Anybody heat-treat / bend ERC?

[Stickhead]

Hi all,

I've been working with ERC lately, and loving it.  But before I do another trial and error adventure, I thought I'd ask. 

Does anybody have ERC advice for:  Bending in reflex?  Recurving the tips?  Steam or dry heat?  Heat treating the belly?

Thanks for any wisdom,

-Tom

[Pat B]

Tom, I also am interested in the answer you get. I have plans for a short, bend through the handle, west coast style, sinew backed bow with recurved tips. ERC is my bow wood choice.    Pat

[sonny]

sapwood seems to bend quite easily.
heartwood, not so much. I had trouble bending the tips on an ERC recurve that I broke a while back. boiled the tips for 45 minutes (each) - one bent ok, the other cracked on the belly when I put it in my jig.
still want to make a sinew backed ERC recurve but have considered splicing in recurves much like a composite [horn, wood, sinew] bow. that's halfway down my list of bows to make.. 

[Ryano]

Ive reflexed one piece with dry heat and it worked fine at the time but the bow eventually exploded many shots later, I'm not sure I would use dry heat on soft woods like erc again.....

[Marc St Louis]

It's hard to dry heat bend the heartwood. Can be done but you really have to sock the heat to it.

[Pat B]

Would a kerfed and spined recurve be more appropriate for ERC and similar woods?   Pat