heat source

[Eric Krewson]

I have always used a heat gun with a piece of aluminum angle for a heat deflector, 10 seconds and my arrow shaft is scorching hot.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

And in case you're not aware a heat gun can be had extremely cheap from Harbor Freight or a similar discount tool store.

[willie]

one of those small alcohol lamps like sold for gluing points and nocks seems work well for bamboo. not  much heat needed.

does anyone else just heat the inside of the bend ?

[Mounter]

Thanks for the replies.. Think I'll try a heat gun, I'll need a new one for bows anyway..

I don't think the maple shoot I tried was dry enough before.. When I hit it with the torch I could feel it contract from the heat... Then sorched it trying to get an even heat.. It's been about 3 months now and there's a noticable difference in spine... Time for another try I recon. 

[loon]

Aluminimium! I think aluminum foil should work well too... I've used it for heating PVC for bows. Now, why didn't I think of it for arrow shafts..

Would a 650-750F setting on a heat gun be far too much? Should it be 350 F or something? Maybe 450?

[mullet]

I use a heat gun set up like Pappy or put in the vice. Pretty much used everything one time or another, candle, alcohol lamp, stove, campfire, microwave, if it gets hot it'll work.

[loon]

I use a heat gun set up like Pappy or put in the vice. Pretty much used everything one time or another, candle, alcohol lamp, stove, campfire, microwave, if it gets hot it'll work.

But how hot is optimal?  And how much pressure should be applied? Not enough to make my hands shake?

[DC]

I make mine hot enough that I need gloves to handle it. The pressure goes from less than you would think to not enough to break it. Sometimes the low end is a very light tweak, say less than it takes to break a toothpick.The problem I had when I started was bending it too much and then thinking I hadn't bent it at all but now it was bent the other way. It's time consuming but for a few it's worth marking the high side with a pencil so you're actually sure you haven't overbent it and are just chasing your tail. This will give you an idea of how much is too much. Sometimes it takes so little it makes you wonder why shooting them or hitting the target doesn't bend them. maybe it does.

[Eric Krewson]

I have posted this before but some might not have seen it. I used a piece of the same aluminum angle to make a holster for my heat gun and attached it to my workbench where the gun would be easily accessible but not in a place I can burn myself on the hot end, been there done that.

[DC]

My gun says you are supposed to stand the gun on it's back end til it cools. I remember Del saying that he melted one out by not turning it upside down for cooling. You've had no problems??

[Redhand]

I use a improvised hot plate and soapstone.  It seems to work pretty good for me.

[Eric Krewson]

No problems since I made the holster about 10 years ago. I dropped one heat gun on the floor one too many times and broke the ceramic, got one too close to a stave (touching) while heat treating and burned it up, have been using my latest gun for 2 years, no problems.

[archeryrob]

Man, there is a ton of High tech primitive guys on here.   

I use a candle and bacon grease to keep from scorching the shafts. I'm always hungry when straightneing shafts and can't figure out why.

[Pappy]

Never calmed to be primitive archeryrob, I just make stuff from natural material  Hard to say how hot, but usually hot enough to touch but to hot to hold on to very long, their is a learning curve to straightening arrow shafts but with a little practice you will catch on pretty quick, I take the bad kinks out first time around , then let everything cool and then go back sometimes several time tweaking them until I get them straight, another thing some just can't understand, they don't have to be prefect, as long as the tip and the knock line up they will usually fly just fine even if they have a few small kinks in between. I always build mine 1 at a time and bare shaft shoot them until they fly right, I found that helps in the frustrations of putting all the time in to building a dozen complete and have several of them not fly right. Building 1 at a time I can be sure they all do just what I want from an arrow and that is see nothing but nock when I shoot it /quite and hit what I am looking at if I do my part.
 Pappy

[Danzn Bar]

I agree with Pappy,  takes a little practice to get the hang of straighting shafts especially cane or boo.  But, no matter how straight you get them to start with they will need some tweaking after you shoot them a while.  pulling them out of targets, hitting trees..... the ground, will bend them a bit,  I'm always straighting shafts.  It may because I don't have well seasoned shafts, but I'm not sure.
DBar