Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Pappy on June 23, 2015, 07:05:10 am
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I have been working on a dog wood bow I cut and roughed out in 2005. As it turned out then I made a bad cut and it turned out only 1 3/8 at the handle and straight tapered to some very small tips. 60inches T-T 58 N-N. I let it set in the cabin until a few weeks ago and decided to see what I can do with it. I have it out to 48@26 and it is shooting fine but seem to have taken a little set, kind of funny tho, just a minute after unstrung almost all of the reflex comes back.
I am wondering, :-\ finally the question ;) How does Dog Wood do heat treating, I never really heat treat bows except to add reflex or tweak something, just wondering if I really did a heat treating how that would work out. I don't think it is wet , :-\been keeping it in a hot box at 90+ when not working on it but the box is in my outside shop and the humidity is high in TN. right now. Most wood I have dealt with that was wet wouldn't come back if you shot them that way. I have only built 2 dog wood bows and that was years ago so looking for someone that has a little experience with the wood and effect of heat treating. good or bad. Your thoughts on it would be appreciated. :)Here are a few pictures when I started tillering, I have sense got to full brace and out to my draw, sorry no pictures of full draw, by myself yesterday. It may just be to narrow for what I wanted if that is the case I will turn it into a kids bow,it was just all I had to work with. :)
Pappy
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I think a little heat would go a long way to help reduce the set.
Grady
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Was that top picture after shooting? I have only made a couple of dog wood bows myself. About the same width as yours but about 64" long. I had a similar problem with taking a little set. I remember liking the bows but not being favorites. In my case heat treating may have helped but not enough. Mine ended up wit a tad of string follow.
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Thanks, No Steve that was after it came off the form. It started with about 2 1/2 reflex not counting the flipped tips when I started, after tillering it had about 1 1/2. After shooting 25 or so arrows and full draw it was about flat but the funny thing was in just a very short time it was back to 2. :) So I don't think Moisture content is the problem. Not sure what it is , never really check that on any bows, I just go by how they feel and this one feel very good at brace and working the wood with very good brace string tension. :)
Pappy
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Pappy, most whitewoods react well to belly tempering and I'd bet dogwood would too. I've never worked dogwood but that would be my guess.
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Sounds like a pretty decent bow but it just aint osage. I run into that with white woods quite often.
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Well good or bad :-\ I gave a good heat treatment last evening, we will see what that does for it. Thanks. :)
Pappy
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Let us know Pappy. I for one am interested to see how this turns out. I have a very straight one growing tall in a wind row that is ready to cut.
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I should know by the weekend, I plan on giving it a few day to rehydrate. ;)Some say that's
not necessary but I think I will give it a few days anyway. :)
Pappy
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I've built 4 dogwood bows through the years. The first one did I temper the belly. The other 3 the defex was add while green. Seems to me dogwood has better than adverge cast. My bows were fastand a snappy bows.
But I'm not a fan of heat on any working parts. So the one I belly tempered was the only one I added any heat to.
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I've only made 2 bows of dogwood, and tried heating one. It seemed to work so-so, but I don't think I heated it very deep. such a nice wood to work though, carves like soap
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I've made a couple and heat treating turned them into no set rocket launchers 8)
One of my favourite woods but it only grows many miles away from here.
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Thanks guys, well it's heated so we will see, looks good off the form and it really needed a little something so I am hoping this will help. Hope it turns out like yours Mike, If not I always know a kid that needs a bow. ;) :)Mike we have tons of it around us, sometimes hard to find a good straight one, it grows slow and low around here and most is twisted and knotty also. :) This happened to be a clean one pretty much, just wished I hadn't made the bad cut on it and had a little more wood to have worked with. Update next week. ;) :)
Pappy
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Ed, (forest farmer), pointed out a nice big dogwood to me on your place when we were shooting the second half of the course at the classic Pappy. Lucky for you we weren't packing a chain saw. ;D ;D ;D
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Ed, (forest farmer), pointed out a nice big dogwood to me on your place when we were shooting the second half of the course at the classic Pappy. Lucky for you we weren't packing a chain saw. ;D ;D ;D
Yeah.... I always end up drooling over a couple of the dogwoods i see while shooting the course. I think Pappy will be real pleased with the results of heat treated dogwood.
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Thanks, you know you would have been welcome Greg. ;) I plan on stringing it back up this evening and see what I got. :)
Pappy
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Got it strung and back out to 47@26,seems to shoot fine but still no barn burner, it holds about 1 inch of reflex now right after un stringing and a couple after it sets for a while. It has a couple of pin's in the mid limb that are worrisome so I decide to raw hide back it, it will make a solid shooter but I don't think worthy of the Coral snakes I had planned for it. Should make a good hunting bow. The weight is good and smooth draw with no hand shock and very quite, deer don't really know how fast a bow is anyway ;) :) I will get some full draw pictures of it as soon as I get the raw hide finished. Thanks for you comments. :)
Pappy
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Looks good from my seat pappy. RyanR gave me a big ol' 1/4 log of dogwood at Marshall. I'll have to split a stick off and see how it goes, maybe this winter.
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Seems to be prone to taking on moisture which really surprises me even if it is what we would call white wood, very hard and pretty dense when seasoned. Good news, it's tough as nails so if nothing else it should make a dependable bow and that is what I look for most anyway, so I guess I should just quick my whining. ??? ;) :)
Pappy
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It looks good from my angle.
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Blackhawk made a long skinny ELB looking bow at Marshall from dogwood. He is in Colorado now, or he'd be chiming in.
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Little bit short for a Whitewood bow Pappy
Glad the heat helped a bit, always does
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Looking good, let's see more ...
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I hear ya Guy but it is all I had to work with, ;) got the rawhide on and trimmed up nice, hope to shoot it some this weekend if I can find the time and the rain will stop , also some full draw pictures. :)
Pappy
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Tim Baker always swears there is no way to tell the difference in wood when you are drawing it. He might be right. But I could swear I always felt a nice smooth feel on dog wood that I don't feel on any other wood.
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It is very smooth drawing Steve, I didn't get time to shoot it this weekend, to much going on getting ready for the IBO world but did get the rawhide work done, so it is ready to shoot and finish up as soon as I get time. :)
Pappy
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Had a little worry with a knot, it hadn't given any trouble but thought better be safe than sorry and raw hide is no trouble to add and I have plenty of it. :)It has been shot 25/30 times since the heat treating and still holding pretty good reflex so I think the heating has helped or maybe I just finally got it dry. :-\ :)
Pappy
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Sorry I'm late to this party,,and looks like ya got her spanked alfeady....but FWIW n my two cents...I like dogwood...I think its most similar and close to hhb,but maybe just a smidgen less. But most all whitewood falls in the same category in my small book.... ive only made a few dogwoods,but I've liked em all. They've all been "sweet" drawing and shooting bows. Maybe not no barn burners,but the feel of its draw and arrow placements was really good(which matters more to me anyways)...Its def worth the effort to heat treat it,and try to keep its mc low like hickory.