Heat treat and recurve

[Shondy55]

Hey guys would it be possible or a good idea to both heat treat the belly and use steam to recurve the bow? Thanks!
It's for a hackberry bow btw
       -shondy

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

yup, I've done it and it works great. just be careful you don't lose your curves while heat treating. I stayed a few inches away from the tips.  However if you steam it in a form, then tiller it out and put it back in the form to heat treat it, you could likely heat the tips too..although if they are static they don't need heat treated anyhow.  But in any case, yup, go for it

[Gordon]

My experience is that if you follow heat treatment with steam bending, the wood will tend to crack. I've not had any bad experience doing it in the other order however.