Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: chuckp on June 03, 2010, 06:47:56 pm
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Can tempering the belly with a heat gun be repeated without any bad effects? Sometimes heat treating steel a number of times kills it. I was wondering if wood (Hickory in this case) has these characteristics.
The tempering would be to reduce string follow.
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I have retempered hickory before... The first pass was right after first brace and the second was after tillering and shooting in... It held up just fine and I really scorched it the second time... :)
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I've heated up to 3 times after reading some other advice. Inducing reflex after floor tiller I give it the hardest treatment, then at mid-tiller, and a lighter treatment just before finish. Using hickory, I like this method, but I don't heat treat all woods I've used.
Let it set still for a day before stringing and flexing again, I think that flexing too soon after heat is more likely to cause chrysals, with the wood being less hydrated.
You can heat treat to basically a blackened state but don't char the wood. When I first started I wasn't treating it near enough.
Good luck!