Elm reflex question?

[NavyDave]

Finally got my first stave whittled down to floor tiller stage.  The bow is 66" TTT, 1 7/8" at the fade outs to 1/2" tips.  I decided to build a form to put some reflex into the limbs (bow already had 1" of reflex).  After I built the form I realized I put 6" of reflex in the form vice the 3" I had originally intended.  I plan on steaming the whole bow and it has been drying since 2006.   My questions are:

1.  Is this too much reflex?

2.  how long should I let the bow dry on the form before tillering?

This is my first bow from a stave and I don't want to mess it up!  The bow already looks great and I was hoping to have it ready for an annual trad archery hog hunt the second week of February.  If I can't have it ready by then with steam or the form has too much reflex then I'm just going to flip the tips with a heat gun and get to tilliering!

[artcher1]

Since you have the bow floor tillered then any steam reflexing you do isn't going to hold anyhow. Personally, I think the best design going is heat reflexing from mid-limb out to the tips.......Art

[PatM]

Not sure why you're thinking of steam when heat gun induced refllex works so much better.

[NavyDave]

Pat/Art

Thanks for the quick reply,

I just figure it would be less work to just throw it in a steamer for a couple of hours and then throw it in the form.  Also, my buddy built the steamer a while back and had has been itching to steam something.  I have only used the heat gun so far and had great results so I think thats what I'll do.  I've been bugging him to go out to his hunting property and cut us down a Hickory tree anyway.......then he can steam away....

Do you think that the 6" of reflex is too much for this bow, or any bow for that matter?

[artcher1]

Heat reflex 6" and you'll wind up with 3". Lose 1 1/2"-2" to set and you'll be about an 1" or so ahead once your bow is well shot in...... Art

[NavyDave]

Sounds good to me!  Thanks again!

[aznboi3644]

If you want advice on reflexing elm message mr Marc St Louis.  IIRC he reflexes his elm flat bows up to 7"

[Holten101]

Follow Marc's guide and you cant go wrong. One important thing is to not force the bow into reflex...it will have to reach the platizicing point (lacking a better word here).....with some experience the wood will tell you when it has reached that point.

But a more fool proof method is to steam it first (into the required form)...and then when it has cooled/dried you let it sit in the form and then heat treat it (slowly...as shown by Marc). This has worked well for me!

Cheers

[n2huntn]

Since you have the bow floor tillered then any steam reflexing you do isn't going to hold anyhow.   Art

Why?

[artcher1]

n2huntn, NavyDave indicated that he had his bow to the flooring stage and that means his limbs are rather thin at this point for steaming alone to hold any reflex IMO. I take it that he wanted to steam reflex the entire limb. He may still have enough tip thickness to steam and then heat treat later when it dries to get any recurves to hold. Best method of reflexing the entire limb is heat tempering at this point, again, JMO.

[n2huntn]

I guesser easy ain't always good. Steam is easy but it takes up a lot of my time to toast one and the wood has to be really dry.
Can it get too dry steaming then toasting? Do you let it rehydrate first? I have never tried both and wonder if it is not doing a lot of damage. Wonder which method does less damage to wood cells.
 Its nice to have a place to ask so many questions.
Jeff

[artcher1]

Jeff, steaming swells wood cells where as dry heat shrinks the cells. You can only bend a piece of wood so far with dry heat but much further using steam. To hold your bend using steam requires more material.  With heat bending alone you will need less material than steaming. So if you want to steam in a recurve just make sure you have enough material to hold you bend in place. Let that dry several days and place back into your form and heat treat. Now you can reduce some extra mass for a lighter tip/recurve. Hope that helps........Art

[NavyDave]

OK,

I finished my caul today.  The only thing we have left is to build the jig to hold the heat gun.  My caul has a back made with 1/2" ply that is 1 1/2" over where the bow lays and the jig will be made in a similar fashion as what Marc uses in his video except it will have grooves so it can slide along the back of the caul.  I have decided to just heat bend this bow and will experiment with steaming later due to time.  Thanks again everyone for the help!  I love the fact that we can all agree to disagree.  I will post pics of the caul and heat gun jig when we are done!

[n2huntn]

Cant wait to see it Dave. And thanks for the info Art.
Jeff