heat treating is not necessary :)

[Bryce]

a great shooting bow can be made with no heat treating,,,
 and sometimes your odds of success are greater when not heat treating,,if it might force the stave below a safe moiture content,, thats a consideration for me living in the high desert,,   just saying,,

True. But we here at PA STRIVE for excellence. So we heat treat:) lol

[Deerhunter21]

hot hackberry just smells good to me... 

[rps3]

I never look forward to heat treating. I need to find a better way to do it while doing something else at the same time, it just seems to drag on. But I wont make a whitewood bow without heat treating anymore, it makes a better bow in my experience.

[bradsmith2010]

 rps3,,,,my newest heat treating method addresses that issue,, please refer to new post,,
aslo to avoid confusion,, I am not sure if you guys are heat treating the old way,, new way,,, or secret way,,,

[DC]

Secret, I'm planning a DVD

[wstanley]

Wow,,,that's amazing,..looking forward to seeing your bow

In progress of course. 32” straight across, 40” along bow. Tips are not as dramatic as the Miwok bow above. Will dry for at least a few months. Will then floor tiller and sinew back to get more reflex I hope and without breaking! Purely a trial never made one like this. Only read of one account where ash was used by the Sierra Miwok. I figured I would try it since it can be found growing directly adjacent to their preferred incense cedar bow wood choice. They also used Baywood apparently.

[Jjpso]

I never heat-treated a whole bow until a couple of months ago when I got the silicon heating pad. Since then I heat-treated the whole belly of about 20 bows for about an hour bending them slightly backward to remove all string follow, almost all of them made of white wood. It does make the compression strength of the belly a lot stronger. I even ruined a trapped oak bow by bending it too early after the treatment by causing a back tension failure splinter. I must have pulled it much more than its old draw weight. I still cannot pull most of them to their original draw length by pulling to their original draw weight. Not even close. They might have gained more than 10 pounds of draw weight. It might be still too risky after more than a month. So far I have no way of knowing whether the increased compression strength and reduced set will hold long term. I am even keeping several bows stringed for days to see if their original string follow returns. Just be careful about heat-treating the whole bow too long.

Hello scp. Can you please explain what that silicon heat pad is? What is your experience with it, are you satisfied? Does it generate enough heat so the belly of the bow changes color? I am looking for something that could replace a heat gun for heat treating and that seems promising... thanks in advance, regards from Portugal!

[Limbit]

I don't know why more people don't use incense cedar. Handles compression better than just about any wood. It is ridiculously soft though.

[Marc St Louis]

Wow,,,that's amazing,..looking forward to seeing your bow

In progress of course. 32” straight across, 40” along bow. Tips are not as dramatic as the Miwok bow above. Will dry for at least a few months. Will then floor tiller and sinew back to get more reflex I hope and without breaking! Purely a trial never made one like this. Only read of one account where ash was used by the Sierra Miwok. I figured I would try it since it can be found growing directly adjacent to their preferred incense cedar bow wood choice. They also used Baywood apparently.

Looks a bit familiar

[bradsmith2010]

Wow Marc,,,that is beautiful...has it been finished,,,are u still working on it,,,.more info please

[wstanley]

Wow,,,that's amazing,..looking forward to seeing your bow

In progress of course. 32” straight across, 40” along bow. Tips are not as dramatic as the Miwok bow above. Will dry for at least a few months. Will then floor tiller and sinew back to get more reflex I hope and without breaking! Purely a trial never made one like this. Only read of one account where ash was used by the Sierra Miwok. I figured I would try it since it can be found growing directly adjacent to their preferred incense cedar bow wood choice. They also used Baywood apparently.

Looks a bit familiar

Very cool! How did it turn out Marc?

[Marc St Louis]

The one at the top was this bow which I finished in late 1990 early 2000, don't exactly remember when.  It was a sinew backed Yellow Birch.  I tested that bow to 185 fps using 10 GPP arrows and a dacron string, pretty sure it would have reached 190 under ideal conditions







The bottom bow was this one finished maybe a couple years earlier.  It was a sinew backed Elm.  It was about the same speed, maybe a touch slower, using the same tests parameters.





I still have both bows although haven't shot them in years

I also made this one around the same time, a sinew backed HHB

[Stick Bender]

I love the finished profile on that one Mark , I have no daught it would do 190fps , Brad here is my thoughts on heat treating , all though not necessary to make a decent hunting self bow , it sure helps to get some good starting reflex , its  preety hard to find a natural stave with 4"-5" of starting reflex at least osage all though Im sure there around but I would bet the heat treated version would hold more reflex in the end, I think heat treating can make a usable bow out of a other wise non usable stave the bow in the pic as a example it had a huge lateral bend that would have put the arrow way out side the handle had I not used some form of heat or billet joint ,it would have been a shame to
to let it set ,sence  its the best performing self bow to date for me !

[bradsmith2010]

Yes,,,nice points,,,heat treating can be very positive,..useful..and bring a bow to full potential,..

Marc,..thanks for posting those vintage screamers,..I was happy to hit 150 back then....I bet with fast flight,..195 on those guys,,....I bet the weight has gone up too

[silent sniper]

Great looking sinew recurves Marc, they are an inspiration!
-Taylor