Boiling a stave to reflex the tips

[Mububban]

I've been watching this very interesting "Weapons that made Britain" series on Youtube. The longbow episode is very interesting.

This section of it shows bowmaker Chris Boyton boiling the limb tips of a yew longbow so he can bend them around a form to reflex the tips.

The bending is shown at 3:45 into this video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jsvBt2HI0

You can see the finished bow in the next video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUQAFQfZFO0

I've heard of people steaming tips but not boiling them!

All this and more to try one day

[GrahameA]

Hi Kevin.

All you are trying to do is get the wood hot and you will end up at the same temperature. (It is a bit hard to Superheat steam in the presence of liquid.) The good thing about using steam is that you can get away with a smaller container and a tube.

Have a look http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8668

[littlejohn]

I saw that clip a while back. It was amazing how quickly they bent it around the form after they took it out of the boiling water.
I'm gonna try it some time in the future with yet another project.