Leaving a bow braced to breakin????

[bigcountry]

I can't believe what I just read.  I was reading my Dean Torges book and he said some leave an untrained bow braced for 12 hours to break in.  Has anyone done this?  I try to get the string off mine as quick as possible.  Maybe part of my issues.

[Timo]

It's called sweating the bow.I do it for long periods on some,If I have a bow that just won't mind it's manners I brace it and leave them alone.If your wood is dry and you haven't over strained it, long brace times will help it to settle in. After all they stay braced for several hours sometimes during a hunt? Why not see ifin it'll make the grade before you take it to the woods?

[islandpiper]

Darned if I know what is proper, but I don't leave mine strung, new or old, any longer than necessary.  Same as holding a full draw.......1/2 second or so.   See the shot, be the shot, release.......just that quick.    Easier on a geezer's shoulder, too.  

piper

[bigcountry]

Thanks Timo.  I kept reading "sweatin" the bow.  I thought he meant, sweat from tillering and hard work.  I glad I asked.

[radius]

hm, i haven't done that either...not at least, until they are already "broken in" and hit the draw weight at the draw length.

But maybe i will.  Tonight after tillering this longbow i'll leave it until the morning...

Timo, you don't find this creates uber string follow?

radius

[Dano]

If the bow can't stand the sweatin it can't stand the huntin.

[M-P]

Hi All,  I occasionally leave a 1/2 made bow braced for several hours.  As long as the wood is seasoned and the tiller is close and the braced draw is NOT more than your target weight it does seem to help speed the tillering of some staves.  Well not speed, but helps the tiller happen with less sweat on the bowyer's part.  For me it just takes the place of half drawing the stave multiple times before I check the tiller.  Or for those staves where wood removal doesn't seem to be having any effect.  Rather than just taking off more wood, it's better to slow down and leave the dang thing strung awhile.  Then when you come back, you're quieter and the wood often seems to have gotten the message.    Ron

[radius]

good call Ron

[adb]

I sometimes sweat a bow overnight. Helps it to settle in, if it's having "issues.'

[Gordon]

I leave my bow strung all day when I'm hunting. A well tillered bow should be able to take a good sweatin' without ill effect.

[Bullitt]

Yes, Dean got that from Paul Comstock. Paul talks of this in the Bent Stick. Good shootin, Steve

[Pappy]

It should handle it but I don't usually do it.Even when I am hunting I unbraced if I get a slow time
or kick back for lunch.   If I am shooting a course that is on 2 ranges I unbraced when I shoot the last target on the first and string back up when I am ready to shoot again. Wood unlike Glass has a memory and the more it stays in one spot the more it remembers.IMO.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

Nope, I wouldn't think of leaving an untillered bow braced for so long. It's not a bow anyway. It's a strung stave. I baby my bows gently into existence. My staves are exercised on the t tree quite a lot before full draw. If I remember Mr Comstock leaves them strung as an alternative to exercise.  Completed and tillered bows are different. Those I leave strung while hunting. I unstring them to give them a rest between 3d sessions. To each his own. Jawge

[bigcountry]

I leave my bow strung all day when I'm hunting. A well tillered bow should be able to take a good sweatin' without ill effect.

Dean wasn't talking about a well tillered bow so much as he said Paul Comstock does this to a untrained bow.

[knightd]

After I have one close to tillered out. I will leave it strung for a few hours at a time while finishing it up..