Selfbows

[4dog]

If it is exactly the same for a week...looks like you are ready to make your bow...it would have lost weight at a steady pace after you got it down to rough bow dimensions...start making your bow!! Lol

[SwampRabbit]

I have been a bad bowyer... been busy and/or tired. Decided not to be lazy and am steaming the handle today.

Before pics.

[SwampRabbit]

And now we are steaming...

[SwampRabbit]

Clamped



Got a feeling I will need to do a 2nd round though.

[4dog]

You are trying to bend a lot of meat there bud...need to get it down a bit in thickness maybe.?

[SwampRabbit]

You are trying to bend a lot of meat there bud...need to get it down a bit in thickness maybe.?

Probably. I took the handles down to the lines... 1 ". May need to work the fades more for the 2nd pass.

[Dry Bones]

Looking a little crazy there. Hope you get it lined out... Curious though, once you have it set and dry will it try to go back to the original tweak if you get into high humidity?

[Green]

Definitely clamp it beyond where you want it to end up. Osage will rebound about 20% when you unclamp. Also....allow the bow to rehydrate for several days before any further work as steam will drive moisture out of the wood. In a week or so you'll quite possibly get some hairline cracks on the back of the stave due to this rapid moisture loss, but as long as they don't run off the edge, they'll remain cosmetic only. Wick some very thin superglue into those and give them no more thought.

[4dog]

Green speaks truth...if your gonna bend wood permanently (Osage for sure) you have to go a bit past your destination because it will spring back a little...go a tad farther than you think if you hear any "ticks" while clamping for heaven's sake and the bows....stop...that sound can be death to your bow.

[Green]

I hate "ticks"! LoL

[SwampRabbit]

I wanted to clamp further... but it wouldn't go further... which is where the "gonna need a 2nd attempt" came from.

If it was easy... I suppose everybody would do it

[widdler]

I had to heat the bow in this thread about as much as you are attempting to do. I used dry heat with a tile heat gun. Get is about a 1/8 bigger than you plan to stop at. And heat it and pull it down as you go. We are talking about the handle section just to clarify.

[SwampRabbit]

Forgot to take pics... but as expected, the bow rebounded by 1/2". Will let it acclimate a little bit before taking another stab at it. Looking at the profile again, I think I need to bend one side a little bit more... so I think I will just take it down more before trying to bend it again.

[4dog]

I would thin it up to A lot closer to bow dimensions and then try another bending session.

[SwampRabbit]

I would thin it up to A lot closer to bow dimensions and then try another bending session.

That is my plan. Watching the weight to see if it is changing day to day after the mostly failed steam job.