Fun with Fire

[k-hat]

I thought about putting this in Around the Campfire, but decided it probly fits better here.  If it gets moved that's fine too

I've been wanting to try tempering a whole bow over hot coals for some time now, and finally got around to doing it.  I have 3 hickory pyramid bows I'm working on that all needed a good tempering and a little reflex.  My plan was to tiller to brace, reverse string and set'em over the hot coals, and do all three at one time (saves me a WHOLE lotta time with my heat gun).  I have a bunch of bricks from when they built our house, so i made a temporary fire pit:



Fortunately being a bowmaking addict means you have plenty of scrap wood!

Here she is all fired up.  Those smallish scraps made a perty hot fire:



Bows strung and tempering:



You can see that the bows are reflexing more mid-limb as they heat up.  I was kind of afraid of that but was prepared for it to happen.  I hoped that i could keep them heating uniformly by shifting the coals around, but it obviously didn't work.  To boot, as i rotated and changed positions of the three staves, i noticed the strings began to slack, so i took them off and all three held the reflex they had. Probably means they weren't dry before this (same batch as the one i previously posted that took 5" of reflex off my 3" reflex caul):



I left them on to temper a while longer and darken up a bit, also tweaked them some.  Here's a shot of the belly of two of them.  A nice dark chocolate color:



I like the uniformity i got on the tempered sections... much more appealing than i get with my heat gun.  These sat on the fire for a total of about 20 minutes.  That's awesome.  I can use my heat gun to tweak the limbs to a profile i like in pretty short order.  Still saved a ton of time!!!

I've got two white oak pyramids slated for this same treatment next weekend.  Here are my thoughts (aka lessons learned):

1.  Cut wood for coals into smaller chunks for a bit of a slower burn and more consistent heating.
2.  Put the bows over the coals flat so the heating/tempering is even, then after 10 - 20 minutes clamp them immediately to a full length form while still hot to provide nice even reflexing.

I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts and comments, suggestions and critiques as well!

[twisted hickory]

 ;)Great idea! That is probably not far off on how our ancestors
did tempering. So now I can rough out like 5 staves at a time 8)lol!
Now for final tiller. That will tell you how it worked. I bet its going to work good.
Greg

[PEARL DRUMS]

Pretty cool Kevin

[dwardo]

Heat treating is a boring task with a gun, that looks much more satisfying. 

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Nice little setup you got there. would a ditch work well?

[k-hat]

thanks hickory, PD.  I shoulda gone ahead and cemented it all together so i could say to the wife "Well, guess it'll just have to stay there"   Hopefully she won't complain too much before i do the next two!  If i like it as much as i think, maybe i can eventually make a permanent one in an "outta the way" spot in the yard.  May even boost resale value lol ...if the next buyer is a bowyer

I expect final tiller is going to work out nicely as well.  I'll post results when that's done.  Forgot to mention that the staves held between 2" and 5" of reflex after tempering

Righto dwardo!  This was much more fun, even roasted a few marshmallows with my boy!  The set-up and prep time was quite a bit, but still well worth it.

[k-hat]

Slinger i expect a ditch would work well (ain't got any ).  I would expect you would need to shield it some so too much heat doesn't escape out the ends and sides (with a breeze anyway).  You'll notice i turned the end bricks "holes in" to give some airflow down close to the coals.  Seemed like one end got better flow than the other (resistance i'm guessing), so i think i'll turn a couple bricks in the middle to even that up.

[SLIMBOB]

I do each half of my bows over my smoker.  I have done them over a fire like this and it works good, just not as even for me as doing each half over the smoker.  I still use the heat gun more often than not because it's so convenient, but 3 bows in 20 minutes.  Hard to beat.

[Roy]

It would have worked a lot better if ya was drinking a beer while cooking deer meat wrapped with bacon on a hot dog fork while dropping the grease on the bows. Don't cha know your supposed to grease them when toasting? LOL

[H Rhodes]

I am digging this idea.  I could sit around and pick the guitar, cook out and build bows all at the same time.  If I had any neighbors, they would probably ask silly questions about the shape of my new barbecue pit.  Seriously, it would save time over the heat gun, if you took out the time it takes for the coals to burn down.  I think I will change the shape of my fire ring in the back yard.

[k-hat]

Lol Roy, I'll have to get some deer meat and bacon for next time!

I multitasked and ate dinner while the coals were burning down

[Joec123able]

Awesome idea looks like some fast bows coming in the future

[Holten101]

Very nice idea....looks like you damaged the lower of the two...possibly even both (the zig-zag crack is typical for tension crack on belly from "prematurely reflexed" dry heat treatment).

Am i the only one who sees that? (if so then i gotta be wrong;-)

Cheers

[k-hat]

That's actually a water stain from steaming the handle section.  It was there before the treatment and should come out when i sand.  thanks for the keen eye though

[Holten101]

Ahhhh.....makes sense:-)

Sweet setup anyway:-)