Heat treating vs. heat manipulating

[Pat B]

...there is a difference!  Heat treating(aka tempering) is a process by which a bow's belly wood is heated to a charred surface to increase and improve the compression properties of that wood.
 When you heat the bow wood to bend or straighten it you only want enough heat to plasticize the wood so it can be manipulated.
When I use heat to manipulate wood I usually use oil on the wood to prevent scorching. This allows me to make the change without drying out the wood too much. Steaming also does this. When I temper a bows belly I want to scorch the wood, solidifying the resins and cell walls to make that wood more compression strong.
 It seem to me that some folks are interchanging or at least not understanding what these terms mean.

[IdahoMatt]

Good info and easy to understand 

[lebhuntfish]

Thanks Pat, this will help me explain this process to a couple of friends of mine. They are about as stubborn as I was when I first started.   Patrick

[PatM]

I actually think people use a similar amount of heat for either scenario now. "Charring" the wood has been proven to be unnecessary.
 If you are heating the wood enough to plasticize it and change the shape it's being tempered too.
 Almost everyone tempers while adding reflex so it's just a full bow heat bending rather than just a localized correction.

[Pat B]

 Pat, my point is that they are generally two different processes. I wrote this so folks that are new to bow building won't confuse these terms and actions. In a recent post someone was talking about heat treating yew. He meant heating the yew so he could bend in some recurves. When I see "heat treating" I think of tempering and not heat manipulation.

[Dances with squirrels]

I never scorch bow wood. But yes, I agree the distinction is warranted.