Heat Treating Persimmon?

[Drewster]

A bowyer friend recently harvested some persimmon.  He shared a stave with me and we are wondering about heat treating it.  Does it heat treat well?  Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge with this wood.  It's a new specie for me to work with.

[JonW]

I have made three from Persimmon. One heat treated. It is a white wood and I think nearly any white wood will benefit from a heat treatment. Good wood I think.

[DavidV]

Yep, it's got outstanding tensile strength so heat treating cuts down on the set.

[jesswprater]

I have a question that you might be able to answer. I have a whole grove of Persimmon trees, some 14-16" in diameter. I was going to cut one this spring, but noticed from Wikipedia that the grain is interlocking. That conjures up images of Elm and Hickory to me, which is a wood that will not split easily. Can you tell me if your friend had any trouble splitting the staves out?

Jess

[Vgo750]

I just split a couple persimmon staves a fee weeks back and they actually split pretty easy but i did use a circle saw to score a line first

[sleek]

Heat treating persimmon turns it into a whole other bow. It responds better than almost any wood I have heated. I love persimmon as a bow wood. Its amazing in tension and a narrow sapling makes a powerful bow. I wish I had some.

Short story: I cut a persimmon while camping one weekend. I cut it friday morning. Roughed it out and by friday night had a bow. I hu g it on a spit over a wide campfire while cooking marshmallows on sticks. That night I let it sit over the fires coals till morning. I finish tillered it that afternoon and tempered the belly. The bow took very little set and shot very well. It was short, 50 something inches 40@25". I added siyas and overdrew it caused it to break months later. Was upset and will try that again.