Fire Hardening Board Bow

[yote20]

Hey all,

First time posting.  Been dabbling for a while now but only with boards.  I've broken them all but one.  The surviving one came in under weight.  My question is can a bow from a board be fire hardened? That might be a dumb question.  I'm just wondering because most of the fire hardening info I see is in regards to staves. The bow is a 70" red oak pyramid style. Drawing 40lbs at 29". Would shortening the bow be a better option? The limbs are 2 inches wide till mid limb and then fading to half inch nocks. I'm trying to increase the weight if I can. My attempts in the past, I believe, were because I rushed things and inexperience. I've only used red oak. I haven't been able to find anything with good grain in another species like hickory or maple.  That's what happened this time as well but at least it survived.  Thanks for the help!

Aaron

[Pat B]

Same advise I gave you on TradGang. 

[willie]

AAron,

fire hardening will increase the strain and piking will also, presuming you draw it to the same drawlength.  Will it break? who knows? I generally like to keep the strain a bit on the lower side with board bows as the back will never be as continous as with a stave bow. Other factors raise strain also.   we like pics! a full draw shot will help get the comments

BTW, welcome, and in the words of a recently departed board bow master. "if you aint breaking, then you aint making"

[yote20]

I ended up breaking it when re-tillering. I did try to fire harden it but it was my first time and I think I over did it. I had another piece laying around so I started on another. Its not near as wide only an 1 1/4" so we'll see. I'm shooting for 50lbs at 29"