Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: scp on January 13, 2010, 08:21:13 pm
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Even though heat treatment works well, it is too time-consuming and tedious to do it with a heat gun. Of course, it would be possible to use more than a few heat guns or halogen lamps in tandem. But only if you can manage not to blow the fuse. Has anyone here tried to use some other "non-primitive" equipments like a flexible heating element? Is there even such a thing that is capable of producing 400 degrees Fahrenheit but still available to an ordinary consumer?
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Dunno. I've only heat treated a couple of bows and my $20.00 heat gun from Lowe's brown's the limb up fairly quick - even in my fair weather shop.
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Cowbow, good for you. Frankly, spending an hour with a bow cannot be that bad. Holding the heat gun in the hand might be my problem. I should just make a heat gun holder. Any good design ideas other than the one in the Traditional Bowyer's Bible?
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Even though heat treatment works well, it is too time-consuming and tedious to do it with a heat gun.
Let me start by saying I'm not trying to be a smart Alec, I mean this very sincerely.
I'm building bows with a rasp and a scraper and you ask if heat treating is too time consuming. ??? I don't do it to mass produce as fast as I can, I do it because I enjoy spending the time doing it. A heat gun is plenty fast for me.
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blow torch ? >:D
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Even though heat treatment works well, it is too time-consuming and tedious to do it with a heat gun. Of course, it would be possible to use more than a few heat guns or halogen lamps in tandem. But only if you can manage not to blow the fuse. Has anyone here tried to use some other "non-primitive" equipments like a flexible heating element? Is there even such a thing that is capable of producing 400 degrees Fahrenheit but still available to an ordinary consumer?
Yes. Fire. It's cheap. A bed of coals works pretty good to toast a bow belly over if you're careful. I think Marc has used an electric hotplate before, and I've tried a coleman campstove. Still hard to beat the heat gun.
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Has anyone ever done a pig in a dirt pit I wonder if you dug a small trench along the fire pit and buried a floor tillered bow a bout two foot off about two foot deep next to the pit would it be a more primitive form of heat tempering or would it just char the thing to death and be like kiln drying and make a crispy critter? just thinking out loud !
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That might work, if you buried the coals in sand, and lay the bow across the top. I think that if you buried it, you would get more of a baked potato effect, rather than just heating the belly. I recall from Marc's article in PA, that he did use a hot plate.
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I never noticed that heat treating a bow belly with a hand held heat gun took any longer that any other bow building technique...and who's in a rush anyway!
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Ive heard it said many times,and i concur,that the best tool a bowyer has is Patience.
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I'm also concerned about the evenness of the heat treatment. Not to mention the waste of electricity unless you can also use the heat generated where you live. After some Googling, I found out that we can actually get the specialty flexible heaters used in laboratories. Frankly, I'm not into gadgets enough to bother further. But I sure would like to know the way to apply the heat more evenly. Probably just more patience?
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I changed my method a bit a few years ago and it seems to work well as far as keeping it even. I wave the gun back and forth from one end of the limb to the other at about 2 seconds per pass. Takes about 20 min or so and the limb will just start to deepen in color a bit, the back side will bejust to hot to keep your hand on it. I stop there, no scorch or burn marks just a deeping of color and I call it done. Steve
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Good method!!!!
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Badger, that's what I have been doing. Mainly because I am still looking for the better way to hold the heat gun. Have you tried hot sand, hot stone, or the pressing iron?
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I read about a guy that tempered his boo in a pizza oven. Know anyone at Domino's. ::)
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Heat treating wood is not the same as cooking a pig. I like my pig cooked all the way around. If you heat a bow like that you have too much potential to damage the back and cause an explosion.
I do it Steve's way sometimes and other times I will put the heat gun in a holder and set an egg timer. Then I will work on another bow (within a few feet) while the limb is being treated.
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I also use a heat gun and in no hurry,digging a pit ,making coles,then covering I think would take
a lot longer,and I am with Justin,I don't think it would bring you the results you are after.It takes me about 2 beers per limb and that is fast enough for me. ;) ;D ;D
Pappy
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It takes me about 2 beers per limb and that is fast enough for me. ;) ;D ;D
Pappy
If that is how you time it, it must work faster for some than others. ;)
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I changed my method a bit a few years ago and it seems to work well as far as keeping it even. I wave the gun back and forth from one end of the limb to the other at about 2 seconds per pass. Takes about 20 min or so and the limb will just start to deepen in color a bit, the back side will bejust to hot to keep your hand on it. I stop there, no scorch or burn marks just a deeping of color and I call it done. Steve
Badger's method is about the same as mine; I've only done it to a couple bows, but it has worked well.
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Dear old dad tried to treat an osage bow in the ground back in the day and from his report I think it would take a lot of trial and error (not to mention ruined bow's) to perfect it. His turned into some of the purtiest charcoal you ever did see.
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A bed of hardwood coals works quite well and fast. The only thing is it's a bit tricky monitoring the progress.
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Ive heard it said many times,and i concur,that the best tool a bowyer has is Patience.
That's beautiful Traxx:)
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Is that a 12 oz or 16 oz? :) Jawge
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jawge prob double duece. lol , ive been using propane turkey cooker without the pot just open flame
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Usually 12 oz,unless it is an extra long bow.Then 16. :) ;D ;D it's all about the timing Jawges. :)
All jokes aside I use a heat gun and it takes about 20 minutes per limb, normanly. :)
Pappy
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I had a guy tell me he'd used heat tapes before on white woods.
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I don't understand why anyone would want to risk an already finish tillered Bow to a Process that may or may not work as well as a Heat Gun...which you can see what it's doing firsthand ...and monitor the Process by Eye every step of the way..it's so simple and to me it's sort of calming to just stand there and heat each Limb up and feel of the Wood as it's Heating ....and watch it start to bronze up....I don't know...but the is only one Step in the Bow Making Process that I hurry....and thats cleaning up the Shavings that get tracked all over my Wife's House....before She gets Home........ O:)
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El Destructo, have you tried to use a hot stone or a pressing iron? Maybe I just don't like a tool that makes a whooshing sound.
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I am not one to waste time chasing some different method of doing something...when what I use works just fine for Me......JMO
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In South Texas (and other places I'm sure) the Indians buried imperfect stone with hot coals in a heat treatment method to make the rock easier to knap. I would guess they used hot coals to heat treat and bend wood for bows too. We know about them heating arrows for straightening too. I would think that burying a near complete bow , back side down, in damp sand/dirt and then covering (belly up) with dirt and hot coals would be a good heat-treat method and not damage the back. Tom
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I know that I can use my charcoal starter to temper some wood...simple steel cylinder. I've gotten it hot enough to get the metal grill grate cherry red and start to melt...so that would be getting close to the melting point of steel which would be approaching about 1300 degree Fahrenheit. Hmmm...maybe I can heat treat some broad heads.
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Someone may have already mentioned it,but build yourself a heat-gun holder like Marc shows in his heat treating chapter ofTBB.I built one and it works great. God bless
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I regularly use the burner on the electric kitchen stove. It is faster and I feel it gets the wood tempered more evenly do to heating a larger area at once. My brother tempers his bow bellys by holding them in front of the glass door on his wood burner, this also seems to work well. ;D
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I haven't done it with bows yet, but when I am heat treating and straightening arrows, I will get a good bed of hardwood coals in my fire ring, and whilst enjoying an adult beverage or so, temper and straighten my arrows. I see no reason why it wouldn't work fine for bows as well. I can easily imagine our ancestors doing similar activities around the fire.