Author Topic: A couple heat treating questions  (Read 58 times)

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Offline WhistlingBadger

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A couple heat treating questions
« on: Today at 12:09:47 am »
I'm working on a new piece of Rocky Mountain maple, hoping to get a hunting weight out of this one.  I hear maple does well with a good belly heat treat.  I have a couple questions, though.
1.  I've read a couple places that heat treating maple can make it too brittle.  True, or should I go for it?
2.  There's a pretty serious kink on one limb that I'm going to have to straighten before I can start tillering.  If I steam the kink out, then heat treat, will the heat just put the kink back?  I'm a little scared to try straightening it with just dry heat.
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
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Online superdav95

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Re: A couple heat treating questions
« Reply #1 on: Today at 07:59:30 am »
Ya go for it.  Maple is underrated as bow wood.  It’s not as resilient as say hickory imo but still very good.  If you have a kink to steam out then I would do all that before heat treat like you say.  Once get all the wiggles you want out and your alignment looks good I would get to floor tiller then clamp it down to a caul and heat treat over a coal bed for 2-3 hours.  For maple I would do a medium bake and not go quite as dark as I would with hickory.  Also be careful with heat wrap around effect with maple. It’s not as tolerant for this as hickory.  Should make a fine bow though. 
Sticks and stones and other poky stabby things.

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