Heat treating after tillering

[Del the cat]

I am interested to see what comes of this bow.

Me too!  I'm just letting it recover for a couple days now, and then I'll retiller and see how it goes.

It's pretty much a win win.
I've had 'soft' Yew that has certainly improved with heat treating.
If now't else, it's helping you hone your techniques.
Be sure to tell us how it goes... we're all on the edge of our seats
Del

[dwardo]

I am interested to see what comes of this bow.

Me too!  I'm just letting it recover for a couple days now, and then I'll retiller and see how it goes.

It's pretty much a win win.
I've had 'soft' Yew that has certainly improved with heat treating.
If now't else, it's helping you hone your techniques.
Be sure to tell us how it goes... we're all on the edge of our seats
Del

Have had good results heat treating a yew flat and a yew long after yew dared me to Dell
Good results from both. I did a much lighter heat treat than I would a white wood. My super laser thingy said around 170deg c as opposed to a toasting white wood of 190/200.

[WillS]

Update time I guess.

Heat treated the yew as slowly, carefully and deeply as I could.  Took about 45 minutes for each limb, no cracks, checks or scorch marks when I was done.

It came off the former perfecty - dead straight.  Tillered it slowly back to 28" without any significant loss of draw-weight and....

All the stringfollow has come back! It's back to about identical to where it was before the heat treatment (bearing in mind this has never been shot yet, so will take far more as it's used!)

I'm totally fed up with it now, won't be doing any heating and will just let it be a big chunky slow thing.  Not pleased!

It seems that most of the stringfollow/deflex whatever is focused around an area where the propellor twist and lateral dogleg/bend thing come together and the sapwood gets bored and goes for a wander around one side of the bow.  It's just above the arrow pass in the upper limb.  I've taken a pic to show how it looks after tillering, but it doesn't really show the deflex properly.  The piece of wood next to it is from the same branch so it's hardly surprising that the bow took some stringfollow in the middle, really...



It's clear in this pic where the problem is, but heat treating doesn't touch it, it just pulls straight out again. 

[Del the cat]

 
Dunno what to say, If you touch the belly with a coars e file you should be able to feel the results of heat treating, it will feel much crisper and smell different. You don't wasnt scorched, but should see some disscolouration. If that's what you've got and it still hasn't worked, I'm at a loss.
Del

[WillS]

Yeah that's what I had after the heating.  It was *slightly* discoloured, but I made sure not to get it too brown.  It also had that lovely sweet smell of yew that's been heated!

Maybe I just got a slightly dodgy piece of wood?  Who knows.  I'm toying with the idea of flipping the tips now, to counter the deflex but that'll end up putting more stress on the limbs.  It's an average working bow now, so why mess right?