Made Stick Go Boom!!

[Cameroo]

I had this maple board bow all tillered out to give to my sister.  It was only about 35 lbs draw weight, and I thought maybe I'd try heat treating it and inducing a little reflex.  I have never heat treated before but have been wanting to try it for a while now, so I made a caul  with a gradual 3 inch reflex over the length of the limb, and a jig to hold my heat gun.  Everything seemed to go pretty good. 





I let it sit for a few days in the bathroom to rehydrate a bit, and then threw it back on the tiller tree.  It picked up some serious weight, so I began tillering again.  As I scraped some of the dark layer off, I noticed that there was a spot toward one tip that had gotten a little "crispy" compared to the rest.  This also happened to be the spot where a small pin knot swirled the grain a bit almost across the width of the limb.  I kinda figured this was going to be bad news, and considered backing it, but I figured if it's going to crack, it's going to crack.  Well it turned out I was right.  I had her pulled to about 25 lbs and the tip cracked and went flying.  Just thought I'd post some pics so you guys could have a chuckle at my expense, and to prove I still dabble with bow making   Now that spring seems to have come early, I'm hoping to get the wood shavings flying again!

[criveraville]

Cam that's ducky. Just ducky!

Cipriano

[druid]

Too baked.

[criveraville]

Too baked.

Druid did you make a funny???

Too. Baked as in too bad ?? That's funny..

Cipriano

[sleek]

LOL, I think he meant to toasted.... But thats still a funny way to say it now that I am thinking of baked...

[Jude]

Toasted...baked...same difference, lol.  Seriously though, I don't toast them quite so dark; always worry about charring.  I'll go over mine a couple times to get an even dark brown, but I avoid black.  Good luck on the next one.

Julian

[randman]

Yeah talk about a bakin' that'll wake ya

[Pappy]

Looks over done to me. Sorry about that it was looking good, I don't cook um that long.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

Looks like a grain run out from what I see. When boards break that's usually why. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Cameroo]

After doing the post-mortem examination, I would definitely agree that I baked the hell out of it   Out toward the tips, the wood was browned all the way through. 

George, the grain was not perfect by any means, which is why I had reserved this board for a lighter bow.  I think if I had stuck to my original plan with a rawhide backing and no heat treating, it would have been fine. It had around 100 arrows through it before I proceeded to ruin it

Oh well.  I wasn't real happy with how this one was turning out anyway.  There's always the next one!

[Badger]

  I am not real big on heat treating maple but I do use dry heat to reflex it. I have also changed the way I heat treat in recent years. I go back and forth over the entire limb not browning it in an spots, it will eventually just take on a slightly darker color. Maple is a real nice wood if you just get reasonably dry.

[Keenan]

To baked,,, Maple can be touchy to to much heat treating

[Survivecrunch]

IMHO it is way overbaked.  If you read in TTB it says that you DO NOT want the wood to turn black, that destroys the fibers and those underneath.  You want to get it about a dark brown, and don't hold your heat too close to the limb, you want to evenly cook the top fibers and those underneath to affectively strengthen multiple layers in unison.  Other wise you will have a "shell" if you will of strong toasted fibers lying on top of uncooked ones.  We live and learn though, everything is a lesson to make us better right?

[MoNative]

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