Lab test on heat-treating

[Marc St Louis]

An engineer in CA by the name of Richard Baugh has a keen interest in bows.  Richard convinced an engineering grad student to do some tests on Hickory versus heat-treated Hickory then sent me a copy of the test results.  I found it to be quite an interesting read.  I've uploaded a copy to my site and if you are interested can read it here, sorry but you'll have to fill in the blanks

       ironwoodbowyer.com/Heat-Treating___How_To_s.html

[bushboy]

I'm thinking it has something to do with the sugars crystalline in the wood. Only a guess but i'm not good at word puzzles

[DC]

Anyone else having trouble opening it. I get a network difficulty thing.

[SLIMBOB]

Interesting read Marc. A bit over my head, but it appears to show scientific evidence that backs up what you first put forth, and what we all have seen in practical application. Thanks for posting it, as I enjoy reading this kind of data, even if I only comprehend it in bits and pieces.

[mwosborn]

That is interesting - 26% is significant.

[Chadwick]

As the heat treatment caused mass loss and significant tangential size change, I was wondering if this is a mostly mechanical/physical property difference, changing the wood density and/or hardness. Do you think that heat treating could have a similar influence as burnishing the wood?
Plus, this was either extremely dense hickory (.88 sg!) or it was mis-measured by the researcher.
In addition, to what degree is elasticity an issue for heat treating the belly of a bow? I wish the compression values were found.
Thanks for sharing!

[Josh Shuck]

If you char an organic substance its a process called carbonization.  Materials that are carbonized become strong. That's how carbon fiber is made.

Primitive carbon fiber...I dig it!

[DC]

Got it opened. Interesting read. 

[PatM]

Can't open it here but you can read several in depth articles on what happens to various wood species when heat treated.
 It's far more complex than just drying and  melting sugars.

[Eric Garza]

I would also have liked to have seen more of a focus on whether heat treating changes compression strength, although the other info was definitely interesting.

[bradsmith2010]

I got it loaded and ready to study,, thank you Marc

[Badger]

  It did finally verify something that most of have found to be true. I feel like heat treating is the single most significant improvement to bows. Any style bow can benefit form it and most woods will benefit from it.

[carpholeo]

All that being said, what is the proper method of heat treating?

[adb]

TBB Vol 4. Marc spells it out, in detail.

[willie]

can anyone report their results with heat treating birch?