New bow, happy archer

[Pat B]

This is a bow I built for a friend. It is osage selfbow with a little character, 62"t/t, 53#@26" and shoots sweet. The tip overlays are deer antler and a hemp cord handle wrap set in Massey finish and a floppy rest.
  The stave for this bow had average rings(about 3/16") and I used a heat gun and oil to eliminate some twists and bends and add reflex. After that, I tempered the belly(heat gun and no oil). I have done this on the last couple of osage bows I've built and am convinced it helps. This bow, after being braced for 2 hours and shot 25 times came out with a flat profile when unbraced and 1" of reflex after it relaxed.
  Sorry for the poor pics. I didn't think about taking pics until Bob showed up to pick up the bow.

[Hojo]

Well, I do like what I can see of it, Pat... LOL

How dry have the pieces that you've been heat tempering been?  I thought I'd read somewhere that heat's effects on osage were small.  Could be my poor memory, however.

When the stave permits, do you dive deeper to get a wider ring when there's one above that looks ok?  Just curious to know if your experience shows benefits for the extra effort.

Thanks, Howard

[Pat B]

For tempering you want very dry wood, whether osage or any other wood. Adding extreme heat to unseasoned wood can cause problems. Tempering is most effective on woods that are weak in compression, ie. whitewoods. That's where it really shines. It may not be as obvious on osage but as far as I am concerned it is a practice I will continue. I can see a difference in my bows.   Pat

[Roy Steele]

Nice bow heat on the belly may seem to work at first but if you shoot a lot you will get string follow.Your changing the cell strucker on the outer cells.Deeper the heat more cells you change.Under normal use it will last.But you stillcmade a nice bow.
                     ROY