Can string follow be reversed?

[Mike Byrge]

That is a tough piece of wood for your fist bow...wish I would have had something better for you.

I think I've got some good billets but it has been years since I cut them and they may not be as "good" as I remember.  I'll try to get some read before the primitive expo.

[ishoot4thrills]

I have an osage selfbow that I built back in the mid '90s that I have mentioned here in a topic about wanting to know how to reduce the draw weight on. Some of you may remember it. I hope to soon be starting on the weight reduction by following the great advice I got from you guys. So, since the bow is very heavy in draw weight, and it has about an inch and a half to two inches of string follow, do I take out some of the set in it AFTER I remove some of the belly wood? Or, do I try to induce reflex into it BEFORE I remove belly wood?

[John Scifres]

Razorback,

I would say the most damaged fibers are concentrated in the first few 16ths of the belly.  Take about 10 pounds off the bow.  Then sinew it to bring it back up to weight.  The sinew is probably making the most of the correction but you are certainly gaining some compression strength back by shifting the planes a bit.

ishootforthrills, take belly wood off to reduce weight.  Then you can heat bend to induce some reflex.  It should be a better bow.

[ChristopherO]

Upon reading Mark Saint Louis' chapter in the last TTBB I get the impression he heat treats an older bow before he retillers and adjust weight.  His example was of a bow that took too much set.  He toasted the belly well, which increased draw weight while inducing refex, then scraped it down to original weight.  His result was a bow without the string follow and with much more arrow cast.  
There has been a lot learned about bow making since Mr. Compstock's writings.  Not to take anything away from his expertise but it has been said he has changed his views on some of his dogma since that was first published.
From personal experience, though, heat treating does a wonderful thing to a piece of wood but too much compression strength will over power even osage in tension.  I noticed just yesterday that a sweet little osage bow I am finishing up has developed a splinter in the back due to too much relex for the stave.  I originally induced nearly 4" and it has kept 1/2 of that but it won't last long unless I cover that area with rawhide.

[Adam Keiper]

My experience is that once it takes set, that's it.  Heat correction remedies look great initially off the form, the after drawing the bow back a few times, the set returns.

[Pat B]

Instead of heat treating an older bow that took too much set, take the experiences learned from that and other bows and put that positive energy towards building a more successful bow. I have used heat treating(tempering) to reduce set and/or increase compression strength in bows that took too much set and it works to some extent. You would be better served by heat treating and adding a limited amount of backset(reflex) to a bow being built so not to damage the belly cells to begin with. Adding too much reflex can also cause excessive compression stress in a bow being built so you end up with the same situation as you did with a bow with too much set. By adding 2" to 3" of backset and tempering the belly(primarily with whitewoods) as you straighten(laterally) your stave you can achieve a bow with 1" of reflex or a flat profile that will maintain it's shape for the rest of it's life, which can be many thousands of shots.
   I have used tempering on osage with good results but generally osage is compressing strong enough without it. If you take your time while building a wood bow, don't over stress the wood, don't pull it beyond its ultimate draw weight of length and exercise the limbs with each wood removal you can build a wood with a limited amount of set. Instead of putting your energy into trying to fix a bow with too much set, figure out why it has too much set and work towards eliminating or minimalizing the stresses that caused that set to begin with. Over stressing bow wood is the main cause of set and I am still guilty of doing this after building hundreds of bows over the last 25 or so years. If your mind and concentration aren't into the building process, put down the tools and walk away until you can concentrate on a positive bow building processes.