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Author Topic: Heat treating  (Read 6758 times)

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Don Case

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Heat treating
« on: October 17, 2013, 01:44:50 pm »
I've noticed that people are heat treating at various stages during building. If you heat the bow in the early stages isn't there a chance that you will scrape off a lot of the treated wood? At the least it seems that you would be leaving the treated part uneven. I don't even have a seasoned stave yet so this is a very hypothetical question.
Thanks
Don
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Offline Badger

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2013, 02:00:44 pm »
  I usually bring a bow to floor tiller which is about 15# over target weight and then put the bow in a cawl to adjust limbs and heat treat. Sometimes I have to reheat when almost finished but not usually. I also never toast a limb when I heat treat anymore. I simply run my heat gun from one end of the limb to the other at a steady pace until the limb just starts to darken but not in a toasty darken it seems to chemicaly darken. I spend about 15 min on each limb with the heat gun I am guessing.
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Offline BOWMAN53

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2013, 02:02:25 pm »
i usually heat treat after tillering(youll probably need to tiller a little bit after) and before shooting in but thats just me, like you said everyone does it at different stages.
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Offline Pat B

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2013, 02:39:37 pm »
It depends on the wood I use. For whitewoods I do like Badger does and heat treat at floor tiller then later just before finishin. Woods like osage I'll heat treat when I'm making corrections with heat but usually not later in the process.
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Offline huisme

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2013, 02:55:24 pm »
I heat treat every wood at the roughed out blank, low brace, full brace, and finished product.
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Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2013, 03:14:28 pm »
That clears it up Don! Its proof that there really is no wrong way. All of these guys do it quite differently and they feel it works for them, so jump in feet first.

I heat temper once at floor tiller and never again. Not to say I haven't treated a bow twice in the past, just not anymore. The closer I am to brace when I temper it the more lasting the effects, that's my spin.
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Offline Christian Soldier

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2013, 03:30:40 pm »
Well I heat treat my bows before I even split the staves so all you guys are wrong!  >:D

Just kidding ;), I've done a couple of the above methods and they seemed to work well. I've only done it in a few bows but I normally do it shortly after floor tillering.

 These guys know what they are doing. Just don't light the wood on fire and you should be alright.   :D
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Offline Dan K

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2013, 05:06:57 pm »
Quote from: Christian Soldier on October 17, 2013, 03:30:40 pm
Well I heat treat my bows before I even split the staves so all you guys are wrong!  >:D

I don't recall where I read this but Native Americans would many times harvest toasted trees left over from forest fires for bows. I believe it was ash they preferred but took what the found.

I recently ht a little vine maple that took more set than I wanted furring short brace. And it came back during tiller. Maybe scraped off the HT?  I heat treated again during final tiller and removed the set for good.
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Don Case

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2013, 05:07:11 pm »
Thanks guys
It's nice to know that there is something about bowmaking that I probably can't screw up, but I'll do my best.
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Offline steve b.

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2013, 07:24:35 pm »
Don, I just finished a hazelnut that I treated twice.  Once past floor tiller I heat treated it and let it sit a week.  It definately stiffened up  I got it close to done and most of the toasted wood was gone so I did it again.  I didn't notice much difference the second time. 
Not sure if it matters but the second time I forgot to use what I used the first time which was beeswax/oil to coat the wood during treating.  So this will drive me nuts now and I won't be happy until I treat a few bows with wax and no wax to see if it makes a difference.  But I just thought I'd mention my latest experience.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2013, 09:30:38 am by steve b. »
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Offline Pappy

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2013, 08:50:22 am »
I do about the same as Badger.
   Pappy
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Offline caveman2533

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2013, 10:51:19 pm »
What is the importance of heat treating the bow to begin with? I have never heard of this and now it seems like everyone is doing it.
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Offline steve b.

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2013, 10:55:42 pm »
Caveman,
Theoretically it strengthens the belly side of the bow, bringing into a closer strength relation to the back of the bow so that the two are more balanced.......vs. having the belly wood weaker, in general, than the back and having the bow therefore take a cast robbing set.
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Offline wood_bandit99

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2013, 12:44:40 am »
Can you heat treat a laminate bow? I may have to do this and I am wondering if this would screw with the glue
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Offline DarkSoul

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Re: Heat treating
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2013, 08:16:43 am »
Yes, it will screw up the glue, so do not heat treat a laminated bow.
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