Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: snowplow on October 23, 2015, 10:32:34 am
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Do any of you guys do a fire finish on a bow? How about branding or wood burning? I am thinking this little white vine maple bow I'm making for my son might look cool with a burnt looking back and white belly with the name wood burnt in on the lower belly side limb. Could you seal over this with clear or oil?
Thanks guys!
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You can't burn bow backs. Bellies should only be carefully toasted. Keep any decorative burning to non working areas.
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burned a story into the belly of my bow. on a sunny day i traveled to horseshoe island where i found a tree i could make a snakey bow from. found a few feathers, a piece of flint, as well as some shoot shafts and stinging nettles so i made some arrows as well.while i was making a arrow i tried my hand at fishing and caught a catfish...its all explained here. lol oh yea i toasted that elm a bit. shoots great. love that bow :) Tony
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That's a neat idea. My son wants it really primative looking. Unfortunately I already stripped the bark off or that would have been perfect. So just looking around for ideas. Bummer on toasting the back.
What does it do to the bow?
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burned a story into the belly of my bow.
that's so cool.
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Here is a bow that I took a touch to the belly side of. It's Osage orange and all it really does is make the grains pop. And I guess a bit of a heat treatment after the tiller was done. It's name is The Fury, hunterbob is the owner.
Patrick
After the torch.
(http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w668/lebhuntfish1/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-08/20150804_181315_zpscwdz3fpr.jpg) (http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/lebhuntfish1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-08/20150804_181315_zpscwdz3fpr.jpg.html)
Before the torch.
(http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w668/lebhuntfish1/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-08/20150804_172257_zps1nuogfux.jpg) (http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/lebhuntfish1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-08/20150804_172257_zps1nuogfux.jpg.html)
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That is exactly the look I was thinking of, to highlight the grain! Even planned on using a handheld torch.
So this cant be done on the back of a bow? It seems like it wouldn't take much heat at all?
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l'm not an expert with bows, but i do know wood. I made a coffee table a few months ago and was experimenting with how direct flame affects the strength of wood. first you don't want to actually "burn" then wood. you just let the flame barely caress it. heat can make wood stronger, but in the case of a bow, one flame lick to many in one spot could cause it to splinter. and that is the death of your bow. i actually like aged wood. i'd see what Marc's take on it is. but i'm sure Pat is correct. you could also, try your hand at a sinew backing, try and get it thin, and clear as possible. so you can still see the aging in the wood. could possibly make it look even older.
when i tested pine strength, it failed miserably. but harder woods could be the difference in my experience.
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Heat is good for compression, poor for tension. When heat treating if you get your heat bouncing off the caul onto the back you will scorch the back and greatly increase the chances of a tension failure.
Get a piece of string and hang a weight from it and caress the string with a blow torch and see what happens.
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I remember as a kid my brother doing a smoke job on his bike, he would use a piece of inner tube and butn it and let the smoke hit the bike. it was easy looked good and was cheap. Flame did not contact the steel at all.
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I just done that to a piece of bone with a candle that had a tall wick.
Patrick
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Remember you have to get the finish on without wrecking the effect you have achieved.
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What's about fuming with ammonia? Simson has done it with sucess.
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Contrary to both intuition and what some of the replies say, I HAVE done several burned in patterns on the back of a bow, and SOME survived. This was before I knew better, BTW.
It worked better on bamboo than one wood. The deal was I used a VERY hot flame, like a propane torch, that will darken the very most shallow layer of wood super quickly, like literally less than a second in any one spot. Like, swing it across an inch away and only make one pass. I did chevrons down the limbs of on bamboo back that were pretty cool..
BUT, I wouldn't do it today. I have enough problems with the edges of a back getting too much heat bouncing off the form when belly treating, as it is.
Woodburning can look darn cool in handles and shelves. I love that heat treating bellies usually leaves a dark and light random pattern no matter how evenly I try to cook it.
If you do it to limbs or handle, clamp it down first, too, because sometimes a stave will react wildly to even a little heat.
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burned a story into the belly of my bow. on a sunny day i traveled to horseshoe island where i found a tree i could make a snakey bow from. found a few feathers, a piece of flint, as well as some shoot shafts and stinging nettles so i made some arrows as well.while i was making a arrow i tried my hand at fishing and caught a catfish...its all explained here. lol oh yea i toasted that elm a bit. shoots great. love that bow :) Tony
That is awesome Riverrat!
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Ok fair enough, I'll leave well enough alone. Thank you all very much!