Sweating a bow!

[Slackbunny]

I hear ya Pat. You turned me unto this last year unknowingly, some of us do read and remember what you say buddy! Its not uncommon for me to sit on stand for 6-8 hours a pop in November with my bows braced the whole time. I want to know the bow will hang tough with me or its not a bow in my eyes. If I have to treat it like a feather its of no use to me.

I agree. If a bow isn't going to stand up to rugged use, and less than desirable conditions, I'd rather know when I have control of the situation in the shop, not when I'm in the woods staring at the broadside of a buck. We're making tools after all, very beautiful, and precise tools, but tools none the less, and I expect all my other tools to stand up to some abuse. I take good care of my things, but I also expect them to work just as hard as I do.

[Keenan]

Excellent thread Pat and a must for a good hunting bow. This is a step that is sometimes forgot with consequences

[Badger]

  If I feel the wood is at equalibrium moisture I like to leave it strung for a few hours in between shooting it in and fine tuning tiller. If the weather is overly humid I try to avoid bracing and tillering unless Iknow the wood is very dry.

[mullet]

 I don't, mostly because our weather fluctuates so much. During the day, in the winter we might go from 28dgs in the morning to high 70's in the afternoon. And it's worse in the summer. I tiller and treat my bows like I do when I'm hunting or 3-D shooting. If I'm through pulling and shooting, I unstring it. I personally think that leaving them strung for long periods of time and I'm talking 10- 12 hours or more makes the wood "tired" and leads to unnecessary set.

[Buckeye Guy]

Pat
Since you are calling leaving it braced for an hour or so sweating ,I will say I do .
Not so much on purpose as just that I am a little slow !

What I call sweating a bow is leaving it under near full draw tension for an extended time !
I don't usually do that !

[PeteC]

Interesting. I suppose I do "sweat" my bows during the tillering process,but it's unintentional. Once I get the long string on,I generally leave it braced until it's time for the short string,then,it stays braced for however long I work the bow,which could be quite a few hours,even all day. The way I work my bows gives me complete confidence in that ,if they have made it through the tillering process,shooting in,and tiller tweak,they will make a dependable ,no worries, weapon.  JMHO  God Bless

[wildkatt]

  Pat The answer is Yep

Katt

[soy]

Yepper, conditioning is the word that I used to use but I like yours better

[Hrothgar]

I "sweat"  my bows too Pat. Based on no scientific study I feel it "encourages" the bow into a smoother draw--maybe at the expense off loosing a pound or two.

[gstoneberg]

I do it pretty much just like PeteC.  All my final scraping is done with the bow strung.

George

[Pat B]

While I'm tillering I brace the bow when appropriate after wood removal, put it on the tiller tree and exercise it, check tiller and mark the stiff and/or weak spots on the limbs, unbrace it and tiller more. I will do this 10 or more times in a tillering session. This can be pretty stressful to a new bow so if it can take this kind of a workout, sweating is nothing.
  My tillering process is slow. Once I get to floor tiller I use only a scraper to tiller the bow. I have wondered for a while now if the scraping burnishes the wood as wood is removed. Since I've started tillering this way my bows have had less set. It could be that I am going very slow and I exercise the limbs well between wood removals but I still think the "burnish action" of the scraper helps some too.

[Del the cat]

...   tillering process is slow ...

Amen.
Like some of the others have said.
I don't necessarilly exercise, sweat or condition a bow, but I take soooo long, by the time I finished tillering it, the poor thing is begging for me to stop teasing it and let it fling an arrow
Del

[Pappy]

I don't in a precise way,but do tiller in 3 or 4 sessions,from floor tiller to finish and alway brace and un brace when I am scrapping,I will leave it braced for a while in between scrapping but never really leave it for long periods of time. [maybe an hour] Since I started doing it is several sessions I don't have much trouble with things changing after I call it finished and shot in.  I think I read the sweeting thing in Dean's book one time.
   Pappy

[Badger]

  Over the years I have given away a few bows to guys who really don't shoot. Some of these have been left braced for years. In most cases you can take the string off and they still look like they are braced. I gave my nephew a little osage bow, kids bow, he never took the string off but when I finaly did it had barely taken any set, he lives in a very arid desert area and there was a considerable safety factor allowed in the bow.

[Marc St Louis]

I do most of my finish tillering with the bow braced so my bows will be left braced for hours at a time while I am making them.  I braced a short Anishinaabe bow I made last year and left it braced for nearly a week.  It's going to be a display in an office and it will be braced all the time so I wanted to see what an extended bracing would do to it.  It took about 1" of string follow which it reclaimed in a few hours.  I'm sure that being braced for years will take its toll.