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Offline S.C. hunter

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question on bending wood
« on: September 02, 2017, 12:27:12 pm »
Hi Everyone,
  I have seen lots of info on steam bending, and dry heat to bend wood.   My question is, has anyone ever tried to bend a stave to make it snaky? Or is it even possible ?
Thanks for any info.

Steve

12 more days to (SH) season!
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Offline gfugal

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2017, 01:25:07 pm »
I wouldn't think so, but I haven't tried. I have tried sideways bending once before to fix string alignment but it didn't work that well, maybe it was just my incompetence. It's hard to keep the limb from twisting. Making a snake would be much more extensive than merely fixing an alignment issue.
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Greg,
No risk, no gain. Expand the mold and try new things.

Offline DC

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2017, 02:03:07 pm »
I think it would be better and faster to find a natural snaky stave. Like GF says sideways bending is tougher and if you wanted to do 2 or 3 bends in each limb you would probably have to do them all at once. That would complicate things. Also bent wood will try to go back to it's original shape if you heat it again so it makes later string alignment more difficult if the whole limb has been steamed or whatever. I've been guilty of something similar when I had a stave that had one snaky limb. It needed a  correction so I did it in the straight limb to add a little snake to it. But that was only one bend.
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Offline Del the cat

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2017, 02:37:49 am »
The bends would need to be too tight and the thickness you'd be bending would be too great. You could get some gentle waggle but it rather misses the point of character/snakey bows... which IMO is to see if you can turn an unlikely bit of wood into a bow.
Del
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Offline S.C. hunter

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2017, 08:40:11 am »
Thanks for the replies. You pretty much told me what I thought, but doesn't hurt to ask the experts.  I will keep looking for a snaky stave.
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Offline upstatenybowyer

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2017, 11:42:25 am »
Not sure where you live, but aside from osage, mulberry can be naturally snakey and is a fantastic bow wood. Good luck!
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"Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands."

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Offline simson

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2017, 12:17:01 pm »
Look for a snaky stave - pretty much easier!
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Simon
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Offline S.C. hunter

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Re: question on bending wood
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2017, 01:06:10 pm »
hi upstate,
 I live in south Carolina, we do have a good bit of mulberry. haven't run across any that's snaky, around here mostly twisted.
I'm going to do as Simson says , try to find a snaky stave.
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