Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Deerhunter21 on August 31, 2021, 08:18:12 pm
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I left my bow strung for 24 hrs by accident…. :'( :'( :'( :'(
I feel so stupid!!! It gained a good bit of set… now I’m just waiting to see if some of it will spring back…. Hopefully it didn’t lose much weight otherwise the arrow I’m trying to tune to this bow I’m will be all off…..
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It'll come back, may take a couple of days.
It might be interesting to measure the set every 6 hours or so and sketch a graph :)
Del
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I made a bamboo osage bow that was a real dog, a very poor performer. Out of desperation I heat treated the limbs, this transformed the bow into a jewel of a bow, it lost all its string follow and as far as I know has retained its performance to this day, someone else owns it.
You may be at this crossroad, time to heat treat to get your bows performance back.
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I’ve not left one strung for that long, but did shoot a poorly sealed hackberry bow in hot, very high humidity weather for about 3 hours one day. Draw got spongier and spongier. It did not recover on its own. Wired it to a slightly reflexed caul and closed it up in my truck for a couple of days and re toasted the belly and it was almost good as new. Draw weight was back Maybe 100% idk, but it felt softer after that though the draw weight was back. Haven’t shot it a whole lot after that so can’t speak to longevity.
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I stick a bow in a vise were the fade starts on one that does that, and hang a 10 to 20 lb weight at the tip ,and deep heat treat belly. That will get them snapping back to unstrung profile a lot of times.
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Ok… it looks like heat treat is the answer. The thing I am REALLY bummed about is that this bow is the reserve bow I made for the trade. I know people send arrows with their bow sometimes so I was trying to do that too….
I just hope this bow gets back the quality it had before I left it strung. It may not be my prettiest bow, but I’ll be darned if it ain’t the best shooter.
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Shooting the best greatly outweighs looking the best by a long shot (pun intended!) :BB (SH)!
Hawkdancer
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One limb treated
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Go darker...much darker! Like a medium to dark brown.
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I would guess you straightened it more than treated it with that color, which probably means it will just go right back to where it was or worse. I agree that it should be darker. Go slow and get a good deep treatment. (I am assuming it didn't spring back much or any before heating?)
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I made a holder for the heat gun and I set a timer for the amount of time at the heat and distance (usually about 3 minutes) each time the timer goes off I move the gun and reset the timer (I use my cell phone timer)
I advance the gun a little better than half the distance of the black circle. This way I don't have to hold the gun, I can do other things as long as I stay close.
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I made a holder for the heat gun and I set a timer for the amount of time at the heat and distance (usually about 3 minutes) each time the timer goes off I move the gun and reset the timer (I use my cell phone timer)
I advance the gun a little better than half the distance of the black circle. This way I don't have to hold the gun, I can do other things as long as I stay close.
This. Marc St Louis has a section in one of the tbb’s that has his set up for this that works great. If that stick has never got a deep heat treat, expect it to gain some draw weight, and you may have to re-tiller a bit. If it ain’t getting quite dark, you aren’t getting much if anything out of the heat.
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I've had a couple hickory gain so much weight I had to go back to a long string because I couldn't string them.
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Best thing about the heat gun holder is that I’ve gotten where I HT the belly while I work on another stave, if not it seems to take forever to get one treated and I get in a hurry with it. I’ve gotten much better and more consistent results with a holder that rests on my cauls.
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I’m a “by hand” guy. I have experimented with different holders, I just feel more in control of the outcome when I am holding the heat gun.
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I just went till the back of the bow was too hot to touch. I’ll re heat it soon.
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You don't want the back to get scorched. That could lead to trouble.
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My way…I do one limb at a time. I run the gun along the limb sweeping a section about 12 inches long just getting it hot. Once it is hot, too hot to touch for long, I slow way down. Put the nozzle close to the limb with it angled forward. As it turns brown, I slowly move forward. Then I do the same on the next 12 inch section. Then I do the same on the other limb. I want it good and dark. Not black, but good and brown. I believe that heating the limb first, gets a deeper treatment than just turning the surface brown.
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I do the same as SlimBob but I go every 6" instead of 12".
As I move along the limb, clamping as I go I keep going back over the areas already done and at the end, after the whole bow is done, I go over the whole belly one more time then let it rest for a few days on the form to rehydrate.
Also, be sure to pad your clamps so you don't dent the hot belly wood.
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One more thing...because of the different sugar content of different woods some woods don't darken as much as others so you have to know your wood to know how far to go.
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Agree with all of that Pat. I don’t seem to get the same color on say Elm. It finishes lighter in color. Hackberry gets really dark. Bodark and Mulberry get pretty dark as well.