Heat Tempering a Bow over Hot Coals

Coals of douglas fir; the scraps from Surewood Shafts arrow shaft production

Last night, I heat tempered an ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor) bow over hot coals.  This is the first bow that I have experimented with heat tempering on.  The process itself is really enjoyable.  It is reminiscent of attempting to slow-roast a marshmallow to perfection.  I built the fire simply for the purpose of tempering, or heat-treating as the process is also known.  The scrap pieces of Douglas-fir I had on hand ended up being ideal for getting a hot bed of coals established in no time at all.  I know that a lot of bowyers heat-temper bow limbs using an electric heat gun, and while the heat gun I have is capable of doing the work, I can't see it doing the job nearly as well as this bed of hot coals.  My fire pit is not very big, just large enough to do one limb at a time, and so the coals need to be stirred and built up between treating each limb. Even then, the treating itself was less than 10 minutes a limb.  This particular ocean spray bow was not the most ideal candidate for heat-treating as it has a pithy center, and where this pith ran just under the surface of the limb's belly, a fissure would begin to open up during the heating.  While these fissures are quite noticeable, they should only pose comsetic issues and some minor tiller touch up. While Marc St. Louis, Canadian bowyer that is expert in heat tempering, recommends avoiding such pithy centered sapling staves, I couldn't resist after reading that natives of the northwest would use fire-hardened ocean spray for everything from clam-digging tools to wooden nails. The wood has definitely hardened from the tempering process. I used a cabinet scraper to thin the limb tips a touch and found the wood to feel very dense.  Also, it now has a very pleasant aroma.  One step worth mentioning in the process that might differ from others is the use of shellac as a sealer on the bow prior to heat-treating.  I applied several thin coats of shellac (fresh blonde shellac flakes dissolved in denatured alcohol) followed by several more thick coats. Shellac is reported to plasticize under high heat.  My thoughts are that the thin cut of shellac will penetrate into the wood pores, and then during heat-treating will plasticize, possibly even binding with the lignan. If not it should still function to regulate the loss and re-gain of moisture during and after the heat-treating process. By the way, shellac is a really interesting and versatile natural material produced from the shellac bug.  If you are interested in learning more on shellac, check out Vijay Velji's video  http://youtu.be/lQcQ0yuekZ0, where he travels to India to learn about shellac. I am looking forward to stringing and drawing on the bow to feel the effects of the tempering, but that will have to wait as the bow will need to rest in the garage and come to a stable moisture content after the heating session. 

From the Den of the Old Bowhunter, Chester Stevenson via Nick Nott

From the Den of the Old Bowhunter

One of Chet Stevenson's arrow analyzers

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Nick Nott at his beautiful log home in Eugene, OR.  The purpose of the visit was to take a look at Nick's bow collection.  Nick, the editor of From the Den of the Old Bowhunter, the Stories and Photographs of Chester Stevenson, has an extensive collection of bows, arrows, quivers, and even "arrow analyzers" from the 1930's that were passed down to him by his father. This collection is a who's who in early Oregon Archery.  There are many Chet Stevenson bows, but also Gilman Keasey, and Harry Hobson, among others.  Gilman Keasey was an national Archery Champion (1935, 1936), and archery instructor at Oregon State University, and also made yew bows for use in the classes he taught and also for a number of other local college and university archery programs.  Harry Hobson ran a successful archery business in Salem, Or; he was also a maker of bows.

A 1935 Harry Hobson bow

 Chets bows were made of varied design, some backed with rawhide, some with whale baleen, and some left unbacked despite severe growth-ring violations that would make most present day Bowyer's cringe.  It became quite clear that Chet was an adventurous bowyer, just as much as he was an adventerous bowhunter.   It appeared that the whale baleen was Chet's favorite backing material, After seeing the beauty of polished baleen on a yew bows back, I now know why he favored this fiberglass like natural material for backing his bows.  Nick explained that the numerous crossbows Chet made were primarily to trade with the Inuits for baleen.

Nick Nott showing one of Chet's snakey yew longbows

 Nick also had a number of Chet's arrows and quivers hanging about his archery den.  Chet's arrows were not the most attractive arrows, showing a rather blocky cresting with odd colors, but he was very practical, for instance,he glued his fletching directly to the wood shaft rather than to a crown paint or sealer. I would also bet, after seeing the arrow analyzer, that Chet's arrows were matched very precisely.

Some of Chet's arrows

As a venturing bowyer, it was quite enlightening to see this collection. I am very grateful to Nick for sharing it with me.


If you are interested in Chester Stevenson, I highly recommend Nick Nott's book, From the Den of the Old Bowhunter The Stories and Photographs of Chester Stevenson, Edited by Nick Nott.

Available from Echo Archery


Thanks for joining us,
Carsn Brown
Echo Archery

Echo Archery Blog Welcome!

My daughter, Taylor, getting ready to loose an arrow

I love archery.  I love bowhunting. I love making my own archery equipment, but for the longest time, my crafting of archery equipment stopped short of the bow.  Making arrows, quivers, armguards, and so-on was a rewarding part of the traditional archery experience, but making the bow itself was not on the table.  That all changed, and bow-making has reignited my passion for archery to the point that I decided to start my own archery business, Echo Archery.  This blog is the companion to the business website, where I will offer how-to's, how-not-to's, interviews, and the occasional rambling.  I have no delusions of providing an engrossing literature that lures all readers into the sport of archery, but I do feel I might be able to provide a bit of useful information to the occasional archer, bowhunter, or historian, and maybe, just maybe, provide that encouraging push to that someone sitting on the fence about taking up archery, and maybe, just maybe for that someone, the stick, string, and feathered shaft will become a way of life, as it has for so many of us toxophilites. Welcome to Echo Archery's Toxophilic Dreams.  

Thanks for checking out the blog.  Consider subscribing if you like archery.  Growing subscriber lists certainly encourage me to post more frequently.  Carson Brown
Echo Archery