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130lb elm bow

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willie:
Nice work, Will. Shows what a the right wood can do in the hands of a craftsman. Could you tell us a bit about your process of heat treatment or " method to "tiller" the bow "?  Do you treat deferentially?

WillS:
It's simply a case of bracing the bow, spotting where it's weak and hitting that area with a heat gun.  Long and slow, really gentle and no scorching.  You almost don't want any colour at all, but when the back feels hot you're good to go.

With this one, there was an awkward deflex area, followed by a slight weak spot from my initial tapering which was throwing me off at brace height, so I heated that area to stiffen it all up and the brace shape looked fine afterwards. 

What's nice about this method is a) you obviously don't lose any weight by chasing the rest of the bow down to balance a weak spot, and b) you can go over the areas as many times as you want to heat treat other areas.  Often I'll never touch the bow with a scraper or rasp and just stiffen the weak spots with heat until the bow is tillered.

willie:
Thanks for sharing that procedure. Will. I think there is a lot to be said for knowing what the bow should look like at brace.

WillS:
I can't take any credit for that, I just copy and learn from the bowyers I admire most!

JNystrom:
Very well done, especially that 1" set. Your method of tillering with heat is interesting! I have done it myself while heat treating by reflexing those weak spots more. But i feel like it doesnt have that great effect.
Just to make sure, do you pull the weakspot on reflex also, while heating it? That obviously works nicely if done right, but doesnt allow you to heat treat the bow fully in the end? Right? Cause that would throw the tiller off again. But if you end up with 1" set at 130lbs, do you need heat treating....  :laugh: Great job again!

In your another thread, i understood that you heat treated the wood and then continued to bend the bow/stave during the same day. If that is correct, i need to try that too. Well anyway i should try it, now that it got me thinking!

I happen to have couple of  78" wych elm, ash and apple staves so, i should really start working with them. Heavy longbows are totally new thing for me, since i have only made short bows. Its allways nice to see WillS posted a new topic about warbows, cause i know its full of good info and interesting stuff! Keep on going!

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