toasting belly on ash? other ways of strengthening a hinge?

[richpierce]

I just finished 2 more bows, a crooked black locust and a nice straight ash, and the locust came out to have the better tiller. Both are about 68" and 50 pounds at 28".  Despite being evenly tapered etc one limb on the ash is stiff and the other has a hinge that surprised me, didn't see it coming.  Can I strengthen that place any way?  Toasting?  Gluing something on the belly?  The draw weight is about 50 pounds and I don't want to lose more by adjusting it, but I would like the bow to last and the hinge worries me.  I can't see that piking it would work to get more pull.  I guess the hinge would be more likely to weaken and fail.

[DanaM]

Not sure what you can do with a hinge except scrape wood on either side of it thereby dropping the weight.
Maybe you can add wood I'm sure someone else will be along with the answer for you.

[Adam Keiper]

You can rasp out a shallow 6"-ish trough along the limb that feathers out at very shallow angles with the limb.  Then form a matching convex belly patch.  Meticulous rasp and/or belt sander work is neccessary.  Then score the gluing surfaces, mix up some Urac, and pressure fit the patch into place with your fingers.  Don't clamp with Urac unless the patch wants to slide off, and only then just clamp using just enough pressure to hold in place.  (A tip from Dean Torges)  When dry, rasp, scrape, and block sand the patch to blend in with the rest of the limbs.  Of course, leave it thicker than before if you are trying to correct a hinge.

[tom sawyer]

I glued a 6" piece of thin (1/8") hickory over a hinge before, when I worked it down the hickory was almost gone but it did the trick.  I used resorcinol glue.  Amazing how little wood is necessary to make a change in tiller.  I never did like that bow afterwards though.

[Marc St Louis]

Tempering the wood will actually fix a hinge, as long as it's not severely hinged