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bending and straghting osage

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yazoo:
this is our first blank to straighten ,it is shaped like a bannana,,a gradual crook from the handle out on both limbs,the blank has been taken to the floor tiller stage, and coated with shellac,,slide the blank against the back of the form to use as a straight edge to deterimine where the crooks are,,as you notice this one is a gradual bend from the handle to tip,,once we deterimine where the limb leaves the form this is where we will add spacer,this will allow us to over correct in the oppsite direction of the bend,,since this one starts at the handle we will put out spacer in the center of handle and bend in the opposite direction,,

yazoo:
any questions,, I will post more tomorrow sun is down and to dark in my shop for photos,,,

yazoo:
now we have the blank in the form and have our spacer in the center of handle because thats where the bend starts,,if the crook would have started in the center of limb we would have slid the spacer to there,I always set the bow up and start the opposite bending before I start heating,now that everything looks good I will spray with oil and start heating,,I will heat the entire section to be bent till it gets hot the wait 15 min,,this allows the heat to soak in to the center of wood,,depending on how thick the wood ,,then come back and heat it good,,use the back of your fingers, the soft part to see how hot it is,,it needs to be to hot to touch, but not burnt,,very light brown will not hurt and will scape off,,if you dont allow this heat soakin period the wood will feel hot but the center will not be to temp and can cause cracks or very distressed wood,,which will hurt performance,,now we wait to cool about 4hrs if you are not sure overnite,,then check,it will take a couple times or more to get it perfect,,so dont worry if it is not straight the first time,,I always do the final heating when the bow is near finished,,

yazoo:
now I have removed the clamps and we now have a straight piece of osage,,if you notice that you get the bow straight then the next day its crooked again, the wood is not dry enough,, if not it will revert to its natural shape,,,also this is why I dont use kerfed or sawn wood,, when you clamp them in the form and begain applying pressure in the opposite direction of crook puts a lot of pressure on the longitutal grain,,if you have a big violatiion in grain it will crack while you are straightening it,,

yazoo:
that one was and easy one, the next one I will start tomorrow will have a 45degree twist  which we will take out first then straighten and  reflex..also If you notice we could not do this work with a caul which i see a lot of people use,,nearly impossible to remove the crook and twist form wood,,but all you need to do is add a back to a caul and you have got a great bow form,,

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