advice on dry heat bending...

[Scrub_buck]

I may have just screwed up royally!!!

I discovered that my first osage selfbow had a design flaw.  I had it tillered good and I was noticing a heavy arrow slap and fishtailing arrows while shooting it in.  Well, after pulling a string along its length unbraced (belly-up), I noticed the string falling to the right side of the handle.  It would be way better being a left handed bow where the string was.     

Well, I decided to try and move the string over to the left side of the handle to make it work better for me (right handed shooter).  I noticed a curve that I could straighten about 1/2 way the top limb ... and figured that if i worked on that curve, it would slide the tip over some to help align better the string.     

After carefully heating and bending it, I have the unbraced string doing what I want, but I am not sure of the consequences of heating and bending a tillered limb.  Hopefully there will be no ill effects, but I suppose the worst case scenario would be me having to re-tiller the bow?  It is fairly stout and if i have to loose some pounds reworking the limb, that will be OK, but I'd rather have a bow that shoots well than one that shoots kind-of crappy because of string misalignment.

The weird thing is ... I checked that earlier in the process, and it was fine ... would it have moved around some during the stresses of tillering and shooting in?   

[GregB]

If you got one edge of a limb thinner at a spot then the other it could cause the limb to rotate some and get the string alignment off. I suppose it could change some shooting it in as well.

As for tweaking a limb as you did with dry heat, it could cause it to get a little stiffer at that spot due to the heat treatment. I doubt you'll see much change in the tiller. I would give it a few days after the tweaking to let it recover before doing much bending. If you have plenty of weight, that will allow you to adjust the tiller if need be as you've said.

[bigcountry]

I have never had good luck (only tried 2 times) bending a side to side limb after its flattened.   I would bend in the handle if it was me.

[aruge]

Why don't you just use the top limb for the bottom limb. Al

[xin]

aruge, My thoughts exactly.  Why mess with heat when you can just flip the bow?

[Scrub_buck]

Could not flip the bow ... I already had the bottom limb 1.5 inches shorter ... and I had made a locator type grip. 

I had the string centered before tillering, so I guess the limbs moved some with tillering and shooting in about 150 shots or so. 

I basically was just about ready to sand and seal the thing when I kept noticing the arrow slap.  When I repulled the tight string when it was unbraced today, that's when I noticed the string was laying along the extreme right side of the riser (belly up) ... making it nearly a center shot bow string configuration for a lefty.

 

[Josh]

hey scrub, what if you just removed more wood from the arrow pass side of the bow instead to compensate?  I had to do that to the Osage bow that I am working on right now and it helped alot. You can also use this in combination with cutting deeper string grooves on the offending side to move the string over.   I wouldn't do this though if you arlready thinned the tips down.   It's worth a try.  -josh

[Pappy]

You shouldn't have any trouble ,maybe just a little tweak of the tiller,I bend them like that all the time.Sometimes 2 or 3 time on a snaky stave to get it lined up like I want it.  Sometimes if the stave wasn't seasoned really well they will twist  a little once you get them thinned down and start tillering and they dry more.
   Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

I fixed a bow for Steve Skinner the other day, he had been shooting it for several years. The string was 2 inches off the right side of the handle and he is right handed shooter. First I tweaked a slight dogleg out of the top limb, this moved the string over about 1 inch. Next, I bent the limb over at the arrow pass with heat, perfect string alignment. Osage is wonderful stuff, most but not all lets you bend and shape it any way you want. It is a rare bow that I don't correct with heat some time during or after it's construction.