Heat treated Pine. Just having fun.

[aznboi3644]

A couple months ago I made a 64.5” nock to nock pine bow just for tillering practice.  It actually started out as 72” long 1x2 but while hacking the front profile of the outer limbs there was a major grain tear out and I had to cut it back to 65”.

I tillered it out with a full draw profile of a bendy handle mollegabet.  So the majority of the set was midlimbs.  It came out to 35lb @ 26” with 2.75” set after unbracing.  I didn’t care much for it so I narrowed the out limbs to try and get some more bend in them.  Shot it a little and put it away. 

This past weekend I decided to mess around with the bow some more and reverse braced it and heat treated the belly over a bed of coals mainly focusing on the midlimbs and not much the center 6”.  I heated in 1” of reflex while smearing bacon grease on the belly.

It’s been raining like hell this week so I thought it must be rehydrated by now.  Today I strung it up.  Let it sit strung for about an hour then proceeded to pull it on the tillering tree.  I did not retiller it one bit and just worked it quickly on the tree out to 26” and ending with 20-30 full draws on the tree. I can’t remember exactly.

The bow ended up with a better full draw profile while still 35lb @ 26” After shooting it 30 times it has 1.25” of set on one limb and 1” of set on the other.  It is extremely light in the hand.   

This was a fun experiment. Enjoy folks.

[TimBo]

Nice bend! 

[bradsmith2010]

Wow...that's nice,,,can't believe it held up,,.congrats on your experiment,,.try a sinew back next

[aznboi3644]

Thank you guys.

Brad, I have been trying to find a leaning pine tree or branch to try a sinew backed compression pine.  I just like walking the paths not ventured much. 

[Hawkdancer]

Nice!  Hope it keeps on shooting!
Hawkdancer

[bradsmith2010]

well every bow you make,, will help on the others,, its all a good investment in your time,,

[WhistlingBadger]

That is really cool.  Thanks for sharing.  If pine can make a decent bow, perhaps I'll be able to make a bow from local wood after all.  Now, if someone would just figure out how to make a bow out of sagebrush, I'd have it made.

[bownarra]

With grain like that, pine or not, you are heading for broken bows and a whack on the head! Unbacked boards (if they are to have decent odds of surviving) should be made from very straight grained boards.

[aznboi3644]

Bownarra.  It’s just in good fun.  I’ve only broken one bow so far in the past 4 months of building.   I got whacked in the head about 5-6 times years ago when I first started lol.  It’s no fun.

The doesn’t seem to be under much stress from the little amount of set.  It’s only 35lb draw.  The mass of the bow feels sooo light that the  release is so soft and butter smooth.

I usually don’t even buy boards with grain runoff like this but it was the straightest piece in the stack at the time.  So I went for it. So far it’s shooting real nice.

[aznboi3644]

I’m not sure what mass this bow should be but I finally weighed it tonight and it’s 13.48 ounces with the string and paracord handle wrap. 

What should a bend through the handle 35lb bow weigh?