Dry heat vs. Heat gun using oil ?

[George Tsoukalas]

I am of Greek ancestry so I use olive oil.
Just kidding. I use bacon grease because  it's cheap.
Jawge

[Dances with squirrels]

Heat corrections can easily be made without scorching the wood, without oil. If the wood changes color at all, the gun's too close and/or moving too slow.

[bradsmith2010]

ok if your not using  a gun, and using fire or coals,, I think the oil does reduce scorching,, but if you have a gun,, maybe its not an issue at all,,

[bentstick54]

Due to city code fire or coals is not an option.  Neighbors would turn me in.

Paulsemp, do you use it for corrections/bending, or just tempering?

[DC]

Can you use a drying oil, like linseed? Maybe put a little finish on while heat treating?

[Pat B]

I have always used oil for bending and correcting but no oil for tempering (heat treating).

[Fox]

I use oil/beezwax in my last heat treat  to help keep moister out and makes a nice finish... i dont believe it changes the depth of the heat treat if your using oil or not using oil. As for water/oil penetrating into wood.... all the different kinds of wood is different but in forestry school you learn that there are 3 kinds of wood that will hold water and not seep into the wood, white oak, Osage orange, and locust ( i probly forgot some) and i dont feel oil goes very deep on those woods. Now hickory it seems to seep quite deep. You can tell by heating oil into a peice of wood then carving down and heating the wood and the oil will seep out of the wood after carving maybe 1/4" or so.... long ramble   

-Fox

[Hamish]

When heating osage I used to occasionally get tiny cracks on the back. Using oil stopped this from happening.

[Pat B]

Sealing the back with shellac will prevent the checks in the back. It's easy enough to remove later.

[Flyonline]

With proper prep, I've never had problems adding finish to a bow I've used oil and heat on, not just a finish, not rawhide and other soft backings and not sinew backing.

 

Figured as much as lots of people do it, but wondered if there was another step in there to remove the oil etc. that was so obvious that it was never mentioned.

[Pat B]

I wash the back of the bow with Dawn dish soap and rinse with boiling water. I also wash the backing material with Dawn and rinse with warm water. This not only cleans the grease used when heating, finger prints and any residual oil in the wood and backing material off but preps the surfaces for the water based glues I use, ie. hide glue and TBIII.