Ruined a perfectly good bow.

[Morgan]

And I blame Brad. . I have had a little 56” hickory bow that I posted on here before. For all intents and purposes it was the first bow that I made that wasn’t a dog. It’s been in the corner of my shop since I made it and I’ll often string it and shoot it when taking a break from whatever I’m doing. It has taken quite a bit of set  and when I tillered it out, I started the fades all wrong so I’ve been intending on heat treating the belly and bringing the fades back and retillering it but I’ve been hesitant to do so.
Brads topic of nothing to lose staves motivates me to bite the bullet and re-work this little bow. I figured I’d try to heat in some curves while I’m at it and hopefully wind up with a bit of r/d. Now I’ve never heated curves ever. Made a quick jig and first limb bent like a dream. Clamped tip to jig and let the bows weight bend it as I heated it. Second limb didn’t go so well.
Oh well, that’s part of it. Have a lot of staves and that little bow wasn’t any prize winner.

[upstatenybowyer]

In my experience hickory does not bend easily. That crack doesn't look too bad though. You might be able to wrap it with sinew and save the bow.

[Morgan]

That was about 3” from the tip. Not much limb thickness there and it opened up a lot when it happened. When I pulled the clamp off it closed up. I’ve got it in the corner may try something with it one of these years. If it was 60+ inches I’d just chop it down. Pretty sure I should have steamed itinstead of dry heat, but I wanted to kill two birds by bending and heat treating at once.

[darinputman]

I've done the same thing on a couple this past summer one was my first  using a takedown sleeve new I shouldn't try but was too bullheaded not to. In the corner with the rest.

[Badger]

  If it took a lot of set when it was straight it will even take more set when you recurve it.

[Morgan]

  If it took a lot of set when it was straight it will even take more set when you recurve it.

Lol. See there, shows how much I know.    I had it in my head that I could fix the set with heat and if it took the same amount, the tips would still be forward of the handle helping cast. Was also gonna bring back the fades about an inch giving each limb an inch more wood to work with. Moot point now, think I’ll stay away from the curves for a while. Might try some reflex in the tips of my next bow, but no more recurving for me.

[Badger]

  I was teasing a bit, you can very often make some heat corrections and improve the design a bit. Not uncommon for them to just take more set but sometimes you can improve them quite a bit. I shouldn't tease like that.

[Morgan]

  I was teasing a bit, you can very often make some heat corrections and improve the design a bit. Not uncommon for them to just take more set but sometimes you can improve them quite a bit. I shouldn't tease like that.

Tease away brother. I’m green as a gourd at this stuff so I may be too dense to tell if you are or not 

[Pat B]

Hickory bends more successfully with steam, not dry heat. The few I made years ago all lost their recurve after a while.

[bubby]

Just clean that up, run some ca glue in it when it is opened up aome, then glue a thin lam on the belly side. Easy peasy

[Morgan]

Just clean that up, run some ca glue in it when it is opened up aome, then glue a thin lam on the belly side. Easy peasy

Really??? It looked to be busted more than half in two... I have some white oak veneer that is quite thin.... hmmmm think I’ll give it a go.

[bubby]

Take the piece you want to glue on, wrap it in a wet, very wet towel and put it in the microwave for 3 mins or so. Should bend like rubber, if not do another minute or two then clamp it to the tip to match the bend. This will make the glueup better

[Morgan]

Take the piece you want to glue on, wrap it in a wet, very wet towel and put it in the microwave for 3 mins or so. Should bend like rubber, if not do another minute or two then clamp it to the tip to match the bend. This will make the glueup better

Thanks bubby!

[Msturm]

I did that flipping the tip on the tip of a guava selfie too. filled it with CA glue. and put a real thin little guava patch ontop. Wrapped the area in sinu just cuz.   Still shooting!

[Del the cat]

Rasp it and put a thin pre-bent patch over it.
This is how we learn all the fancy techniques, that's the joy of the old "don't care" bows.
Del