A couple heat treating questions

[WhistlingBadger]

I'm working on a new piece of Rocky Mountain maple, hoping to get a hunting weight out of this one.  I hear maple does well with a good belly heat treat.  I have a couple questions, though.
1.  I've read a couple places that heat treating maple can make it too brittle.  True, or should I go for it?
2.  There's a pretty serious kink on one limb that I'm going to have to straighten before I can start tillering.  If I steam the kink out, then heat treat, will the heat just put the kink back?  I'm a little scared to try straightening it with just dry heat.

[superdav95]

Ya go for it.  Maple is underrated as bow wood.  It’s not as resilient as say hickory imo but still very good.  If you have a kink to steam out then I would do all that before heat treat like you say.  Once get all the wiggles you want out and your alignment looks good I would get to floor tiller then clamp it down to a caul and heat treat over a coal bed for 2-3 hours.  For maple I would do a medium bake and not go quite as dark as I would with hickory.  Also be careful with heat wrap around effect with maple. It’s not as tolerant for this as hickory.  Should make a fine bow though. 

[WhistlingBadger]

Thanks, Dave.  I have to do my heat treating with a gun these days, since we moved into town with a tiny yard.  But I'll keep the heat treating fairly mellow.

Maple seems really lightweight compared to hickory.  So far almost all my successful bows have been hickory; I did one tiny kid's bow with juniper/sinew.  Really want to get a good shooter out of something local.  I'll see about getting that kink out today and maybe heat treat tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

[willie]

Maple seems really lightweight compared to hickory.

some of the soft maples are fairly light. you should plan on an approaite width for your intended draweight and drawlength   

you can do a simple test for density and follow the guidelines in TBB.

[WhistlingBadger]

Steaming that kink as I type this.  Another question:  Any tips for how to avoid heat wrap around?  I'll be using a heat gun, if that makes any difference.

[WhistlingBadger]

Well, dang it.  I steamed it for a little over an hour, put it on a form, let it cool, then went ahead and heat treated it still on the form.  Just took it off and it popped right back, almost as bad as it was before.  Should I steam it again?  Would that undo the benefits of the heat treat?  How many times can you steam a section before it is weakened beyond repair?