Heat treating twice?

[lauderw55]

Hey guys got another one for you. I am working currently on a hickory bend through the handle bow. I got the bow bending and floor tinkered it and decided to heat treat the belly. Now I have filleted to to about 20 inches (max draw 26") and was thinking about heat treating the belly again before finishing up the tiller. My question is it possible to hear treat a bow twice without harming it? Any advice would be appeticated!

[Knotty]

I think that , depending on the seasoning of the wood, if you heat treat it twice it may actually make the wood brittle , that even happens when adding reflex to tips some times.

Don't take my answer as definitive, let's see if other more experienced people answer your post .
Good luck! 😉

[Joec123able]

Should be fine, especially with hickory.

[Stick Bender]

I have only made 3 hickory bows but asked the same question as you before & was told by some exspereinced bowers on here that it probably was not a good idea , hickory is a very strong forgiving wood but some times does pop spliters in un back bows I have had that happen with a well tillered bow but if I were going to do it I would wait tell it was completly tillered & treat out the set with a little reflex and adjust the weight.

[Pappy]

I wouldn't call what I do exactly  heat treating but I usually heat and straighten and add some reflex to a bow before tillering , right after floor tiller , then when I get it out to 20 inches or so I put it back on the form for a final round. I always leave it a few day after that in a humidity controlled area  to let it rehydrate before finishing the tiller. 
 Pappy

[DuBois]

I think that if you are wanting to "toast the belly" to gain wt then it should still do that because you probably tillered off most of the wood you toasted before. I have had heat bends come undone on bows when I toasted the belly so now I understand why Pappy gets em back in the form first.
Doobs

[lauderw55]

My main concern is to try and prevent not strong follow by hardening the belly. But my concern was that I didn't want to overheat the wood by doing it twice and in turn making it weaker

[rps3]

I have toasted hickory bows twice with good results.

[lauderw55]

I went ahead and tried it so I guess I will see the results first hand.

[crooketarrow]

  Here's my views, for what there worth. Heat treathing early, why do it when your taking away the wood your treating.  Heat treating dos'nt treat the whole bow it only go's 1/8 th to 3 /16's deep. Your suppose to finish your tillering. And it you do your toasting evenly your tiller won't change. Your bow weight will pick up at least TEMP.

  HEATING CHANGES THE WOOD CELL STRUTURE. Here's something else to think about. With you toast the belly your dehydrating the belly again also changing the woods cells structure. Dehydrating the belly, changing the cell structures also makes woods like hickory has belly compression. way less then it could be.

   Personally any heating isn't good for any wood IN THE LONG RUN. Woods like hickory toasting the belly will temp. make your bow pick up a few pounds. I promass you in a year or 3 and as most of you know that answer, String follow down the line.

 I've build at least 30 hickory bows. Lots of heat heating when I startedbuilding bow the first few years. Why because you were suppose to ,you learned to do this way. Dos'nt mean it's the right way to do it. EVEN IF IT'S NOT A SOUND THING TO DO PEOPLE STILL DO IT.

  Any unheated bow out last a heat bow. I've had unheated bows reach 10, 12,15 years. A lot you'll never see a bow that's use'd that's been heated reach that old.

  Remember heat those bows because that's the way your surppose to do it.

  Plus if you heat treat if to quicky to hot your diffentely looking at excessive string follow.

[Del the cat]

I think that if you are wanting to "toast the belly" to gain wt then it should still do that because you probably tillered off most of the wood you toasted before. I have had heat bends come undone on bows when I toasted the belly so now I understand why Pappy gets em back in the form first.
Doobs

+1
Del

[Pappy]

I know this is your pet pee crooketarrow, and not wanting to open a can of worms, but I to have built a lot of bows also, and I didn't learn from the start about heat treating or even heat bending , I use to make what ever the stave allowed and also as you do , I use to bend them like I wanted while green, I can assure you since I started heating and bending and adding reflex and heat treating I don't get near as much string follow or bends pulling out as I did before I used heat. Also I have many bow that have reached that 10/12 year age and still shoot fine and still hold what I did to them. JMO.
 Pappy