straightening osage

[luke the drifter]

hey everybody,

    i have a real good piece of osage worked down to before rough tillering.  my question is this-  about 18-24 inches of it bends to the left about 3 inches off center.  i recently took some big reflex off one end by using weights and some heat application for about three days and most of that bend has been taken care.  would using just weights like before help it any with the off center problem?  the other bend is still gone for lack of better description but i am going to check for several days to see if that bend is coming back.  i hope this makes sense. 

[VenomBOWslinger]

Hello applying heat and pressure should about get the most out of it!  If u were in the beggining stages I have seen people submerging bent logs in water to straighten the out but wouldnt try that now..do u have any room to sand out some to make it appear more straight...post a pic if u could maybe then someone could suggest a better alternitive!!
CHEERS!!!

[DanaM]

Most of us forms for straightening and/or reflexing staves, osage responds very easily to heat.
Look through Pappy's Life is Good thread and you will see pictures of his

[Pappy]

I straighten them like that all the time, I clamp them to a form and heat the belly and bend them where ever I need to. Go a little farther than you want it to be cause it will spring back some.If you don't have a form just clamp it to a table or board,anything so you will be able to pull it.Some people clamp it in a vice and heat where they want it to bend and put some weight on the end to pull it down.  That will work also if you don't have forms.
    Pappy

[GregB]

To expand on what Pappy said, we usually have the roughed in bow to floor tiller when we put it on the form. This helps because although the limbs should still have plenty of potential draw weight, they are bending a little which means less wood to heat and better ability to bend the limbs on a form or whatever other means you're using with dry heat. If you don't have a heat gun, I've used stove burners before. Just have to keep a close watch on the wood that it doesn't get scorched.