Good Idea for Hickory?

[DLH]

I have a half inch board of hickory that I'm carving out into a 68in long bow pyramid taper to half inch tips. I was wanting to heat treat the belly and than glue it into Perry reflex. Than tiller it out to weight taking wood off the sides. With a 1/8 backing strip I thought tapering the belly to a even 3/8 the whole limb than heat and add backing. What are everyones thoughts too much trouble for what its worth?

[Art B]

To get the benefits of heat treating you would have to set your belly strip back/reflex and then heat temper. This stretches the wood fibers and the heat set them in place. So this would already set/reflex your limbs. But I would think you would get the exact same benefit from just doing the perry reflex.

Heat treating your board may result in limb cupping/twisting/drawing and make backing your bow more difficult IMO.......Art

[DLH]

I was hoping the heat would help prevent some set. Does it need to be heated into reflex is that the main reason for heat treating?

[PEARL DRUMS]

No clue on haat treating DLH, but if your going to balk the bow just glue 5-6" of relfex in and let er' rip. You will loose 1/3-1/2 of it during tillering, but plenty will remain afterwards.

[Art B]

No, I don't reckon it would have to be heated into reflex for it to work DLH. Heat treating will temper or harden the wood regardless I would think. Works for bamboo bellies I know, never tried what you're talking about with hickory though. Heck, give a try and let know how it works.........Art

[vanillabear?]

[vanillabear?]

[DLH]

Nice bow I have been reading TBB IV and wanted to combine the heat treating with the Perry reflex and mass principle as well and see how she performs. Gonna go by 4est's buildalong but add a few things along the way want to get it close to final thickness because I don't want the glue joints to come apart. So I am going to draw knife the sides down than the thickness than glue it up into reflex and tiller away. I know that hickory is known for set so I thought heat might help.

Art B. The warping/cupping/drawing concerns me though any way to avoid this or will it happen regardless?

Any way to make a "makeshift" caul with out cutting one out?

[Art B]

Nice straight, even thickness growth rings helps prevent lateral movement. A slightly crowned belly (for now) will help with cupping/concaving.........Art

[DLH]

Ok thanks I guess I'll  give it a try than.

[eflanders]

DLH,  Like you I was going to do much of what you are thinking of doing but after much research I ultimately decided against it for my first all-wood lam bow.  Why?  I have heat treated wood many times for various reasons so I am quite familar with it's benefits and it's limitations on certain woods.  What I wasn't familar with was how doing the perry reflex would affect things.  So I just tried that alone and was quite amazed at how effective it is in forming and in performance.  Far better than heat treating would do alone in my opinion.  I will likely try doing both on one of my next bows just for the heck of it though.  If you do it, let us all know how it works!