Heat Treat Osage?

[TheWildCat]

   Just finsihed tillerin a Osage self bow and it came out real nice. Hit close to my target weight, but just shy of what I wanted. Wanted 50 # @ 27", but got 45# @ 27". The bow is 66" long with static recurve tips. I fear the bow will drop some weight after it is shot in, and I don't want it any lighter than it is. Was wonderin ifin Heat treatin the Belly would help the bow out? Maybe pick up 3 #s or so before she gets shot in to counter weight loss. Have any y'all heat treated Osage? Was considerin Burnishin the Belly as well. What y'all think?

[El Destructo]

You could heat treat the Belly...or even induce a little reflex just past the Fades ...and heat treat the Belly....this should definitely give you the results you are looking for....jmo

[servicebeary]

all I can say is that I had a heck of a time getting an even heat treatment to an osage bow lately with a heat gun.  I'd advise using a long campfire where the whole thing can be done ten times faster and more evenly.  I'd like to hear how yours turns out.  I'm trying to boost my 49"er 10+ lbs.  I heated the belly and added bout 4 layers of sinew.  Gotta let it dry for another week before I know how I did

[TheWildCat]

   Thanks fer the reply El Destructo. I didn't reflex at the handle, because I had done so much work in that area to get the limbs aligned up with the handle, and was afraid I would mess that up. However, I did Heat treat the limbs and picked up 4 pounds. Probably would picked up more had I reflexed it. But I am gonna wait and see what happens after she gets shot in. Still have that option ifin I need it, and it was an option I hadn't considered until you mentioned it. Its always great to be able to tap into the knowledge base on this forum.
   Servicebeary, Thanks fer respondin as well. I used a Heat gun on this one. It went pretty well. Tiller still looks good. I see you are startin a new bow and a real snaky one at that. Good luck with it. Hope she turns out well.

[servicebeary]

thanks, I will need it   I think the problems I had with the heat gun were related to the cold breezy porch I was on.  I heat treated my serviceberry bow last night in my shop with much better success.  I still never have my gun in place for close to 5 mins like the TBB 4 says.  I wonder if 1 minute means a lot less penetration/effectiveness? 
   

[TheWildCat]

I suspect a longer heat time would make the heat go deeper. More effective...I don't know? I don't think it takes 5 minutes per area fer me either. I run  my heat gun on high. Maybe I should try the low temp and keep in one spot longer? Have to ask the more seasoned guys about that.

[servicebeary]

yah, I have a heck of a time not ending up with zebra stripes.  I'm going to go natural and start doing them over a fire, besides I'm going to have some steelhead to smoke along side the bows, guess my bows with smell like salmon     Only problem with a fire is that I tend to build character bows and they won't be an even distance from the flame

[TheWildCat]

Ain't nothin wrong bout smokin salmon. Thats cool. Curin fish and curin bow wood at the same time. I LIKE IT. I can see the problem with curin a snaky character bow though. Especially with knots and hard spots. My next project is convertin a Hazelnut Self Bow I built into a Take Down bow. I backed the bow with Rattlesnake skins and I really like the bow and am havin a hard time cuttin er in half. I got the cuts laid out though and gonna do it this week. I heat treated this bow when I built it and it made a hudge difference in the bow. Almost no string follow at all. My buddy has a Hackberry bow he is wantin to heat treat. Don't know ifin it will work on Hackberry er not though.

[servicebeary]

hah, good stuff!  I just ripped an online $13 hack stave into two nice staves and was wondering if there was any reason that I should heat treat them   Also, I bought one of those heavy @#& takedown sleeve set-ups about a year ago, and now I see they have some that are several times lighter   If I make one of my bows into a takedown I don't want an extra pound in the backpack.  You get one of those new spiffy twist and lock ones? 

[TheWildCat]

I got the one that 3Rs carries...2 Brass incerts in a steel sleeve. Not familiar with the fancy model. I have a Osage stave that I am gonna have to back to make it usable and plan on makin it a take down. Like to know all my options. Where can I ckeck out the one you are referin to?

[Aries]

Hey i like your fire style of heat treating, what kind of precautions do you take for this process, and how far from the actual flames do you elevate your bow? thanks kindly  Ty

[servicebeary]

wildcat- I think I found em on the raptor archery site.  I'm gonna have to stop by there sometime and give Ted crap for selling me the sleeve type a year ago

aries-  I Just learned that fire heat treating from TBB 4 or was it 3?  I think 4.  The author mentioned putting his one foot from the hot coals, no fire naturally.  I just go 1 foot as well and with several different types of bows roasting I lay on the ground and check the bellies often with a bright led flashlight because it's tough to gauge brown from black oftentimes.  Like he said in TBB. brown good, black bad.  If you take a heat gun and get 2 inches like he says in the TBB @ 5 mins per increment that's almost 3 hours for a 64" bow!  And I'm constantly checking it, so my back got really tired of leaning over the work bench for hours and hours, all to end up with tiger stripes.  Now I'll probably get compression failures after all the work   Why not roast it over a fire for 30-60 mins like the natives did?  The gun is also noisy, so I had to turn the music up really loud and it drove me to drink too much whiskey too!  My ears were ringing in the morning

[Aries]

lol!! comical, ill definitely be experimenting with this. would there be any way to induce some reflex while heat treating with this method? it would be kind of hard to set up a jig over the coals too id think

[servicebeary]

is you made the fire just long enough so that the tips could not get too much closer to the coals, I bet you could make it work like a champ.  Especially if you make your drying rack/implement easy to adjust for height.  Your could even have the handle of the c-clamps facing up as to not burn your hands   You've got me thinking now   The only problem I've found with outdoor heat treating is that wind can cause some problems with even heating, but if you don't live 5 miles from 2.1 MW wind turbines like I do you'll probably be alright   I can't even shoot my bow 99% of the time darnit, so I'm left shooting in the garage at 10 yards unless Im camping