massaging out set in bow after several hours of shooting your self bow

[Philipp A]

Hi All,

I have a question. I have developed the habit (not sure whether it is a good or bad habit) of massaging out the developed set on the bow after I have been shooting it for several hours. I usually do this by having one tip rest on a soft surface (carpet for example) and I end up massaging the back of each half by applying gentle pressure while massaging the limb towards the tip.

The set is almost gone by the time I am done. I am not sure whether I do harm to the bow or whether it is beneficial and I am wondering whether any of you have done this before.

Cheers,

Phil

[Pat B]

Does the bow come back to the same amount of set after shooting? You might be visually removing the set but I doubt you are actually eliminating the set. I don't think you are hurting anything by messaging the bow but I doubt it is actually doing anything.

[PatM]

Waste of time and you have a  better chance of eventually breaking the bow by overdoing the straightening.

[Del the cat]

Waste of time and you have a  better chance of eventually breaking the bow by overdoing the straightening.

+1
just leave it overnight.
I took some measurements of how a bow recovered a while back. The set reduced over about 2 hours, but the next morning it had recovered even more.
Patience is one of the most valuable tools in bowmaking and one of the hardest to master 
De

[Philipp A]

Yes it comes back to what it was before shooting, but I think it is likely true that it would come back to that overnight without me doing anything. As I said before, likely more a bad habit than anything useful on my end.

Was just wondering whether anyone else has done it.

[Badger]

   I doubt if it realy hurts anything but you might have a slight tendency to go past the set. Sometimes limbs get rubbery when worked back and forth like that.

   Set is a complete study in itself. If a bow doesn't recover at all it tends to shoot more like a bow that didn't take any set in the first place. Not to be confused with string follow.

[Philipp A]

thanks all for answering. To Badger: what actually happens in set? Is it fibres stretching or does it represent small tears in some of the fibres? has it ever been studied under a microscope or with non destructive testing such as ultra sound or X-rays?

[PatM]

It is cells being compressed.

[Philipp A]

Thanks PatM, would be interesting to see the shape of the compressed cells under microscope. For the amount of set that does not recover after 24 hours, I am wondering whether the cell wall collapses when compressed in some of the cells to cause the permanent set. Are there any scientific studies to this effect?

[JW_Halverson]

Some years back the majority agreed that string follow and set are two different things.  Set was defined by the amount of decurve relative to the profile prior to any tillering and after allowing sting follow to relax and recover. 

Your massaging will take encourage the string follow to recover, but the set is...well, for lack of a better word, SET.

[PatM]

Some years back the majority agreed that string follow and set are two different things.  Set was defined by the amount of decurve relative to the profile prior to any tillering and after allowing sting follow to relax and recover. 

Your massaging will take encourage the string follow to recover, but the set is...well, for lack of a better word, SET.

  How they can't be seen as degrees of the same thing is beyond me.

[Marc St Louis]

I consider set and string follow as 2 different things.  Set is permanent deformation of the limbs and string follow as temporary, recovers over time.

[PatM]

That would mean string follow longbows are just a temporary type of bow.

[WillS]

It's the other way round, isn't it??!

If you pick an unbraced bow off the rack, and it's bent towards the belly the amount it's bent away from a dead straight line is string follow, because that's how much it's following the string. The original stave shape is irrelevant, as it's just a way of describing the shape of the bow, i.e. "it HAS string follow".

Set requires the original stave shape to be known, because set is how far it's bent towards the belly from its original shape due to cell compressjon, i.e. "it's TAKEN set".

You can have a bow with 0" of string follow but 2" of set if the original stave had 2" of reflex but the bow is now dead straight.

You can have a bow with 2" of string follow and 0" of set if the original stave started with 2" of deflex.

You can have a bow with 2" of string follow and 4" of set if the original stave had 2" of reflex and the bow now bends towards the belly 2" from dead straight.

This means that set is the temporary factor, because the cell compression can ease back again after not being used.  String follow is a permanent shape to a bow, whether it's just been shot or hasn't been touched for years.

Right?!

[PatM]

It's really just a matter of wood not being a perfect spring material. All the rest is just semantics explaining the behavior of the material.

 The cells get compressed and most of that returns rapidly, a small remainder returns slowly and some never returns.  The more you stress the material, the more you skew those percentages. That's really it.

 Trying to shoehorn that into fitting bow shapes doesn't alter things.