Freehand bending anyone?

[Eric Krewson]

I was working on an osage bow that had light splintery wood that wanted to crack when I bent in the recurves. One limb cracked twice, I filed off the cracked wood and glued on an underlay on to save project.

With deer season now over, I decided to work on the bow again. This time I am trying freehand bending using my vise, no form. This way I can bend just a little of the limb at a time, put the limb deeper into the vise and work down the limb as I go. I have the limb taper cut into the limbs so the bend is even.

Of course, there have been tip alignment issues that need to be tweaked back into line but that's no problem.

I use an aluminum reflector to speed up the limb heating.



Just starting out, this isn't one shot deal to get the amount of recurve I want in the limbs and to get them to match.



I added more recurve than I would have on my bending form and didn't get any cracking at the bends. I just took this picture; the other limb relaxed a little after it cooled off and will need one more bending session to match this one.

[George Tsoukalas]

 I am with you, Eric. I don't own a form. My preference is to work with a stave as is.

Any bending I do is absolutely necessary for the integrity of the bow.

I don't want my bows to look like FG bows but that's my personal prejudice and should in no way have a bearing on what others do.

Thanks for this thread.

Jawge

[bassman211]

Jim Hamm shaped some bows by bending them over his knee.  Some Natives did it around trees , and strung them reverse, and let them dry, and western natives used  sinew on many of their bows. Real craftsmen. Many of their bows , and arrows are works of art.