Raising weight

[Gus]

If you Heat Treat the bow again you could gain 5 to 10 pounds back.
Depending on your wood's individual characteristics.

Marc St. Louis wrote a great chapter in TBB Volume 4 covering his findings in Heat Treating bows.
Where he talks about re-Heat Treating bows more than once with no ill effects.
But bear in mind he uses a laccor of sorts on the hot wood behind the advancing heat gun to combat the heat gun's tendency to dry out the wood.

I have been using Tung Oil for this purpose to good effect.

-gus

[grinner]

Thanks for the help i plan on piking it this weekend and heat treating

[turtle]

If you are planning to both heat treat  AND pike, i would heat first, give it a couple of days to rehydrate, then check the weight and tiller before i piked it any.

[George Tsoukalas]

Back in the day, when I first started, a lot of my bows would come in under weight and I would do this and that to get them to raise weight. I'd pike them mainly. Came to the conclusion I wasn't learning  about tillering that way. I realized I was better off just starting another bow. So that's what I did and hear I am 23 years later. I don't come in underweight too much anymore. BTW cutting an inch off each end will get you 4-5# and more set so you haven't gained anything. It may also break on you if your tiller is not good. Yes, there is a formula. It's in one of Jim Hamm's writings. Also, it's a bit on the long side for sinew. You probably won't gain any significant cast. Linen may add some weight. Not much. Anyway, have fun. Sorry to be throwing in cold rags into the discussion. Jawge

[M-P]

Howdy Jawge,  You have a good point, but I'm of the the "fix it 'til it's broke" persuasion.  Ron

[JW_Halverson]

That bow is far too long to really improve from sinewing.  All you will do is add physical weight. 

To make the sinew do it'd job, the bow needs to be a great deal shorter so that the sinew transfers the plane of neutrality further out toward the back.  The sinew resists stretching, it gives less.  So the belly has to take up more compression. 

Jawge's big wet blanket was wrapped around a lot of good wisdom.  If you are consistently coming in under weight, it's your tillering technique.  Remove less wood in a scraping session and spend more time excercising the limbs between scraping sessions. As it's being excercised, watch how the limbs are moving.  Watch for the worst of the stiff spots....then touch that section up lightly.  Repeat as necessary. 

[grinner]

what would be the best way to add reflex while heat treating? i do not have a form could i just put something under the handle and tie the tips down? pr would this affect my tillering? thanks.

[M-P]

Grinner,  Look up some of the posts on heat treating.   Or get a back copy of PA with an article on heat treating.   I believe it's almost the rule to place the limbs in a little reflex before or during the heat treating.  Your idea of a spacer under the handle would fit the bill.    Ron

[Buckeye Guy]

Back in the day, when I first started, a lot of my bows would come in under weight and I would do this and that to get them to raise weight. I'd pike them mainly. Came to the conclusion I wasn't learning  about tillering that way. I realized I was better off just starting another bow. So that's what I did and hear I am 23 years later. I don't come in underweight too much anymore. BTW cutting an inch off each end will get you 4-5# and more set so you haven't gained anything. It may also break on you if your tiller is not good. Yes, there is a formula. It's in one of Jim Hamm's writings. Also, it's a bit on the long side for sinew. You probably won't gain any significant cast. Linen may add some weight. Not much. Anyway, have fun. Sorry to be throwing in cold rags into the discussion. Jawge

Jawge is telling you the best way to do this Maybe we should listen up !
Maybe JW will help put it into better words ,but basically we need to get the rules down first before we start learning how to bend the rules !
This is a hard pill for us to swallow , but its good for us !
Stand that bow in the corner till the corner is full of them ,then we can dig one out and talk about repairs !
Have fun !!
Guy

[Pappy]

I use to make all of mine a couple of inches longer then I wanted just for insurance, when I got the tiller like I wanted ,I would pike it  to the length I wanted and touch up the tiller, usually don't change much just adds a few pounds. 
   Pappy