Having roughed out a nice piece of hazel, I'm a little worried about the amount of curvature in the top limb:
Although I think it points in the right direction I'm worried that it might be too curved and will eventually be unworkable. I'd be grateful for a little advice from our resident bowyers
Is it possible to correct such like by using steam or might that adversely affect the eventual performance of the bow?
Thanks,
Dave
Yes you should be able to correct the curve: wrap a towel around the limb you want to correct and pour boiling water on it, and you'll be able to bend to limb, either straighten the bent one or instead, give the straight one the same curve, that should increase the strength of the bow by providing some recurve. You could also use dry heat, using a hot air gun. If you have not done it before, have a practice on another bit of wood, same section if possible, just to get the feel of what happens to the wood, that's will give you confidence with doing it to your bow.
If you need to bend a lot of of wood, you could need a steamer box, which for that size of wood would not need to be anything more than a length of plastic pipe closed at one end, with a hole in the middle to let some steam in and that you close at the other end with a rag, (so that steam can escape through the rag).
Mind you the plastic pipe softens easily, so I tied it to a bit of 2X2 to keep it straight! When I need to steam a bit of wood I use that set up and one of those electric steamers made to remove wallpaper from wall.
With the right type of wood, Oak or Ash, you can do that and soften the wood enough to tie a knot in it!