prop twist

[razorsharptokill]

Has great grain but 1/3 has a 90 degree twist. Stave is about 12 years old. I think I will reduce it to just outside bow dimensions and see if I cann steam it out.

[Hamish]

Good luck bud, that's quite a challenge.

[Hrothgar]

That's pretty wonky, but sometimes they still want to be a bow. Good luck.

[Del the cat]

Wow.. that is pretty extreme, but if you can get the whole length in a steam chest it's not a lot of twist per inch if spread over the whole stave.
I'll watch this one 
Del

[razorsharptokill]

We will see.....

[George Tsoukalas]

First, thank you for your service. Much appreciated.
Second, sometimes it is fun to work on a character stave like that. Enjoy!
George

[Eric Krewson]

Depending how long your stave is, you can cut it in the middle of the twist and splice it back together rotating the parts to take most of the twist out. I have done this a number of times. There will still be some heat correcting to do but it will be much less than what you are looking at now. I splice with the twisted parts at the limb tips which makes them much easier to take out than being spliced like they lay in the stave.

[DC]

Just remember that if you do untwist it any heating you do after that will wind it up again.

[SLIMBOB]

If the wood has a decent amount of moisture present, and the temperature is warm enough, I will clamp one end to a 2X and  start untwisting the stave, bits at a time tightening clamps along the length.  My shop gets brutally hot during the summer and with a decent RH, some untwisting will hold.  Enough to make a difference.  90 degrees of twist too much for me to mess with however.  I will tackle things that others think a waste of time, so jump if your feelin' froggy.

[Pat B]

This stave could be a good candidate for an over the winter experiment to see what it might teach you about working bow wood. Even if you aren't successful at building a bow what you learn from it could be a valuable lesson.

[Eric Krewson]

DC, I have not always found that to be the case. On my last troublesome stave I heated and corrected it at least a dozen times for different issues, all of them stayed put. I might be taking twist out with one heating and dogleg out on another, they all stayed put.

That said, some osage takes correction like a dream, some is like you said and wants to go back. Hickory is the worst to go back.

[DC]

True, not always but it's better to be ready for it. It's not nice to be one step from finishing and all of a sudden your recurves don't line up any more

[Eric Krewson]

Been there done that to, I am continually tweaking a bow to line things up. I have even tweaked a bow with the finish on that changed after it has been shot in. I use Tru-oil and you can heat it carefully and slowly and not damage it.

[razorsharptokill]

This stave is pretty dry. It's 10-12 years old and the guy I got it from de-barked it and didn't seal or treat for bugs so I'm going to have to go at least two rings down I bet. I tried removing some sapwood and it is like dried concrete. LOL I had thought about doing a splice with it also. It is about 70" long now I believe.

[jeffp51]

start at one end and heat a section and untwist.  Then move down and to a little more.  Continue a bit at a time until to the end. This is of course after it has been reduced to rough thickness.