Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: cool_98_555 on January 23, 2017, 03:30:08 pm
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I want to temper the belly of an osage bow that is already fully tillered and shot in about 50 times. After I get done tempering and give it a few days to re-hydrate, can I scrape off the brown from the belly? I don't like the look of the brown, and if I can scrape it and not loose too much draw weight, that would be nice. I don't want to loose too much draw weight but I still want the performance increase and the yellow belly to remain intact.
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I'm not sure about Osage but anything I've worked on the brown goes in a ways. I think you would lose anything you you gained by scraping it off.
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osage doesnt temper like white woods..if your gonna scrap it off best leave it alone...gut
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If you heat temper any wood properly, the browned part won't be too dark, and will go below the surface a bit at least. More than you want to scrape away. If you get it a uniform nice golden brown all along, scuff sand it and finish it right, it should LOOK great.....
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I just tempered in 2 in. of reflex on a osage bow I'm working on & took it to 400 f temper on the whole bow into the fades and it has a nice even brown hue to the belly I'm tillered to 20 in. Prior to tempering and have some scraping to do but dought the brown will come out , after tempering like that I wait at least 9 days to reaclamate but being winter I'm waiting 2 weeks
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I also prefer not to see the brown. I heat treat while I straighten the limbs. It is usually about 5/8 thick on the limbs at this time. Then the brown comes off during tiller. If you take it off after you will change the weight. Arvin
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I probably won't temper the belly then. The bow I made has no set, but the top limb has a hump about 2 inches from the riser, making that limb angled towards the belly side a bit. It is straight after the hump, but it is angled towards the belly, due to the growth of the tree. Could I heat this limb back to straight with the other limb even if it is fully tillered and shot in? Would it just come back afterwards? Just perfect tiller, in my opinion...just would like that one limb to come back a little bit.
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Can you post a pic ?
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Tempered osage is mean, mean stuff. I know top shelf bowyers who temper all of their osage bows. It will hold its shape like no other. My favorite osage bow was tempered and it looks like it did 5 years ago and Lord knows how many thousands of shots.
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Cool if the tiller is good and the bow shoots like you want. Leave it alone. Get you another stave and continue to learn. I have built 200 and I am still learning. I don't think anyone has built the perfect one yet. Arvin
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I usually do all my heating, reflexing with the stave floor tillered. That seems to give good enough resiliency to avoid set in the first place.
Tempering at any stage does work, especially when combined with a little reflex. I'm sure wood can get sufficiently tempered without it changing colour too dramatically. Scorch marks to my mind are really only occurring due to too much localized heat in one spot for too long, if you can scrape it off and reveal normal coloured wood its a scorch mark, not necessarily a sign of good tempering.