Steaming Elm...wish me luck!

[Josh]

Decided to try my hand at a deflex recurve modeled loosely around some of Marc St Louis' bows.  I hope my steaming methods work... usually I make a 3rd limb just in case but I only was able to get two useable billets out of this piece of elm.  So... as the title says:  Wish me luck!      -josh

[Josh]

ended up lifting some serious splinters in the bend... I think there's enough wood that I can just sand the splinters out when I take them off the forms... We'll see.   

[young indian12]

Good luck bro It's gonna be a cool bow!

Breven

[Josh]

thanks!  I hope so. 

[Pat B]

Josh once the wood dries put super glue in the splintered area. You may remove all of it when you shape the tips but a little insurance never hurts. 

[PatM]

Interesting that it splintered. I have only had on piece of elm out of dozens of pieces that didn't bend like wet leather when subjected to steam or boiling water.

[Josh]

Thanks PatB!  Will-do.  I am also going to glue on an underlay in the curve with Urac once I get the limbs thinned down a little bit (I left them thick for bending)  Hopefully between the super glue and the underlay it will hold! 

PatM I have heard that elm is easy to steam...wasn't expecting it to crack like it did.  It cracked worse than the red oak board I did last year.  I have only steamed wood twice so far so I really don't have much experience with it to know what I did wrong. I think the metal strip pulled away from the belly of the curve while I was bending it to cause the crack but Im not really sure. 

Now I am going to wait a few days before I pull them off the forms and see what I have.  Waiting is the hardest part in this game for sure!

[PatM]

I never use the metal strap on Elm. Even a hint of a sliver lifting is rare. I bend pieces at least 5/8 thick as well, often more.
 Pre-soaking the wood helps. I just stick the end in a bucket for a couple of days to saturate it and then steam or boil it depnding on where I'm working.

[Josh]

I might have to try that pre-soaking on my next one.  Thanks for the tip!