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Bows / Re: Fire Hardening
« Last post by superdav95 on November 30, 2025, 02:19:08 am »Interesting discussion. Heat treating or fire hardening is essentially the same thing. It transforms the cells containing the lignins and pectins in the wood and hardens them. Ive done a lot of testing on various white woods including bamboo. I’ve only done heat treatment to a mild degree on Osage as others have mentioned already. I did see improvements performance wise in Osage too. With hickory I noticed that the belly wood actually compresses a tiny bit and shrinks when a deeper heat treatment is done. Meaning browning through the thickness of the limb. I’ve noticed this same result with elm and ironwood. The heat treatment also makes the wood more hydrophobic meaning it takes on or retains less moisture. This is also a great benefit for woods like hickory. Bamboo on the other hand expands slightly when heat treatment is done till browning occurs. I also hear a hissing when treating bamboo. I always need to re flatten the belly before glue up due to this occurring if used for a laminate bow. Yew is another species that cannot tolerate the heat like white woods can. Erc and junipers would be similar for heat tolerance. Especially dry. Any time I’ve had to do more then minor corrections in these woods specifically I use steam. It’s safer. I’ll sometimes use oil on yew now and then too.
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