Steam bending heat treated wood

[DC]

If a recurve 'pulls out' then you simply haven't got it hot enough when you steamed it in the first place. Any recurve I've bent with steam has not moved. All this 'setting with dry heat' is a bunch of cobblers, execution and design are what matter

Since it's not going above 212°f you must mean time. How long do you steam, say a 1/2" tip? Are you talking about dry wood or green wood?

[bradsmith2010]

DC,, I think I remember you posted how hot the wood gets with dry heat,, can you give that info,,
Im not sure steam will get the wood hot enough for some applications,,,, for example no one steam treats a belly,, I think there are some advantages to dry heating the wood to hotter temps for some applications,,  it can be overdone ,,like most things with bow making( i love this phrase) there is a point of diminishing return,,
like when your bow catches on fire and burns up,,,
   dont ask me how I know these things,,maybe I just read about it,,
   

[DC]

The wood gets as hot as you want it with dry heat but I've found the most woods that I've done start to brown around 400°f.

[aznboi3644]

I don’t have much experience with dry heat but my steamed recurves on the few red oak short bows are holding fine at 45lb draw.

I boiled the tips in an electric kettle for 10 minutes then bent them.  They were very malleable after 10 minutes in boiling water and seem to hold. 

[IrishJay]

DC,
I'm currently working on a project the required steam and glue , that I also wanted to get a heat treat on.

Here's how I I approached it (Standard disclaimer, I'm far from an expert).

I did my shaping and tip alignment corrections with steam. Then I brought the stave down to a rough floor tiller and worked out a nice flat area where the lams are going to get glued on. Then I did a nice slow, even, deep heat treat on the whole stave. Later today I'll be gluing on the lams. Since its only at a rough floor tiller now I know I'll end up tillering off most, if not all of the browning on the belly, but because the stave was only 1/2" thick at its thickest point when I toasted I'm confident that the heat treat penetrated most of the way to the back, so it should still provide a benefit.

[bradsmith2010]

thats looking good ,, keep us posted on the results,,,

[DC]

DC,
I'm currently working on a project the required steam and glue , that I also wanted to get a heat treat on.

Here's how I I approached it (Standard disclaimer, I'm far from an expert).

I did my shaping and tip alignment corrections with steam. Then I brought the stave down to a rough floor tiller and worked out a nice flat area where the lams are going to get glued on. Then I did a nice slow, even, deep heat treat on the whole stave. Later today I'll be gluing on the lams. Since its only at a rough floor tiller now I know I'll end up tillering off most, if not all of the browning on the belly, but because the stave was only 1/2" thick at its thickest point when I toasted I'm confident that the heat treat penetrated most of the way to the back, so it should still provide a benefit.

This is how I normally do it but this time I wanted to do the heat treat with my radiant heater( I'm thinking hard about the silicone ones ) and the limb has to be flat in order for it to work properly. That's why I wanted to do the heat treat first. I did it the way PatM suggested and left the tips untreated. I'm steaming them as I type.

[IrishJay]

I did my toasting on my electric range(dont tell my wife).