dry heat or steam heat

[tishtail]

Hi all would like your thoughts on heatgun/dry heat verse steam heat for bending hickory wood/bow i'd like to change tips and handle placement it's a self bow. has been floor tillered and most of final tillering. thanks

[mwosborn]

Many say dry heat for dry wood and steam for wet wood.  If you steam a seasoned wood, I would protect it with some kind of sealer - shellac etc.  I have used both methods with good results.

[vanillabear?]

[tishtail]

thanks i guess i forgot about boiling, say if you are boiling how long did you do it for. thanks

[Bowjunkie]

If you're mostly tillered, the wood is dry. I'd absolutely use my heat gun. You can do miraculous things with a heat gun, it picks up no moisture, and as soon as it cools, you can continue tillering it.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I use my heat gun 90% of the time. Static recurves get steamed and thats about it. Im with Jeff, heat guns can do great things.

[tishtail]

thanks it's what i will do, heatgun sounds like the consences of most i'll post results when done.

[okie64]

Heat treating the belly of  hickory with a heat gun will produce great results. Ive never had much luck bending static curves on hickory with dry heat, if you plan on putting a very sharp bend in the tips I would recommend using steam.

[okie64]

Heat treating the belly of  hickory with a heat gun will produce great results. Ive never had much luck bending static curves on hickory with dry heat, if you plan on putting a very sharp bend in the tips I would recommend using steam.