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Author Topic: Toasted Elm  (Read 36640 times)

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tpoof

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Toasted Elm
« on: March 21, 2007, 12:28:46 pm »
Well, been looking at the sister stave of that sinew backed recurve I finished and thought I'd try something a bit different.
Was going to build an overbuilt bow for hard and carefree use, this stave had some wonkey bends that I thought I'd remove with some dry heat and put it on a caul
The bending to the reflex went well, toasted the dickens out of her, pulled it off the caul some few hours later when all felt cool to the touch, most of the reflex was lost, just sprang back to its original statemore or less ???

So I thought if I can induce possibly a bit of recurve in the limb tips, flip the tips some if you will, started to put more heat to it and slowly bend in the tips, when all of a sudden CRACK! :o, there goes the limb! Yep she's toast all right! :'( :D

Well I can salvage some 50" of stave from her and will probably make a short draw rabbit bow of her,,
Chopped it out to its new profile and went with a arched belly this time just to see what would happen, so far so good.
Tillering is done now and I'm still unsure on just what I will do with this stick next,,
Still would like to try to induce a bit of reflex as tillering produced some 1 1/4" of set, maybe take two on tip flipping
but I'm thinkin of steam this time  lol ;D
might even sinew back this as well, got lots and sure had fun doing that last project!!

Not sure when I'll be able to finish this one though as I've just been called back to work
( I'm a carpenter who works on building dams and bridges,,mostly forming work for concrete)
I'll be gone most of the spring, summer and fall and usually only get winters to work on my bows
so I'm not sure when the next post will be
just wanted to share my mishaps as well as my successes,, :)
You've all been very helpfull and generous with your advise and I appreciate it much
I've learned alot from these pages on PA and look forward to many more bows to come

Well, heres some pics of my toasted bow!
see if I can get some tillering pics up later today..
Thanks again all
tpoof

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tpoof

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2007, 12:32:35 pm »
Here's a few more ,, the mishap,,, ::)  yeesh ;D ;D

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Offline DanaM

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2007, 12:39:48 pm »
Someone on here said"if ya ain't breakin yer not makin" so ya have the breakin part down now on to the makin ;D
I basically had the same thing happen with a piece of maple the other day. I was trying to recurve the tips with dry heat and got a bit greedy and snapped her. So I cut the ends off and backed her with hichory in a Perry reflex, its now 52" haven't got her bending yet but soon.
Sucks ya can't work on bows till winter, I feel yer pain man.

DanaM
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Offline Pappy

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2007, 12:46:43 pm »
Sorry about your luck tpoof,but it sounds like you made a good save.I can't tell how many times I have had that happen.I guess what the say is true ,if you ant breaking um you ant making um. :)
   Pappy
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tpoof

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2007, 12:48:25 pm »
Haha ya DanaM I did hear that just the other day! ;D ;D ;D ::) maybe shouldn't have spoke too loud eh!  ;D

Here's a few more on the tillering tree.. and someclose ups,, prolly too many pics :-\ kinda carried away  :D

Some at brace, full draw should be close and after full draw..:)

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Offline Pappy

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2007, 12:55:26 pm »
Looks pretty good,looks like the right limb is bending a little much out of the fad and not enough
through the mid limb.Just an observation. :)
   Pappy
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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2007, 12:56:08 pm »
Sorry about the mishap, but mis happens. Looks like you're salvaging quite a nice lil' bow out of it, though.
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tpoof

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2007, 01:11:57 pm »
Yes Pappy, I believe your right ;D, you know its hard too see it without a camera snapshot! If I decide to sinew back it I'll attend to the tiller more then,, thanks though,, I never really looked too hard at it but now that its pointed out it jumps right out at me! ;D ;D
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Offline GregB

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2007, 02:31:37 pm »

I also broke one a few weeks back, attempting one of Ryano's recurves. Got one limb recurved and broke the second one. Took to long from steam to trying to get it clamped. I also posted the mishap, nothing wrong with letting folks know we're all human, huh?

Be careful out there working! ;)
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Greg

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Dustybaer

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2007, 03:50:30 pm »
just out of curiosity, did you use oil while you heated the belly?  also, how many days between heating and tillering?
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Offline Ryano

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2007, 04:39:01 pm »
Elm makes excelent short bows! ;)
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Offline tom sawyer

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #11 on: March 21, 2007, 04:46:52 pm »
You really need to string it, you can't tell what it looks like with a long string.  Even your long string is longer than necessary.  It changes the string angle bigtime, and puts more stress on the inner limbs.  When you string it, the outer limbs are gonna look a lot bendier.

Sorry to hear about the heating accident, stuff happens though and you look like you've salvaged a nice little bow out of the deal.
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Lennie
Hannibal, MO

tpoof

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2007, 05:26:12 pm »
Thanks Greg, Dusty, Hillbilly,    hopefully Ryan :D ;),
Tom thats a good point I never even considered! definately will do the short string, its time. :)
I use that string for all my tillering,,, one size fits all, or so I thought?  ::) I'm alot greener than the wood I work on.lol

steaming in curves as we speak,,,
and no I never used any oil, on reflection should have, ,prolly dried the limbs out way to much and made them brittle, had the limbs close to tiller then did the bend attempt
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Offline tom sawyer

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2007, 06:00:13 pm »
Yep the rule is (who makes these rules anyway?), you use a long string just barely long enough to get it on the nocks.  Then when you have bent the bow to the equivalent of brace height and its bending reasonably smoothly, you go to a short string.

No go forth and sin no more.

Also, useth the annointing oil oneth the white woodeth.
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Lennie
Hannibal, MO

tpoof

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Re: Toasted Elm
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2007, 06:13:29 pm »
Thanks for the tips Tom! ;D ;DI shall pay heed. I shall now go forth... prolly come in fifth,,, ;)
You know thats the first I've heard of that,,  I guess a Flemish with a timber hitch would work alright??

I shall adhear to the oileth on the woodeth as well next time  ;D
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