Question on heat-treating bows

[ajbruggink]

Hey guys,

I tried heat-treating a bow stave for the first time last weekend and ended up scorching the back of the bow a bit. I think the reason this happened is because my caul is too wide, reading the chapter on heat-treating in TBB vol. 4, author Marc St. Louis uses an caul that is 1" wide whereas the one I made is 1 1/2" wide and the stave I was working on is 1 1/8" wide at its widest, allowing heat to bounce off the caul and be redirected to the back but its just my theory. There are also 'welts' on the back, areas that looked like they were about to be scorched or in some other way were affected the heat-treating process. I was just curious if this a big concern or not, can I still make an unbacked bow out of it? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Stick Bender]

If it was me I would back it I have adopted the attitude that if Im considering backing it needs it but thats just me I have never scorched a back but those areas I would think are more brittle then the rest !