Help with a bend

[Bluekable]

Hi all,

Firstly, as this is my first post, I would like to thank you all for the effort you put in to sharing your knowledge so freely. As a beginner bowyer I have found so much information in this forum and really appreciate all the support you all offer.

I have reached a stage in my first bow where I believe it will benefit me to straighten out a bend and possibly even some twist in order to move on to tillering. I have posted a picture of the bow and as you can see it is quite straight from bottom to handle, after which it begins a gradual bend to the right getting most pronounced (i think) about 5 inches after the handle.

My hope was to bend the bow in one place, at the five inch mark above the handle, and hope that the one bend would be enough to straighten it.

If not, I would straighten the top arm relative to itself and then do a second bend at the handle to bring this (now straight) arm into alignment with the bottom arm.

I tried steaming the bow at this "five inch above handle" mark,I left the bow over the pot for about an hour. When I tried to bend it however it didn't feel anywhere near as pliable as I had hoped. I gave it one more shot, adjusting my pot steaming system to make sure the steam was more focused on the area I wanted to bend but again to no avail.

I have read that for each inch of wood, one should steam it for about an hour. Because my bow is about an inch in thickness this lead me to believe I should steam it for one hour. However my bend is not vertical ie. in the direction of the inch thickness but rather horizontal, which has a thickness as you can see of about two inches.

So my questions.

A.) Should I be steaming it for longer?

B.) Do you think I will get away with one bend or will I need to go with my second option for straightening the bow out.

C.) If, after the bend is straightened, I still need to straighten some propeller like twist, will the same steaming rules apply?

All advice is welcome guys.
Thanks.
Shane.

[Bluekable]

Sorry guys my photo file is too large to post, will post one as soon as I can find a way to shrink it.

[IdahoMatt]

Are you on a pc or Mac?

[SLIMBOB]

An inch thick limb 2 inches wide is a lot of wood to bend.  Don't know what wood you are working with, but get the limbs bending a bit at floor tiller and try it again.  Cant tell you how thick, but 5/8" thick is near half as much wood.  Much easier to bend.  One bend might be fine, might need to straighten again.  Don't worry about the prop twist unless it is fairly severe.

[bushboy]

Go to properties on your camera and set it to 640x480

[Bluekable]

Hey guys, here's another attempt at posting a picture of the bend.
Shane

[IdahoMatt]

What is you system for straitening that beast 

[George Tsoukalas]

Shane, as SLIMBOB mentioned, I don't usually try to do any bending until after floor tillering or even after long string tillering. I haven't steamed a bow in years. I use the heat gun.

With a stave like that I leave the nocks and inch wide and the handle wide until I string the bow and even after. That way I can make minor corrections to track the string. I can cut one side of the nock deeper to bring the string over towards center and I can shape the handle accordingly to track the string.

Jawge

[SLIMBOB]

I might try that one in stages with a heat gun as Jawge stated. Clamp, bend a little, let it cool, and the move up the limb and repeat. And repeat again until it tracks straight. Hackberry???

[dwardo]

I have one or two staves like that cowering in a dark corner of my shop.

With the limited time I have for bow making these days due to work and a young family I try to opt for wood that needs less work to get to a basic profile. There are enough things to go wrong with a bow without a massive tip deflection like that. Moving a limb flat against its plane like that is hard work to say the least. If you are brave enough and have the time then try to spread the bend out over a large area of the limb, then when it wont budge any more take the rest our at the handle.

 

[autologus]

Thats a lot of bend for one limb, you could always move that limb a little and then move the other limb in the opposite direction until you get the string to track through the middle of the handle.  That way you only have to move the limb half as much.

Grady

[PEARL DRUMS]

Id steam the center 12" for no less than and hour and correct it there. Tweak the limb itself later with dry heat.

[SLIMBOB]

Like that even better.

[Don Case]

Just a question, I've only just started steaming and I don't know much. Because he's already necked down the top and bottom of the handle isn't that going to concentrate the bend into those two areas and maybe break? 
Don

[PEARL DRUMS]

Don the key to success depends on where the over bend blocks are placed and where you place the clamps. That handle area is still robust and will take a lot pressure and bending. Moving the fade on that limb 3/4" at the handle will move it a bunch more at the tip.