First attempt build a long !

[Bjoern Sofeit]

You can use dry heat - korean bowyers do it - but cooking them will ensure that you don't go over 100°C. Cooking them for max 10mins and then clamping them for an hour or so is enough. The 17" horns should be good for a hungarian bow, the other ones are comfortably fine for a turkish bow.

[Stick Bender]

Thanks Bjoern the type of bow that I'm attempting is like Eds  latest composite prodigy thread , maybe I will steam cook them and straiten I have seen so many articles on bending horn from bolling to dry heat to open flame I think Adam Korpowicz preferred bolling ,at this point I don't need them perfectly strait but strait enough to hide glue to a board , I'm going to continue with this set to iron out every thing and if I don't have enough length I will work the others or adjust the design !

[mikekeswick]

Steam is the way to go if you aren't sure.

[Stick Bender]

Thanks Ed I got your spec sheet in the mail tonight really more of detailed journal of your work you keep meteculious records there Bud  I appreciate it hope to get some work in on it when back from hunting Saturday unless I poke one , thanks Mike maybe I will try steam for the initial bending with them being thick at this point might be the better option !

[Stick Bender]

I made up some simple tooling for straitening & prepping the horn strips dug a 4 x 4 out of the wood pile & milled it dead flat added a quick release clamp ,made some assorted shims and used dry heat with a infrared thermometer & didn't let the heat get above 220 Deg F, put shims at the areas that needed straitening it worked great I also found some dead flat Ply wood and made feed tables for the drum sander I decided to use the method I have used for years making furniture Lams I used commercial grade fiber glass reinforced carpet tape to bond the horn to the feed tables it is a very strong bond it will need heat to release them next I will start taking them down in thickness with 80 grit sand paper on the drum !

[Stick Bender]

Straitning jig

[Stick Bender]

After

[Stick Bender]

Feed tables

[Stick Bender]

Well I really wasn't trying to turn the thread into a build a long ,just kinda worked out like it ,sense this was the first time doing it thought I would post how I did ,there are many ways of prepping horn Ed did his by belt sander and files ,I have so little bow time that I use what's avalible to me my way takes far less skil then how Ed did it here is the equipment I used I ended up at a smidge below 3/16 to get under the ridges but won't know exactly what I have tell I remove from the feed tables I used 80 grit and a medium feed speed the dust collector helped a lot keeping the burnt hair smell out of the house I guided each peace at a skew both directions & reverse to keep the horn dead flat & even ,the whole feed processe took about 1 1/2 hours the shorter horn strip ended up at only 17 1/2 in. Length , so now that I understand the process from hands on I think I will processe the longer ones but key in this system is to make sure one side is dead flat & as parallel as possible to start with !

[Stick Bender]

Feeding

[Stick Bender]

End result !

[DC]

I'm a little anxious to see how it comes off that carpet tape. That stuff is pretty tough.

[Stick Bender]

No problem Don I just heat up the fade end a bit and put a knife blade under it and a little pressure as you go , yes your right this FG reinforced tape is brutally strong stuff  there is a little residue left on the horn but will clean right up great stuff used it for all kinds of stuff !

[DC]

Glad to see that. Carry on!

[Stick Bender]

After taking them off the feed tables ended up at a little under 3 1/2 mm,9/64 so Im ok on thickness the shortest usable length is 17 in. ,both horns are with in 1/1000 on thickness of each other the 9/64 being the thinest the plan calls for 1/8 thickness so Im good on thickness ! But I ether need to prep another horn for a butt exstention or prep other horns , I think Im going for the 2 1/2 in.butt exstention and save the longer horns for another bow !