Too late to steam or heat bend?

[YosemiteSam]

In preparation for carving my first selfbow, I've been reading & watching videos on heat bending with steam or a heat gun.  It's making me wonder about heating up some of my previously made maple board bows to put a little reflex in the tips.  The bows were only finished with straight beeswax so heating it will just melt the wax.  Is it ever too late to introduce reflex to the tips or can it be done at any time?

Also, can steam be used to take out some of the set that the bows have taken on?  Or would this just damage it further?

[Pat B]

You can reheat a bow later but if the set is excessive it will only stress the bow more. Sometimes you can give the belly a deep heat tempering that will increase the compression strength and eliminate some of the set but that doesn't always work. Steam may take set out but it will probably be temporary.

[George Tsoukalas]

Parts of the bow won't take any heat correcting successfully.
Non bending parts like the last 8 inches of so may.
But...
If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Jawge

[YosemiteSam]

Thank you.  Maybe I'll leave my shorter one alone.  It's only 61" and has about 2.5" of set.  But I'm happy with the speed that thing manages to kick out.  The other is about 67" and I've been thinking about cutting it down, reducing tip width, etc. to help it out a bit so maybe I'll try to add a little reflex on that one.

[Roy from Pa]

I have found out that it's sometimes better to just accept it as it is and move onto another bow.
But for your info here:
 
Wet/green wood, use steam.

Dry wood, use dry heat as in a heat gun.