to heat treat, or not to heat treat.

[fujimo]

i have this nice snakey, character osage selfbow, that was initially a #66- i tillered it to 66 , thinking it would settle in a bit, a little closer to 60...- well it never lost a pound over hundreds and hundreds of shots.
 then recently decided to change my approach to my shooting,really wanted greater accuracy than i was getting with my snap shooting, and adopted rick welches techniques in antipation of attending one of his clinics, so i found in order to be able to hold at full draw for a full 2 seconds, i was way overbowed.
so i retillered down to #50- that also gave me the opportunity to tweak the tiller , and change to my new 3 finger under.
well now the bow has taken a bit of set, and i am sure the combination of holding at full draw every shot( kinda like being on a tillering stick for a while), and the fact that it was essentially overdrawn ( #66)for the current #50 draw weight have both contributed.

the tiller is great,but  would some heat treating help bring a little zip back to this bow?

thanks y'all
wayne

[Pat B]

Wayne, holding at full draw will definately add to the set. I have had good luck heat treating osage. I don't do a deep heat treating like Marc St Louis tecinique but I do like to get some color into the belly.

[fujimo]

so , having never done it befor, do i induce back set over a caul, then apply heat until i see a consistant colour change, leave clamped for a few days- then leave to hydrate for a week- we live in a very high humidity environment.

wayne

[Stiks-n-Strings]

I'd say that would do it Wayne. Heat until you get a nice caramel color change on the belly. You only have to leave on the caul until cools real good. Usually a couple hours. Let it rehydrate and shoot her back in. Your gonna up a little weight as well.

 Stiks

[Pat B]

Yes. Clamp it to the caul. I usually start with a clamp at the handle then clamp the tips. When heating I start at the handle area and heat about 6" to 8" until I see a color change. Then I move out to the next 6" to 8" but continue back into the previous area to keep the heat constant as I go out the limb. Work out each limb in these 6" to 8" sections. I have heated osage to a chocolate brown color with good results.
  Keep it on the caul over night and don't stress it for a few days. If you are in a high humidity area a few(3 or 4) days should be plenty.

[fujimo]

once agai!!Thank you guys so much, that will really help.
regards
wayne
ps. stiks. i see you have a "boomslang"
thats a neat snake endemic to southern africa, long thin whippy in shape, anything up to about 10' long i geuss- grass green, back fanged, deadly poisen, they prey predominantly on birds, and love to climb trees and rob nests. fast snakes- nothing sluggish about them!!cool name for a bow