1st bow questions

[Mark Russell]

This is kind of an offshoot of another thread where people gave me some tips.

This was a 3” Siberian? elm sapling that I cut down 2 years ago to make room for a shed. I split it right away, left the bark on, and sealed the ends with TB2. It sat in the garage for a year while I built cabinets for our house. Last summer I roughed it into this shape. 24 hours later it took this curve.

Now that most of my “honey do” list is done, I’d like to finish it this summer. I’ve done some searching on heat vs. steam. I’ve seen steam for green and heat for dry. I’ve seen steam for the first “bend” and heat thereafter. And, steam for “side to side” and heat for “front to back” bends.

It sounds like there’s no “wrong” way, just ways that may work better in certain situations. It’s not floor tillered yet, so I still have wood to take off of the belly.

If this were your bow, what would you do next?

[Mark Russell]

another one

[Mark Russell]

another one

[Julian]

I'd steam that and try and bend it through the middle section.

You'd want to make sure the bow was still in the steam while you apply the bend. Maybe by using weights instead of clamps, as I know some do.

[Aksel]

Looks promising! I would steam it at the grip and clamp and bend it a bit beyond straight. Im sure other on here have much more experience on bending wood though. keep us posted.

[DC]

Looks promising! I would steam it at the grip and clamp and bend it a bit beyond straight. Im sure other on here have much more experience on bending wood though. keep us posted.

+1

[Weylin]

Yup, steam that handle and get the string alignment going right through the handle. Should be smooth sailing from there. 

[Mark Russell]

Steam is kind of what I was leaning towards - I appreciate the help.

I'll try to let everyone know how things go, but with projects around the house, I'm kinda slow to get back to my "fun" projects.

Thanks again.

[jeffp51]

Take two  1-foot lengths of 2x4 and cut a slit in each that will fit your limbs.  Wrap the handle with a damp cloth and wrap the cloth in aluminium foil. I also pad the limbs with some paper towels in the braces to make sure they don't twist.  Heat the center section with a heat gun  and slowly tighten a C-clamp until you are just a little past your target bend.  Let it cool and unclamp.  Works great for alignment issues.

[Mark Russell]

Wow. Never thought of steaming like that. I just had a piece of duct work over a pot of water and had to steam the whole thing.