Bow Shaping

Rather than carving the bow out of a piece of chemiwood which would be expensive, I opted to turn the bow down on the lathe and heat bend it to the shape required. This proved to be tricky as the bow tapers down to a very thin section compared to its length. Whilst the chemiwood was on the lathe it kept flexing, this meant that I had to turn down the material very carefully removing small amounts on each pass.

Heat bending chemiwood was something that I had never done before but was aware that it is possible. Firstly I opted to heat it at 100°C but it was taking too long for the thicker section of the bow, I then opted to heat it at 110°C, (120°C and it has a tendancy to blister if left in for too long) whilst checking it frequently.

The tighter curve at the end of the bow was showing stress fracture as I was bending it when it wasn't hot enough, eventually it snapped so I opted to sculpt that part with milliput. The not so tight curves however were accurate to the artwork, I held it in place whilst it cooled.




The milliput would still require some shaping with abrasive paper to blend it into the rest of the chemiwood bow.