Can you bend tips after sinew backing?

[rdb]

Hello,

Is it possible to heat the tips of a sinew backed bow and add a slight recurve to the last 6"?

To give an idea, the bow in question is made from yew and at the nocks, it is 7/8" wide and about 3/16" thick. It is lenticular in shape and shaped/sized very similarly to an Ishi bow. The sinew is wrapped over the nocks and runs down the belly about 2". I sinew backed it on Sat.

Thanks,
rusty

[Pat B]

Rusty, You could remove the sinew from the non bending portion of the tips to heat and recurve them. If you do this, just put a sinew(or other) wrap around the end if the sinew so it won't pull off.
   Heating the tips enough to bend them would ruin any sinew that was near the heat.   Pat

[rdb]

Heating the tips enough to bend them would ruin any sinew that was near the heat.   Pat

That's what I was afraid of. I think I'll just leave the bow as is and try to get it right on the next one.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

rusty

[Marc St Louis]

You can heat a sinew backed bow with enough dry heat bend slight recurves into the wood. You have to be very careful though and monitor the temp on the back. When you have done the bending you want to do you need to cool things quickly because the heat keeps on travelling down into the wood, the belly gets hotter than the back so keep something handy that will do this. I have used a snow filled cloth to do this in the Winter

[RAU]

You can make surprising corrections to sinew backed osage bows with dry heat from a heat gun. Ive done it few times. Just heat enough to make your bend and no more,  go slow and easy

[TRACY]

I recently used a heat gun(conservatively) on the belly to re-align nock ends to center and the sinew stayed and didn't pull up like I thought it might. As said before, heat just what you're wanting to bend and nothing more and it should work. Good luck.

[rdb]

Sounds like a delicate procedure. Not sure I have the confidence to try it. We'll see. Thanks, everyone.

rusty