heat treating is not necessary :)

[bradsmith2010]

 a great shooting bow can be made with no heat treating,,,
 and sometimes your odds of success are greater when not heat treating,,if it might force the stave below a safe moiture content,, thats a consideration for me living in the high desert,,   just saying,,

[Marc St Louis]

a great shooting bow can be made with no heat treating,,,
 and sometimes your odds of success are greater when not heat treating,,if it might force the stave below a safe moiture content,, thats a consideration for me living in the high desert,,   just saying,,

No arguments there

[Jakesnyder]

I believe halfeye never heat treated any of his bows and he certainly pushed the limits of white wood with minimal set.

[burchett.donald]

   Jake, your correct...Rich never tempered a bow belly that I know of through many of conversations with him...The only thing he did was use steam for hooks and bends where needed...He always ended up with remarkably low set bows....
                                                                                                        Don

[bassman]

Best examples of American Native bows I have seen In my books studies were made by West Coast tribes.Induced reflex by stringing backwards adding sinew to the back, and Sun dried.

[HH~]

Seen this done in dry climates and even without stringing backwards. Not happening where I make bows for sure.

HH~

[Dances with squirrels]

Heat treating = Heat cheating

... so henceforth dubbed Heat Chreating

 

[George Tsoukalas]

The only rule is there are no rules. Use what makes you happy.  Jawge

[gutpile]

living in the desert you have the luxury of a dry climate compared to the south east where the humidity is a cast zapper on drying staves... such as hickory, even a roughed out bow will never get dry enough unless put inside for months... so heat treating the whitewood bow is not necessary.. but it sure can help cast... gut

[bassman]

And hold reflex much better in the climate in which I live.

[scp]

I never heat-treated a whole bow until a couple of months ago when I got the silicon heating pad. Since then I heat-treated the whole belly of about 20 bows for about an hour bending them slightly backward to remove all string follow, almost all of them made of white wood. It does make the compression strength of the belly a lot stronger. I even ruined a trapped oak bow by bending it too early after the treatment by causing a back tension failure splinter. I must have pulled it much more than its old draw weight. I still cannot pull most of them to their original draw length by pulling to their original draw weight. Not even close. They might have gained more than 10 pounds of draw weight. It might be still too risky after more than a month. So far I have no way of knowing whether the increased compression strength and reduced set will hold long term. I am even keeping several bows stringed for days to see if their original string follow returns. Just be careful about heat-treating the whole bow too long.

[bradsmith2010]

Yes...I lived in Tenn,,and Texas,.and heat treati,g can be needed,,,Osage will make a great bow in humid climates.,,without much fuss,,,may pick up some weight if u send to dry climate,,.shoot a 2 day shoot in the rain with hickory bow,,,some heating might be needed

[wstanley]

Best examples of American Native bows I have seen In my books studies were made by West Coast tribes.Induced reflex by stringing backwards adding sinew to the back, and Sun dried.
[/quote

Check out this reflex, by yes stringing backwards and I'm sure it was bent while green. Incense cedar is the bow wood and it gets brittle quick. I believe the Miwok added bear bone marrow to slow the drying process to keep it from cracking. Add sinew to that and you got a very reflexed springy bow.

Sierra Miwok Bow collected by Russian Kutskamera along coast of California.

 I just reflexed an ash bow/stave to the same degree, will post soon.

[bradsmith2010]

Wow,,,that's amazing,..looking forward to seeing your bow

[Stick Bender]

The only rule is there are no rules. Use what makes you happy.  Jawge

+1