removing propeller twist

[Black Moshannon]

I am working on a hickory D bow. This one is 67" long by 1 1/4 wide right now. I have worked it down to floor tiller size, flattened the belly, and now its drying. I am going to let it get down to around ten percent and then do some steaming to straighten some deflexed spots and introduce a little backset and reflex, then it'll go in the dryer to get down to six percent. One of the limbs has a small amount of twist in it. It's not that I couldn't work around it, but I mean this bow to be as perfect as possible. I would like to remove it on steaming day. My problem is since I currently have no workshop this makes things difficult, there's no workbench or way to clamp this down to a surface. The other stuff is easy to do with the press thingy I made which I use with C-clamps.

My best idea right now is to use all the railroad ties sitting outback. I'll steam the spot in a fire outside and then stick the end of the bow in a crack between the ties and just grip and twist and hold until it cools. Any other ideas out there?

[Eric Krewson]

Your idea will work just fine, just heat the area you want to correct and be cautious you don't put any unnecessary stress in the limbs that might cause a bend in a direction you don't want.

I hand twist static tips in a vise to line them up. I put the tip in a vise and tweak the bow handle to move the tip over. In my case I don't hold the correction until it cools, once corrected I take the hot tip out of the vise and let it cool, it always retains the correction.