Show me what you bend tips with?

[Jodocus]

After an unsuccessful evening of cooking wood, with my self made jig(?, not sure with some terms) bursting, my clamps gliding off, and after seeing twistedlimbs SUPERB recurve bow he posted today, I wanted to ask you all:

What gear do you use to bend/flip/recurve tips and hold them in position to dry? mind to post a pic maybe?

[DQ]

I'll be watching this one, hoping for some good information.

[Del the cat]

Here's a link to some pics on my website, shows steaming and the bow on a jig.
http://sites.google.com/site/delsbows/home/other-stuff
Del
(While you are there look at the Chinese Repeating crossbow )

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

lol hear is my closely guarded secret..lol  a 2 x12 with a slot cut, 2 simple clamps and a regular ol pot of water with tin foil over it.    I think it just takes practice to get the limbs the right thickness and have an eye for avoiding splinters.  i dont use any backing strips or anything...i dont personally think they help any.  i steam for 45 minutes, then go from the pot to the form fast and crank it over in one smooth motion. (not too fast, not too slow)  then clamp it down.    really it's not for the faint of heart, you have to accept that you may ruin a stave doing this. no guts no glory.    i didnt do as good with a lot of my earlier curves, but i get a pretty good success rate nowadays

[Jodocus]

  Hey Del, That crossbow is hillarious!

Nice to see this is your website. Your blog was my main source of info before getting started about three month ago. Like, that bows could bend in the handle or not, or what tillering is. First glimpse of a new world. I got there cause I thought I was going to make some hazel bows first, and your site was where google sent me off to.

Your stuff really inspired me!

About the bending: I was thinking of a setup like this, also ended up doing it that way. Only thing is, I wanted to protect the bellly with a metal strip, and I cant get it on under pressure that way, can I? I bent hard, and I also tore of some of the wood in the process.

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

and here is an up-close... really nothing special.   thats why I always tell people the same thing... just a curved slot cut into a 2 x 12

[gstoneberg]

Let me say up front that I like Twisted's design better than what I use, because it captures the limb tip.  Here's mine.



It is basically a 2x8 cut with the shape of a 5gal bucket lid traced on it.  I drilled holes for the clamps.  I don't remember who on here I borrowed the design from, it's certainly not something I came up with.  That was my second time bending yew.  It springs back worse than osage and requires you to bend it further than you think to get what you want.  My osage will pretty much stay right where you take it.  By the way, if you don't have the wood warm enough you can tear the end right off one of those Irwin clamps trying to hold the wood down.

George

[Bevan R.]

This is long enough for me to reflex a limb but I made it curvy enough at the end to 'flip' as much as I care to.

[crooketarrow]

 I very seldom flip tips unless the person I'm building the bow for wants it. Personally I perfer straight limb bows. But when I do I have a caul simular to stwisterlimbs. But I don't use camps. I let the weight of the bow do the beening. This way your sure to heat the limb enough for the weight of the bow to do the bending.
  With clamps it's to easy to get in a hurry and use the clamps to bend the limb before it's heated enough. This destorys wood cells. Destorying wood cells your bend straights out the more you destory.
   I don't bend green staves so I don't use steam. Steam on green wood,dry heat on seasoned wood. I use some criso, bear grease some kind of oil has I heat. Not motor oil. I mentened this because I told someone to use oil once and they used motor oil. Worked but what a mess and motor oils next to inpossable to get out of the pours with out sanding.
      One other tip when heating, heat the limb as slow as you can. The slower you heat the limb up to bending heat. The less wood cell you destory the better (longer) your  bend will stay in your limbs. To me it's not wort the effert for 8 or 10 feet a second. UNLESS YOU LIKE THE LOOK.

[Jodocus]

Thanks everyone, I think I get the idea. Lucky noone saw me mistreating that piece of wood yesterday  I probably forced it around much too hard and long, like, minutes... with my feet and whatever I could think of.

How long do you guys let it cool or dry?

[Pappy]

Pretty simple,I made them this way so I could do both tips at the same time,and also any length bow.
   Pappy

[H Rhodes]

I used a scrap of 2X10 pine.  Sawed the curve out on one end and bored several holes that would accomodate my C - clamps. 

[blackhawk]