That's the stuff all right! Just surprised by your comparison. I give it a good heat before tillering,and sometimes during if I have to remove to much material. In my opinion , if you wait until after , you have already induced set on the belly fibres. You can't really undo set . It's like trying to unwrinkled a piece of crumpled paper. You can Iron and steam it smooth but it's not really the same as before. Others may have a different take on the subject. The HHB will take colour fairly easily. I always use one of those infrared thermometers to check the temp. On a bow thick piece of wood, the back will be within about 25-40 degrees of the belly temp. Be careful not to cook the back. HHB takes it pretty well though.
