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A couple heat treating questions

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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:

--- Quote ---Maple seems really lightweight compared to hickory.
--- End quote ---

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.

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