Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: sleek on August 15, 2014, 12:03:00 am
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I am working a stave from the tree of hell. AKA black locust. From stave form it had 3" of deflex on one limb and 2" of deflex on the other. Its a 62 inch long bow pyramid style going for elliptical tiller and 40#@ 28. Being so low a weight Iwant it to be snappy when shot and deflex inho doesnt help. So I strapped it to a 2x4, put a wedge under mid limb to induce 1 inch of reflex. I heated each limb for 30 min. I got it to the poi t of heat the wood just bbarely started darkening. I waited a day and took it off. It kept no reflex and went to almost straight. I was happy. Until I put a string on it. It went right back to where it was. Agh... I dont like black locust. Any tips?
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Burn the snot outta the belly
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Man if thats the way I think I will give up on BL.what sucks is I need this bow done sat. If I do that, I will over dry the wood. Think if I wipe water on it allot for a few hours after it will help? Any tricks for not dehydrating the back? Wet towel maybe?
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No, do NOT put water on (a heat treated) bow. That'll do more harm than good.
Just heat treat it again today, but more intensely this time. Don't char the belly, but just darken it a few shades. If you let it hydrate overnight, that will be plenty of time for the wood to recover to EMC. Some people don't even wait at all, and shoot the bow an hour after heat treating the belly, when the wood has only cooled down.
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Time won't allow for you, but I'm steaming black locust and doing all my corrections at one time on the caul after a couple of issues with heat treating BL.
Tracy
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No, do NOT put water on (a heat treated) bow. That'll do more harm than good.
Just heat treat it again today, but more intensely this time. Don't char the belly, but just darken it a few shades. If you let it hydrate overnight, that will be plenty of time for the wood to recover to EMC. Some people don't even wait at all, and shoot the bow an hour after heat treating the belly, when the wood has only cooled down.
Actually I have put water on the wood right after heat-treating with no adverse effects, not a lot of water though. Heck I've even rubbed snow on the back during the winter to cool it down fast and that did no harm either. No more water once cool though.
P.S. BL does heat-treat quite well but I have always taken at least a couple hours to do a bow and the color once done runs to dark brown, not black
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Thanks guys will be heat treating to a dark brown then. Marc and Tracy, do yall ever string and shoot right after a heat treat without concern for over dry wood breaking?
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no...do not string right after heat treating..I give it a couple of days to rehydrate some...gut
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Wait until its cooled completely and continue with your bow, waiting days does nothing at all. Usually 2-3 hours is fine. Its not deprived of moisture after tempering. Weigh it and you'll see that. If you chose dry wood to begin with there isn't any noticeable moisture left to drive out. Keep in mind heat treating isn't simply making the wood brown or black, its much deeper than that. Ive seen folks hold heat guns 1" away just scorching the wood and not doing anything beneficial at all, maybe just a heat shaping with color I guess. 3-4" away is usually good and each limb will take at least 45 minutes to do right. Its deep heating, not just surface scorching.
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I have used a lot of locust lately and only heat treated it once. I have had only one bow chrysal and it was the latest one. Locust heat CORRECTS easily. You don't even need to change the color for correcting. I only wait an hour or two after heating to start bending. Knock on wood I've never had an adverse reaction.
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I agree with Jon, BL heat corrects fairly easily. I usually make several small corrections while I am bringing her to brace. Heat treating BL requires lots of patience. Like 40 minutes per limb kinda patience. As Marc says, it gets to be a real nice dark brown, but make sure she is clamped tite when you do it, or she will move on you.
Russ
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Well guys im bring the tiller around now then gonna spend 2 hours heat treating it seems. Wish me luck. I will post when im done.
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Well 3 inches of set later.... man i tell ya im about ready to snap it across my knee.
I had it to 40#@20" before treating. I guess I scraped allot of the heat treat off. So its back to the heat gun...
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Sounds either wet, or just junk locust.
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If you do it right you can't scrape off a heat treat. It goes THROUGH the wood if done right. Is your Locust thick ringed?
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The stave is 3 years old so wet aint the problem I wonder if its me. Its 2" wide pyramid and only 40# so its not overstressed. The wood is very thick ringed. Only 2 rings in each limb. What's the significance of the ring count on locust?
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I have not had good results with really thick ringed Locust.
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I am probably going to reduce it to a kids bow and give it to the first child with big eyes that sees it and says Wow! A bow and arrow dad! Happens all the time at the gunshows.
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3 yr old wood can be wet sleek. Wet and green are two different animals. If it was stored in 70-80% humidity it can be 20 years old and wet still.
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I have found pyramid to be not the best profile for BL, as I am guessing that your set is mostly mid limb. My favorite profile for BL is to keep her abt 1.5 inches wide till mid limb, then taper to tips. Maybe another bend with heat can rid u of some set. Good luck.
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It is rare but occasionally you will run across wood that will not take to heat-treating
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Pearl, the stave was about 2x4 size and stored inside my house in Oklahoma for 3 years. Im fairly certain it is dry, though I dont have a moisture meter to verify.
Marc, is there any chance I could send you this thing and get you to tell me what I did wrong?
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*sigh*
If you must >:D
In my experience thick ringed locust has the greatest variance tree to tree, some of it having made good bows and some failing to survive heat. If you have a lot of experience with raw black locust you end up being able to feel the lousy wood not just by weight and hardness, but by texture, minute details in the surface of the wood, color, the way it splits, the smell, all that stuff that tells you you've spent too much time with a tree. The sharper, more consistent, darker, clean-splitting, sharp smelling stuff always promises high performance bows with minimal hassle.
That said, take a goooood loooooooooooooooooong time heating black locust to a warm brown color. It's not the end of the world if it chars, but try to stop just before.