?. Thanks

Josh

[Mangeur de lard]

Hey Josh,

I was a bit surprised at how much set this bow took, although I designed it conservatively. It's a pyramid bow, 68'' nock to nock, 33 lbs at 27''. It's 2.5'' wide right at the fades tapering straight to 3/8'' tips. Made of red ash, not as good as white ash if I remember correctly. I'll try to post pick later, my cam is not working now.

I would suggest you make it a bit wider, as much as 3'' maybe for a 45-50 pounder. Next bow I'll heat treat when tiller is good to 20'' or so. It would limit the set and would still be workable for tillering afterwards.

good luck!
Matt

[Elktracker]

Thanks allot for the info ill look forward to seeing some pictures thanks

Josh

[Parnell]

That sounds pretty wide.  I know red ash doesn't perform as well but, I'd guess you could stay close to 2" at the fades.  
I've played with a lot of hickory, some oak, maple and elm.  Heat treating white woods works wonders, but do it just after ground tiller and before you brace the bow.  Don't be afraid to toast the bow more heavily than you think.  When I first saw it done by a mentor, it was much more than I thought.  The phrase I like is Almost burnt but not charred.  I toast white woods now to near black after ground tiller.  The wood can take it and you will most likely be removing all of that "toast" wood anyhow.  What your left with is a good compressed layer of bellywood cells.  

Wish you the best.

Parnell

[Mangeur de lard]

Thanks for the tips, I'll try not to be too shy of putting color to that wood next time.

Cheers,
Matt

[rossfactor]

Heat can do amazing things to a bow.  I've seen it work wonders on Ash before.

I wanted to mention though, you never get rid of set.  You can get rid of string follow by heat treating, but the set (caused by the crushed belly cells) is still 'in' the bow. 

Jawge once explained it thus --"String follow and set are not necessarily the same. String follow is literally that. When the bow is unstrung, it retains the profile of the strung bow. That can be viewed as set too. In that case they are probably synonymous But let's say I begin with a stave that has 3 inches of reflex. After completion it retains, 1 inch of reflex. It has 2 inches of set but no string follow."

hope he doesn't mind my citation.

Gabe