Heat bending recurve Osage self bow

[Springbuck]

No, no, no!    Nope, not leather, wood.

What you want is a nice, strong, thin slat of wood you can either curve ahead of time with heat or steam, a scrap piece of osage or ipe, maybe, OR multiple thin layers so they conform to the curve you want on the recurve.

   You sand or plane out the cracks on the belly side of the curve, or at least down in to the wood, making it very flat and squared up, then glue the slat on to the belly to reinforce the recurve, basically replacing the wood you had to sand out, and then some.  Then you trim any extra and smooth in the transition so you don't leave a stair step where your recurves start.

[Danzn Bar]

I was sending the same time ......................
An underlay with leather will not give you back the strength you need from wood. a thin layer of wood is needed.  But first remove the crack and continue tillering and see if the wood is bending too much compared to the rest of the limb at your target weight before you add the underlay.  chances are you will not need the underlay.  How thick and how wide is the limb at the crack?  And how far is it from the tip? How long is you bow? and one more question what is your target weight?  I ask these questions because I might be able to tell if you need a underlay or not.
DBar

[Danzn Bar]

As PatB says it is called an underlay not a overlay.  Maybe Springbuck can tell you how to add an underlay to a recurve tip.
DBar

BTW an overlay is a layer of wood on the back side of the bow an a underlay is on the belly side of the bow....

Really?  I didn't know there was a strict definition.  How did I miss that?  I've been calling it an overlay for over 20 years regardless whether it went on back or belly.

Well..... all I can say is that you haven't payed attention to details for over 20 years.....
DBar

[burchett.donald]

       On Osage, I like dry heat on a caul for reflex...Serious bends always get steam, for me, I have had better success using steam time after time, no issues...My theory is the wet outer wood seams to stretch better with moisture instead of the dry heat expansion...Especially on thin ringed Osage...No scorch and nothing brittle in the bend...Osage bends like butter with the right temperature but I feel safer and have had great results with steam...I will never change back now...
                                                                                                Don

[Badger]

       I would flex the bow before I did anything, if the area in questions is still stiff you are good to go without any special treatment. A cosmetic crack that may not have any effect on the bow itself. If the bow is appreciably thicker at that point you can sand it out if you like if not you may just choose to live with it.

[apg]

Thanks everyone. I took the bow off the jig this afternoon and scraped and sanded the horizontal crack out of it. It wasn’t deep, but I had to fix the tiller so lost about 5  it feels like.

But it’s smoOth, there are no weird noises and this method helped a lot.

In future I’m going to recurve the bow before I get to final roller and weight, to keep space for exactly this issue.

Thanks all so much again.

Ash

[Danzn Bar]

Glad to here it worked out for ya.....
DBar