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Osage and Dry heat? Revisited

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bentstick54:
I’ve been using dry heat to make corrections on some Osage bows after floor tillering. Depending on how much correction is needed I get some drying checks on the back of the limbs. I haven’t had a breakage problem because the all have run with the grain, but would like to minimize the checking. For those of you that use oil when using dry heat, is one oil better than another, and how much do you use? Do you just rub a little on the belly, or really saturate it? Does the oil “cook” or evaporate out during the heating process? How long do you wait after cooling do you wait to start tillering?

Pappy:
I just use regular cooking oil, just rub on belly, not real heavy. It mostly cooks away, I like to give it a day if I heated it much, some don’t and say cool is cool. Another thought with your checks, if the wood is not seasoned and still a little wet it can do that also. Pappy

bentstick54:
Thanks Pappy. I roughed out a stave the other day that I had split in 2013 and stored in my basement the entire time. Average year around controlled temperature runs around 66 to 68 degrees, 35% to 50% relative humidity. After working to almost floor tiller stage I let it sit for another month before floor tillering. I put in some slight reflex evening up both limbs, taking some minor twist out of 1 limb at the same time. I kept heat gun about 4 inches away and used a medium/hot temperature, and did about 4 inches at a time clamping as I went.

Pat B:
If you seal the back first it will minimize the checking. I keep a can of spray shellac on my work bench just for this purpose. Any time I expose a fresh back, no matter how well seasoned I seal the back with shellac.

bentstick54:
Thanks Pat. I haven’t sealed the backs once I got to this stage, but never had a problem with any that I did not try to heat correct any imperfections. I will sure give that a try on one that’s waiting for me to get to work on.

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