Heat Treating Hickory

[Arrowbuster]

I am in the process of building a hickory bow. I have heat treated it early on, before tillering. I got it pretty brown. After tiller the char is all gone. My question is, would it be beneficial to heat treat again? I am probably 5 pounds heavy from final weight at this point. Just curious if it would be a waste of time or if it could cause checking? limbs are pretty thin as I am shooting for mid 40s weight . Any help here will be greatly appreciated.

[superdav95]

Personally I’ve had better luck with shagbark hickory over other varieties of hickory for heat treating.  This also goes for checking a well.  I don’t think it’s a major difference but a little.  You could narrow the bow a little if really thin now and still heavy.  If you have removed the char and have clear grained wood at your final tiller it’s ok.  You may have got deep enough to get a good bake.  Did you have the cook go about mid way through the thickness of the limb?  If it was more a shallow bake then it may be beneficial to do another light bake to get a little deeper without charring the belly.  I’ve done this before with good results.  It’s hard to give advise with out seeing the belly of the limbs.  So long as you do t let the heat travel too much to the back you’ll be fine.   Post a couple pics.  Cheers

Dave

[Arrowbuster]

Dave, yes I got into the wood pretty good on initial heating. The stave is pignut hickory. I tnarrowed limbs a tad and lightly toasted it again. We will see how it turns out.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

If you got a good solid heat treat the first go then you won’t notice any difference with a second heat treat. But if you suspect the heat treat was a little shallow then you may see bit of a difference. I like to slow heat the limbs until I can feel the back getting warm so I know the heat has made it well into the wood. Then I bring the heat gun closer and move it slower and do repeated passes until I get some good color.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I prefer to just heat shape the bow and tiller it out 60-70%. Then put a proper temper to it. They hold my intended shape much better and the hardness a proper temper adds to the wood is still evident when I'm done. I will say if you cant feel the belly being harder than usual hickory your heat gun work is long gone. A good way to test it is with a screw driver, or , some other steel object. Tap the belly and listen to the note that rings out. Do that same thing on an untreated piece and you will hear a distinct difference. Tempering is hardening/stiffening the belly. Not just "toasting" it.

[superdav95]

I prefer to just heat shape the bow and tiller it out 60-70%. Then put a proper temper to it. They hold my intended shape much better and the hardness a proper temper adds to the wood is still evident when I'm done. I will say if you cant feel the belly being harder than usual hickory your heat gun work is long gone. A good way to test it is with a screw driver, or , some other steel object. Tap the belly and listen to the note that rings out. Do that same thing on an untreated piece and you will hear a distinct difference. Tempering is hardening/stiffening the belly. Not just "toasting" it.

Very true!  I do somewhat the same.  I will floor tiller to brace or just past it then cook it.  Sure makes a big difference with heat treatment. 

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I love the ring of a freshly heat treated bow. Especially black locust, that stuff really rings. And I can tell I’m still in hardened wood since the rolled edge on my scraper wears off before I can finish tillering.

Kyle

[Buckskinner]

Ya beat me to it coon-catcher, your scraper will tell you where you're at with your heat treat as well as sound.

[Arrowbuster]

Thank you everyone for all the advice. Very helpful for a rookie.