Deflex in yew stave and how to get it out?

[HoorayHorace]

I found a stave I could have for not too much money and it comes from the East Coast. 

It looks nice and clean, apart from a few pin knots, but the other thing is, this stave has got about 2 inches of deflex, other than that it is real straight and nice. 

Question being, is making a bow with some natural set going to make a bad bow, and how easy is it to get this deflex out? I read up on the Wooddatabase that yew is easy to bend with steam, but I have zero specialist equipment to do it.

Could trying to straighten up the stave ruin it?

Any and all advice here would be helpful!! 

[bushboy]

You could look up marc st Louis 's localized steaming method,all you need is heat gun.East coast yew?

[HoorayHorace]

West Coast, my bad. 

Steam bending with a heat gun?

I am right in guessing that it is best to rough out the bow blank first and then steam bend, or just do the whole stave?

 

[bushboy]

Yes,heat gun,tinfoil,wet cloth,clamps and a caul.Rough out your stave to a blank first,sometimes wood likes to move a bit when being liberated!lol!besides steam bending a whole stave would do more harm than good imho.

[Del the cat]

You could leave some localised deflex in the middle and steam (or dry heat) a nice long gentle recurve into each limb. Ideal bow
The benefit is you don't bust a gut trying to bend the thick handle section!
Del

[TimBo]

I was going to suggest keeping the deflex in the middle too...maybe something like this one:

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=43428.0

(one of my favorite bows on this site!)

[HoorayHorace]

I just want to get it straight before tillering so I don't end up with a ton of set.

it s gonna be an ELB.

it is nice wood other than the deflex though. don't want to break it by doing something wrong. 

is there an easy to understand tutorial anywhere? 

[bradsmith2010]

when the bow is roughed out, you can heat it,,, and gently bend it with a clamp,,, if the wood is hot enough it will bend for you,, just take it easy and maybe heat a few times and bend until you get the hang of it,, you can steam that part over water or use a heat gun as suggested,, many ways to do it,, just take your time and dont force the wood,, if the deflex is in the middle,, put the long string on it backward and heat until you can bend it straight,, please dont tell anyone,, but I use a butane torch if all else fails and have bent them straight using an open fire,, I am pretty sure I invented the open fire method  
yes you can damage the wood it you are too aggressive ,,, but if you are gentle it should be ok,, 

[DavidV]

Set and deflex are completely different things. Deflex won't hurt you too much and has the benefit of being smoother drawing in most designs. Modern bows all have deflex out of the handle that recurve or reflex toward the end. So that's what I would do, recurve the tips or make it gradually reflex from midlimb.

Design the bow around the stave.

[vinemaplebows]

Watch that dry heat, Yew does not like to be too dry.

[HoorayHorace]

Set and deflex are completely different things. Deflex won't hurt you too much and has the benefit of being smoother drawing in most designs. Modern bows all have deflex out of the handle that recurve or reflex toward the end. So that's what I would do, recurve the tips or make it gradually reflex from midlimb.

Design the bow around the stave.

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

It also shows how ignorant I am as I thought set and deflex were the same thing. Would you mind explain the difference? So a little bit of deflex is not a bad thing and could still make a good bow?

I like the idea of recurved tips, but I have seen that ELB's did not have any recurve.

[wizardgoat]

A deflexed yew stave? Never seen that before!
boil in some recurves, it'll be a sweet shooting bow if done right

[HoorayHorace]

Deflex is when it is bending towards you right? Imagine the stave as a string on it with a 1 inch brace. That is what it looks like.

[DavidV]

Deflex is when it is bending towards you right? Imagine the stave as a string on it with a 1 inch brace. That is what it looks like.

Yeah, that's what deflex is. Set is how the wood is damaged after unstringing. So if you have that same bow that started off with 1" of deflex, after tillering and unstringing it has 3" of deflex. That would mean the "set" is 2". If it started with 3" of reflex and comes out straight when unstrung it has 3" of set, not no set.

[HoorayHorace]

So the deflex needs to go before tillering even began?

I understand deflex makes for a bad bow and reflex makes for a faster bow?