Straightening ironwood

[Jackpine Boyz]

I have a couple hophornbeam staves with slight twist to them.  Does ironwood prefer steam or heat for straightening?  One could use some bend at the handle to line up one limb left/right better, and 2 have just enough propellor to them that I would like to try to bring them back to neutral.

Thanks for the feedback, curious if this wood had a preference.

[Bowjunkie]

Steam or heat? Hmmm. Steam IS heat, isn't it? lol

HHB takes heat corrections well with either steam or dry heat.

I steamed, straightened, and added reflex to dozens of HHB staves a few months ago. They were recently cut and had a good bit of moisture in them yet. It went very, very well.

If they have overall twist or alignment issues, I steam and correct the whole thing at once, and then when they're dry and I begin the bow, make any smaller corrections with the heat gun, and that works very well on HHB too.

[scrub-buster]

I have had bad luck bending HHB with dry heat.  The staves were seasoned at least 10 years.

[Bowjunkie]

What happened?

[Jackpine Boyz]

Is ironwood a wood that likes heat treating?  I think its pretty hard already, but thought I'd check.  I've had great results with hickory and ash so far.

[Pat B]

I think you could use a heat gun to correct the twist and temper the belly all at the same time. A reflexed form with clamps and wood wedges is the way I'd go.
but...I've only made a few HHB bows and would trust scrub-buster's recommendation.

[scrub-buster]

I tried gently flipping the tips twice on very seasoned HHB staves with dry heat.  Both times they cracked on me.  I know other people have had good luck with dry heat.  Maybe it was because my staves were over 10 years old.

[Pat B]

Oil might help prevent the wood from drying too much with the dry heat as you adjust the twist then after the limbs are straight temper the belly on the form.

[Dan Landis]

I've done some dry heat alignments and removed twist on several staves with no problems.  I also did a mild flip to the tips with no problems, and it takes tempering very well.