heat treating B Locust

[bigcountry]

I have a few black locust and pretty soon plan to make some D-Bows.  Does heat treating the belly help keep it from fretting as bad?

also is a flat belly tiller better than faceted belly tillering for black locust?

[snedeker]

Flat belly is best with BL and heat treating works really well with it.

Dave

[bigcountry]

Thanks for the info.  Thinking of even trapping the limbs. 

Did heat treating make it more resilent to fretting?

[medicinewheel]

I'm such a greenhorn...
Right now I have my first BL ever in the works; heat treated it a 2nd time before final tillering, and it looks good so far. Since it increases the strength of the belly, it should be more resilient to fretting, too...

[bigcountry]

medicine, what are your dimensions for your bl bow? 

I hear two schools of thought.  Some say wide and long and others say narrow and long.  Narrow and long makes sense to me.  If BL is great at tension compared to compression, you would want more belly than back. 

Does that make sense?

[snedeker]

I make quite a few BL bows.  I happen to like them about 63" ntn and 1.5 inches wide

Dave