First Shot at Hickory

[BowJunkie]

I am new to the forum, and have been building bows for about three years now. The first two were failed attempts and have since made three serviceable bows.
I have been very fortunate to get my hands on very straight staves in the past. I now have a Shagbark stave that was rough cut and has been seasoned for 1-1/2 years now.
While seasoning the upper portion of the stave, " from the arrow rest up" has taken a slight bend about 3/4'' off center. I have never had to steam or heat bend.
So with that said, I need some advice from the Veteran Bowyers on this one. This is a pyramid profile stave if it helps.

[Pat B]

Get your bow to low brace and see where the string tracks. You may not need to do anything to it.

[tattoo dave]

Hi bow junkie. I don't know anything about bending, but welcome to the site. Some pics would be cool.

Tattoo Dave

[BowJunkie]

Ok. Let's say I get the Stave to low brace, and It is still off center, and needs to bend.
How would I proceed from this point?

[BowJunkie]

Wow ,,,,,, 59   views and no information on steam or heat bending.

[ken75]

as far as steam goes ive done a couple that i steamed and clamped in a vice and help the limb over till it cooled . if your gonna use dry heat clamp the handle and lower limb to a board and heat with a heat gun or grill and use clamps to align your top limb it will take time so dont get in a hurry . one other thing is i usually go a little past center when straighting it has a tendency to return some . hope this helps a little

[DarkSoul]

Straightening hickory is easy with both dry heat (heat gun) or steam or even boiling water. Either way, heat the wood (30 to 45 minutes for steam/boiling water, or 15 minutes for dry heat) and then QUICKLY force it into the right shape. Making a jig to clamp the bow to helps a lot.

Run a search for 'straightening' to find more info.

[cowboy]

BowJunke: theirs all kinds of ways to heat/steam bend a peice of wood. What Pat was saying is that if the string passes along the center of your handle, even though it may be off some then it'll still work. If you go back and look at some of Pappy's work. He regularly clamps his bows to a caul with "C" clamps and blocks then uses a heat gun to relax the wood into the desired shape. I've used heat gun and or steam, clamp the handle into a vise and with a pair of welding gloves on, twist and push until it cools where i want it. I'm no expert by any stretch but have had good results experimenting on my own. Heat it up and go - just don't burn it .

[Elktracker]

Welcome aboard bowjunkie nice to have you! you will find a wealth of info on this site in all areas of bow building and more. What the posteys above have said is right on, another way I like to get info is the search function, allot of times if I am in a hurry to get some info I will type in a key word to what I want to find out about (steam bending) and there will be lots of info to pan through. Another thing is dont be supprised if there have been allot of views and no posts sometime people either dont know or the question has been asked so many times they just dont want to awnser it again its anyones guess why they view and dont awnser but dont get impatient usually you will always get good info even if you have to wait 50 some views for it . Again welcome to the site and good luck let us know how it turns out and most important post pics if you can .

Josh

[BowJunkie]

Thanks for the response guys. Sorry if I seem impatient.  I been waiting for the day to start this bow for a year and a half, and I don't wont to mess it up.
Attached are the pictures

[cowboy]

That looks purdy darn straight to me. That side profile on the handle is a little different but might turn out to fit your grip perfectly without any work, i dunno .

[DarkSoul]

With tips still that wide, you can probably correct most of the curve by narrowing only one side of the tips If you scrape only one side of both tips, the string will track towards the other side. You could probably correct at least ¼" this way, which may (or may not) be sufficient to have the bow not twist in your hand while drawing.

[BowJunkie]

I left a lot in the handle area so when I start tillering  the limbs, I have some meat to make a handle. I didn't want to cut myself short.