question on a bent bow

[outdoorX05]

 over the last 2 months i been working on osage flat bow trying to make my first usable hunting bow. SO far i have managed to make great looking firewood. Anyways my stave has a slight off set to it in the lower limb. the upper limb is in line with the handle and small sight window i have made but the lower limb runs off about 5 degrees. making the bow not track propery. rigth now i have the bow braced tillered somwhere around 90 lbs. i want to take it to 55 60 lbs finished. what i want to know is can i shift the whole limb right now or should i have left more wood on it. aslo i have been trying to find a way to heat the whole limb. i would rather use dry heat if possible because i dont want to have to wait a week or two to let the limb dry back out if i use steam. any suggestions. thanks

Kyle

[Pappy]

First I wouldn't pull it passed the weight I wanted it to be,but to answer the question you can bend it with dry heat,I use a heat gun,clamp it to something and figure where you want the bend the heat the belly where it is to hot to hold and pull it down just passed where you want it.Some folks clamp it in a vice and put a weight or something to pull it down.I use a cal for mine.
   Pappy

[SLIMBOB]

I agree with Pappy on both accounts. 1. Don't pull past the intended weight, you will induce unneeded strain and set.  2.  You can heat and bend, 5 degrees is not much of an alignment issue though.  If the string tracks off to one side of the center line, but draws well, (no twist) use that side as the sight window and be done with it.  I personally don't straighten that out if it's just off slightly.  Heating of any kind weakens the wood to a degree.  Lastly, and somebody check me on this, but steaming the limbs dries it out, it does not add moisture.

[outdoorX05]

im just taking a estimated guess on the weight. if the bow gains 3lbs per inch of string travel at 28 inches im to hit right at 90lbs but i have not pulled it past 60 lbs yet. thanks for keeping me in check though  .  now as for bending my bend or change occurs mostly in the handle or around that region. i read on here that, that is a bad place to try and straighten a bow so i was wondering if i should induce the bend throughout the whole limb?

[Pat B]

Kyle, can you post pics of the bow so we can look at the problem. That will make it a lot easier for us to make a judgement.

[Pappy]

What Pat said would help, but I have bent the last half of the limb or even just in the tip area to move the string over to align. I don't usually bend in the handle much,to thick and put to much stress when trying to bend. 
   Pappy

[outdoorX05]

i appreciate the help fellers i will do my best to get a picture on here of the problem.

[George Tsoukalas]

So you've pulled it to full draw and it is just too heavy for you? Jawge

[outdoorX05]

 No i am just speculating where i hit 60 lbs on the draw scale and added a average of 3 lbs per inch up to 28 inches

[DarkSoul]

i would rather use dry heat if possible because i dont want to have to wait a week or two to let the limb dry back out if i use steam.

Although this may seem rational, it is a false statement. Steam bending wood actually dries the wood out (due to the high heat). Steam bending as well as dry heat bending lowers the wood moisture content a lot. This will make the wood brittle once cooled down. You will have to wait for the wood to gain moisture again before you bend it as you would with tillering. I personally think you'll have to wait for about 48 hours, but it does depend on the relative humidity and temperature. With three days, you're probably good to go.

With your guesstimated 90 pound drawweight, I'm having a hard time imagining how far you've pulled the bow. 60# is OK, but at how many inches? The calculation 90#/3 pounds per inch, equals about 60#@18"...am I correct? Either way, you should never pull past your intended drawweight, nor should you ever pull any further than you need to, to spot a flaw in the tiller.

I would need a picture to comment on the need for heat straightening. It may not be needed at all, depending on how the string tracks. The string needs to run over the handle, but any curves in the limbs themselves are just fine, as long as the string runs center over the handle, when you put a string from nock to nock. Osage is said to be easy to heat straighten, so that would make things easier. With a heat gun, you would be able to heat about half a limb at once, which is usually sufficient surface area. You could also heat bend the same limb twice, if needed be.