heat treating an already finished and tillered bow?

[youngbowyer]

I have an osage bow I built back in june that I shoot a lot! I must have put thousands of arrows through it. It was a little light 38# at 24'' but it dropped to 35#. I would like to use this bow for hunting and the legal weight here is 35#. However I really dont feel comfortable hunting with a bow that light. I would like to heat treat it and maybe add in a little reflex. Is this risky? If not will it bring my bow's weight up to around 40#?

[Dazv]

it may do i just heat treated and recurved an ash bow that gave it aload more pounds. I think you could get 40lbs with reflex and a good heat teatment. I have only made one osage bow so im not to sure how it takes to alot of heat.

[youngbowyer]

 i know osage take heat well. I have even bent osage into static recurves with a heat gun. I just want to know if its risky since this bow has already been tillered and shot for a few months

[gstoneberg]

Sometimes heat treating has worked for me on osage to raise draw weight and sometimes not.  I'm really not sure why.  Is there a finish on the bow?  For sure heat treating will mess with any finish.  How long is it?  Piking an inch off each end will likely get the draw weight increase you want.  If the bow is over 60" long I would do that first.  Another option you have is gluing a backing or belly lamination onto the bow. 

Good luck,
George

[youngbowyer]

Its around 59/58 inches long. I already piked it when it was 60 inches long. The finish is just a few coats of danish oil so that really doesnt matter if i heat treat it. i just dont want to ruin the bow. I'm very accurate with it so that why i need to get that extra 5 pounds so i can hunt with it. 

[PatM]

Generally that's fine if the belly shows no more than even compaction of cells rather than areas that show hints of crushing.
 If it's tillered well it should be Ok. Just go a bit easy on reflexing it too much and get it a bit warm before bracing it backwards.
 At only 24 inches of draw and almost 60 inches long you could pike it some more. Or how about thinking of extending your draw unless of course you are maxed out a 24".

[PEARL DRUMS]

I would steam the center 12-14" and set the handle back some. It will add at least 5-8# and it wont change your tiller of you clamp dead center. I have done it and it worked perfectly, twice. CR Gibson recently did it upon my suggestion and was very pleased. Sounds to me like you have nothing to lose, or dont mind if you do.

[youngbowyer]

Generally that's fine if the belly shows no more than even compaction of cells rather than areas that show hints of crushing.
 If it's tillered well it should be Ok. Just go a bit easy on reflexing it too much and get it a bit warm before bracing it backwards.
 At only 24 inches of draw and almost 60 inches long you could pike it some more. Or how about thinking of extending your draw unless of course you are maxed out a 24".

I can draw to 26 but then im not very accurate. I think ill reflex it a little and if that doesnt bring it up to 40 pounds ill pike it.