New guy with a question

[Wellsy]

Hey everyone,
I haven't really posted much here before but I have gotten boat loads of great information from alot of sources so thank you.  My question is this.  I have a red oak board that I made a couple of months ago.  It was 65 in n2n and about 50lbs at 28 and I wanted to try recurving a bow and up the poundage on this one.  So I went ahead and steam bent in some recured tips.  I let it sit for 24 hours and when I took the clamp off I found a dented belly from the clamp.  I had it padded with some leather and a thin piece of wood but it still dented.  None of the fibers look broken but I'm wondering if this bow is toast now or if it will be okay?  If not is there something I could do to save it?  I was thinking of maybe just re steaming that area or just wetting that area so that the fibers would maybe expanding back close to there original shape.  Any ideas on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.  Pics to follow once I get a Photobucket account.

Wellsy

[Coo-wah-chobee]

                     My guess is should be ok since ya say fibers are not crushed. Wrap dented area with wet rawhide and other limb in same place to give look of equalness. Let rawhide dry and coat it with whatever ya choice iof finish is..............bob

[Wellsy]

Thanks Bob that sounds like a good fix idea.  Here are the pics of the bow. You can kind of make out the dent in the one picture.  I liked the bow pre recurving so I hope that this will be alright.
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa139/cjwintense/Recurved%20Red%20Oak%20Board%20Bow/
Wellsy

PS I hope these pics work

[Coo-wah-chobee]

           Btw ya dont need a photobucket acct ta post pics on this forum. Go ta board called info & resources I think and Marc St. Louis  posted a how to on pics and I think so did Justin Synder...........bob

[Gordon]

I'll often fix a dent by positioning it over the nozel of a boiling tea kettle. The highly localized steam will often pull the dent right out if it isn't too deep.

[Pappy]

In the belly probably won't hunt it anyway unless it is extremely deep and large.
   Pappy

[Hillbilly]

I'd say it's just a cosmetic thang, wouldn't worry about it too much. BTW, nice bow-what kind of wood is the riser?

[Wellsy]

Thanks for the replies.  I'm glad that it should be okay.  I just wasn't sure if the bow would buckle there or not.  The wood in the riser is a piece of spalted maple from home depot. 

Wellsy