I have this really unique guava stave that I have been slowly working on for months.  

It has a bad side to side bend. The string tracks an inch and a half to the left of the handle.

 

I have tried heating the handle and clamping it down strait to reduce some of this bend... However when the clamps are removed it goes right back to where it was. Any thoughts? Alternate methods?

Unstrung
 

another angle

 

Thanks for your help!

Msturm

Most often that is an indication the blank was taken out of the stave without following the grain exactly. I would suggest a 30 minute steam of the handle (center 12"), then over bend it at least 20%, let it sit over night and see what you come up with.

Thanks!  I will try that.

This was my first stave bow so it is very possible that when I roughed it out I screwed it up. I have a lot of other guava drying right now, but it would be a bummer to lose something with all this cool dark "mineral wood" as manny calls it.

Msturm

It will come around with steam.

hey Mike, was that a live tree- and not sick at all. i dont know what mineral wood is- not saying it doesnt exist- i just dont know what it is     , but just be sure that is not spalting in the wood- i would be worried about that for a self bow if it was spalting- but if it is hard mineral deposits ( just guessing here!!   :D   ) then it should make for a very cool looking bow.
good luck
with the likes of pearlie helping you- you cant go wrong- he is a very experienced self bow builder!

Yeah the dark wood is hard as hell!  more so than the surrounding areas. I did the steam bend. I got it pretty close I am going to leave it as is even though it is not perfect. I will give it a couple days to catch up to Hawaii's relative humidity and get back to work tillering.

Yep it was a live tree when cut.

Thanks guys!

Msturm

Follow up question:  If i wait a couple days for the wood to rehydrate, can i steam the same spot and bend it again to try to get it perfect? Or do I risk compromising the integrity of the wood in the handle area?

Thanks.

Msturm

after a bit of research I answered my own question.

The problem with re-steaming is that the original correction you did will come out when the wood gets hot enough. So clamp it up good before re-steaming. Also bear in mind that heat weakens wood.