Thread: Bent timber stock.

Yeah difficult job to do on a stock. I haven’t done it (haven’t needed to) but I’m a stock maker and have experience bending wood when making self bows.
When adding recurves or untwisting the limbs of a bow, most bowyers use dry heat. Steam can be used, as it’s just another way to get the heat into the wood fibres. It’s the heat that allows the fibres to slip past each other when the bend happens, not the water. Anyway, the problem you’re going to have is getting enough heat into the wrist of the stock to allow the fibres to slip, without pushing the heat into the action area and bending it through there too. Also would need to be careful not to bake the wood (make it too dry and brittle).
Going to take jigs, heat, lots of time for the heat to soak in, and a way to hold the stock in the desired shape until it has cooled completely.