Hickory bow build

[Muskyman]

Dave it’s probably 45 to 50 lbs at 29 inches. I’m thinking about making a hot box to keep my bows in while I’m working on them to keep moisture content down. Also going to fire harden it and then see how it goes. Hoping it will give me some room to get more of the knot out.
Thanks for your help. I’ll post how it goes. Hoping to work on it this weekend..



Scp, that would be great except I really don’t have any other staves. I am planning on getting some more as soon as I can cut down a few more hickory trees. Also have a Osage tree I’m cutting down soon. Then a year of drying and I’m good..

[superdav95]

A hot box could work well but you need to be careful not to dry it out good quick as it may develop checks.  I usually clamp mine to a form with a little back set and set it out in the sun on sunny days or just bring it in the house with the ac on.  A few days of that and you might be close to 10% mc.  You could speed this up by placing bow on a form over the heat of a fire set up about 4-5’ above it to slowly drive out mc too.  Only trouble is the greater chance of checks.  Have some fun with it.  As far as the heat treatment goes I do about 2-3 hours about 12-18” above the coals which is just about hot enough for me to place my hand at for about 1-2 secs and have to move it.  I’ve measure the surface of my bows about half way thru the cook and it ranges surface temps around 250-300 degrees with my laser heat temp gauge. Hope this helps.  Best of luck. 

[Muskyman]

I’m probably going to build a fire pit tomorrow just for heat treating bows. Might try to put a bottom with about the same contour as my form. Might even line the bottom with fire brick since I happen to to have some.. I’ve seen some videos on fire hardening bows and have done one bow I made over the fire pit I use for burning sticks from the yard. I used charcoal and probably had it to close to the coals because I kinda cooked it. Lesson learned. Didn’t destroy it though, I’ve probably shot a hundred or so arrows through it and it hasn’t blown up on me yet.