Dry heat or steam?

[redhillwoods]

With regards to increasing the performance of a bow wood, is there a benefit of using dryheat (heat gun) over steaming ?

[PatM]

  Definitely.

[Pat B]

Heat treating(tempering) the belly of a bow will help increase performance. This is done with dry heat. You can also increase performance with steam by reflexing and/or adding recurves with steam. A lot depends on the bow and why you want to increase performance.

[Sidewinder]

What Pat B said. Also, when heat treating make sure to heat evenly and not scorch any one area too much, otherwise you can overdry an area and risk failure. Especially on the back edges.
Another rule I have heard on this forum is that cured wood likes dry heat and wet wood likes steam. I suppose the exception to that is if your steaming in aggressive recurves.

[bradsmith2010]

Its risky,,.to heat,,,,just do it so u can learn..u increase odds of failure,..to increase performance,,.,it takes experience to heat without over doing it,,,,but can enhance when done correctly

[Scyth]

. . . here’s a useful précis on bending wood . . .

https://www.leevalley.com/us/html/05F1501ie.pdf


regards,

Scyth

[AndrewS]

If you heat wood, you can

a) bend it (with dry heat and with steam)
b) hardened it (with dry heat)

after that you have to redry oder rehydrate the wood by time.
If you use dry heat you have to be carefully not to overheat the wood, cause with dry heat you hardened the wood and at the same time the wood becomes more brittle. It is like dancing on a knife blade.....