Deflex cures without heat?

[stuckinthemud]

I've just split a laurel stave and one side sprung into a lot of deflex (8" over 65" of length). Laurel will not heat treat, except by boiling. I'll try strapping it down to cure but any ideas how much deflex can be taken out by backing with timber or by sinew?

[Pat B]

I think that much deflex is going to be difficult to remove without heat. Will you post a pic so we can see where the deflex is?

[simson]

If you can steam the whole stave - do that and fix it on a caul.
If the stave was fresh you will get a lot moisture out from steaming - a nice side effect.

[willie]

one side sprung into a lot of deflex

stuck,
not familiar with the laurel you have there, but some of what we call laurel here, does not grow up straight, but leans quite a bit.
With other similar growing woods, the side growing towards the ground does not act like the side towards the sky when split when made into a bow. Pics of the tree?

[stuckinthemud]

Apologies for the awful photo


Oddly much of the deflex has relaxed out, the deflex now being 3"; weirdly the reflex hasn't relaxed out of the other half of the stave.  This piece was growing vertically in the centre of a large clump of laurel, so no 'sunny-side' to worry about.  No pics of the tree sorry

[Pat B]

Most of the deflex is in the center so you could steam reflex in the outer limbs and make a cool bow. Even if you have to do it in a couple steamings for each limb it's quite doable.

[stuckinthemud]

It will be interesting to see how it reacts to heat while green. It is near impossible to heat form it once seasoned as the wood seems to be a really effective insulator and next to no heat travels from the surface through to the centre from either steam or dry heat, and although boiling does work to a limited extent, the last time I boiled in a correction, it pulled out almost straight away.