Taking twist out of a bow

[John Dodge]

I picked up a nice primative bow at a yard sale today - string and all.  It looked straight when I eyed it up and for the price, well, I can't complain.  But when I got it home and strung it, there is a pretty good twist in both the ends that has her out of alignment.  The bow is about 5 foot long when strung and the front of the bow comes to a very shallow pyramid on the risers above and below the twisted leather grip and eventually ends in rounded wood at the tips.  My question is - should I make a steam tray and try to take out the twists in the risers or is there a better way?  There are no marking on the bow at all and I have no idea what type of wood it's made of.  One thing for sure though - when it's strung it's very hard to pull it to full draw.

[George Tsoukalas]

John, a 5 ft bow will probably handle a 24 inch draw depending on the wood it is made from. That could be one reason why it is stacking on you. Could also be the bow is tillered to bend too much mid limb out too. The twist won't harm anything. A preexisting bow is hard to correct. You have to do that before full draw. Info on my site. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Eric Krewson]

If you could post pictures of what you see in the bow we could tell you which way you need to go to correct the problem.

[Roy Steele]

If it's a heavey draw,I'd rework the bow to my draw leanth and weight.Takeing exture care when tillering to take extra wood off the high side.You can get rid of the twist this way. I don't steam or heat any more  but you could do  it as a last resort.

[Roy Steele]

If it's a heavey draw,I'd rework the bow to my draw leanth and weight.Takeing exture care when tillering to take extra wood off the high side.You can get rid of the twist this way. I don't steam or heat any more  but you could do  it as a last resort.