toasting walnut

[bowmaker07]

Anyone have experience toasting the belly with black walnut? I've had great success with hickory but I don't know if walnut can handle the extra stress that would put on the back. The stave is 68" long,10" stiff-handle, 1 3/4" wide to just past mid-limb, 3" of reflex and the MC is 10%. I'm shooting for 55# at 28". Any thoughts?

[Roy Steele]

I don't use heat any more.Besides if you have 3"s of reflex a 68" stave 1 3/4"s wide.If you tiller it right you should come out stright or an inch of string follow.MAYBE plus an inch or two of string follow won't hurt your bow or your shooting.The only bad thing is it's wallnut.Not a bad bow wood just not hickory.Most wallnut bows are backed.I,along with most bow builders go through the heat stage.There was a time when Iheated and reflexed every bow I made.Even the Indains found out that a heated bow was not a bow that could be counted on.And they lived by the bow.

[Pat B]

"Toasting" seems to work best on whitewood bows or bows with lower compression strength. I consider BW to be a whitewood because the sapwood is what I've used mostly. After heat treating you could add a simple backing if you are concerned about the tensile strength of the back.

[bowmaker07]

Thanks for the replies Roy and Pat! I think I'll just tiller it out without tempering. The log has special meaning and the bow is for a friend so I don't want any failures. Hope it keeps some of the reflex.

[Pat B]

Work slowly and thoughtfully and you should come out OK. You can probably expect at least 1" of set but maybe as much as 2". That is an acceptible amount and if the bow shoots well, you will be good to go.

[bowmaker07]

Still thinking about tempering the belly now. I've tillered it out to 22" and lost all the reflex,starting to show some string follow. With 6" of tillering to go I don't want the string follow to get too excessive. I think I'll end up a little light also, about 50# at 28".