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[ajooter]

Now that's a heat treatment turtle!  What do you put on the limbs while your hitting it with the heat gun?

[hammertime]

Thought I would give an update.....putting finishing touches on my 3 options and here is a couple of full draw pics.....hickory curve and hhb

[hammertime]

Here is the hickory

[turtle]

Now that's a heat treatment turtle!  What do you put on the limbs while your hitting it with the heat gun?

Everytime I moved the heatgun I wiped some boiled linseed oil on the just heated section. This is the first time I ever put anything on one while heat treating so I have no idea if it actually helps or not.

[PlanB]

Good to see all this activity! We got Rich's old blizzard overnight and today -- were you done with that one, Rich? I got the bend out of the Plan C bow somewhat using steam, and also heat straightened one tip slightly, but there's still some asymmetry unbraced. Braced the string is centered, so I'm going to say this is what this bow wants to be. To check that it still shot as good as it did I strung her up, grabbed a quiver, and headed out into a fresh 5" of snow (we had robins out here pulling worms out of the ground and 70 deg a couple days ago) . I figured nothing would be too slippery, all the ice was long gone. But promptly took a major crumple when I stepped on a piece of tin roofing that must have blown off the woodpile last night, and got buried in the snow. Slick as ice with new snow on it. Thought I felt something pop in the knee, the way I landed. But other than some minor pain, doesn't seem like I got injured after all.

Bow shot as nice as it ever has, so I called the main work finished, and shaped the handle a little better and got a sealer coat on it. Looking forward to finish work and Plan C is going to be a trade bow at last.

[Swampman]

PlanB, I am glad that bow turned out. 

Gut, sorry to hear about your broken hand.  That sucks.

[mwosborn]

Best wishes Gutshot - hope you heal quickly.

David - do you have a tillering gizmo?  I think that would help you decide where to take off wood.  I use mine while using the long string.

Hammer - looks like they are bending pretty good.  What is your draw length?  Looks like you have a lot of arrow in front of the bow.

[jeffp51]

Hammer I would love to see closer pictures of those.  That first one looks very interesting, but the outer limbs look pretty stiff still.

[Dakota Kid]

Gut

Get better. Your tools miss you already. I hope there wasn't any drunken hillbilly drywall testing going on.  :laugh:It sure looks cool when somebody punches right through the wall, unless of course they're a stud finder.

I went to start fine sanding the rock elm tonight and low and behold my heat corrections are MIA yet again. This time it held for 2 weeks before returning. I'm wondering if it still has some of it's original moisture? Instead of letting my frustrations lead me to the burn barrel with it I put it up in the rafters for a bit. On the plus side I found an American hornbeam stave I didn't notice on my last inventory. It was a hefty 6" half a tree and straight,... well straight for hornbeam. 1 nice stave easily turned into 2 nice staves. Roughed it out last night and made it to floor tiller this afternoon. This wonderful piece of wood has my full attention at the moment and I'm tearing through it, especially for as hard as HB is to work with just hand tools. I'm going mollegabet on this one. Might have a pic worth looking at before the weekend.

Keep up with the good work all of you. I haven't seen a bow yet that I wouldn't be happy to put some arrows through.

[Fred Arnold]

David, I'm with Mitch on the tillering gizmo.  Now's the time you need it. I don't believe your limbs are bending evenly. You need to fix this before you remove wood.

IMPO, I think you removed a lot of wood without asking for directions.

I know you're an anxious and busy young man but if you get in too big of rush you can screw things up. Don't ask me how I know!!!!!!

You work that one as best as you can but I personally think you've already bushwacked it.

We'll get you another stave if need be and you have all summer to finish but I want to see more pics as you progress on the next one.

Some of these guys  are a hell of a lot more experienced and also smarter than I am. I expect you to ask for their help,.

[jeffp51]

I put some bends into my yew stave.  I used dry heat and oil--this has always been my most successful method of bending in hooks.  I heat while leaning lightly on the handle.  when it is ready to bend, it just moves like melting plastic.

Next step:  rehydrating for a few days and adding rawhide.  What do people like to use to de-grease?  Will I be better with Titebond or with hide glue to glue on the rawhide?

[---GUTSHOT--->]

Jeff I use tight bond 3. And a lot of it. I get some water to almost boiling stage pour it in a coffe cup roll my raw hide up and put in the cup ( only soak enough for 1/2 the bow ) then I lay the tight bond on 1/2 my bow pull the raw hide out ( uasualy only in the hot water for 20-30 seconds and lay it down then wrap with my cotton strips very tight. Repeat this for the othe half. I made the mistake and soaked both pieces of rawhide at the same time and the 2nd piece was in the water to long and became like a sponge and was NG. good luck with putting it on. I'll quit blabbering now.

[David Ewing]

David - do you have a tillering gizmo?  I think that would help you decide where to take off wood.  I use mine while using the long string.

No, I don't. Need to make one....

Thanks for the help!

[jeffp51]

Gut,
Thanks. What about degreasing the back of a stave?  Is dish soap and water enough?

[stuckinthemud]

I prefer to sight across a short straight-edge than using a gizmo - move the straight edge along the inside of the limb and watch the gap between the edge and the limb open and close  - as the bow gets nearer final tiller and the curve is deeper you just use a shorter straight edge