Torching the belly side of limbs?

[Bentstick81]

  First time that i've tried torching the limbs of a selfbow. I have a 64" hickory selfbow, that i have tillered. I added some weight to limb tips to give it some reflex. I then torched the limbs to where it just colored the grain in the wood. I then let it cool. I went to string it up, and WOW , it has gained quite a bit of draw weight. Does a guy have to re-tiller, or slowlly work the limbs in. I had the weight at 48# at my draw, and liked the way it shot. I'm afraid if i re-tiller, it might get too light of pull weight. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

[NTD]

I would give it a few days to equalize it's moisture content and then yes you will have to retiller if you want your old weight back.  One of the benefits of heat treating is more draw weight with less wood   Just take it slow on the retiller, use light scraping or even sand paper and exercise it well between wood removal.

[mspink]

Yes. like NTD said. let it equalize and when you retiller your bow scrape down the sides instead of scraping all the heat treated wood off. how much reflex did u add? Ive done red oak and maple and experiences with both were good. Maple keeps almost all reflex, red oak a little less. but the end result was great for both. I wanna try heat treating hickory, made a lot of bows with it but never heat treated. have any pics?