TRAGEDY! Dent??

[pyral]

Unfortunately most of my day yesterday was spent cleaning. Finally reached the bedroom where my recurve was laid on my bed. My wife decided to throw a few random items on the bed which included a flat file I use for various sharpening chores. All but the file landed harmlessly. I now have a triangle dent on the thumb side of my ' curve' s grip from where the corner of the file came down. Anything like this ever happen to you?

Is there any way I can fix this? I have heard how you can place a wet hand towel on a scratched stock and place an iron over it and it will swell the wood and make the dent/scratch basically swell out to flush with the surface. Do you think this will work?

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Josh

[CT Bowhunter]

I had my 1 year old lab think one of my bows was a chew stick. Had just gotten the bow in the mail, not 90 minutes unpacked. I went out back to shoot, with the dogs in the house. Got a fire call, I' m a vonunteer firefigther. Put the bow down and came back in about 15 minutes. Meanwhile my wife let the dogs out. Came back to find my lab chewing on the bow[:@]. She did a good number on it. I sent mine back to the bowyer and he did a little sanding and it looked great. The only ones that showed were the real deep teeth marks, but you' d have to look close.

I also dropped my new Lil Magnum off the back of the truck while bear hunting last month. Figured those nicks put some character in the bow. You could always tell people that they were teeth marks from a bear you fought off with nothing but your bow.

I' ve heard about the trick you mentioned but never tried it myself. Good luck!

[Kip]

Pyral, I have used the damp washcloth/hot iron on gun stocks, and it works great.
Just go slow, only putting the hot iron on a DAMP washcloth for 10-15 seconds at a time until you see how much the grain will be raised. My first attempt I over-did the hot iron part, and discolored the gun stock. Go slow, and it will work fine. Also, dont use a dripping wet cloth. I wring out the cloth, and go from there.

[Strutter]

I slipped last year going up a creek bank and somehow got the riser of my longbow between my hand and a rock. Needless to say, I had a nice big dent in the ipe riser. I took a washcloth and got it wet but not dripping wet. Wring it out like Kip said. Also, I found that a round metal rod worked better than the iron. Use a torch to heat the rod up. Heat it til the metal starts turning, not red hot. Lay the rag on the dent and roll the hot rod over the dent. Be sure to cover more than just the dented area so you don' t scorch the dry area of the riser. I managed to get a lot (80%) of the dent out but did not push my luck as I did not want to take the chance of having the glued sections of the riser get hot and come apart. Start out slow and careful. You should be able to make a big difference in the dent. What little is left is a reminder of where I was and what I was doing.

If all else fails, use this to your advantage and throw the ol' guilt trip on the wife and before you know it, you' ll have a new bow on the way.

Good Luck,
Strutter

[pyral]

Hey guys, I appreciate your help. I am probably going to try and steam that dent out in the next few days.

As far as the guilt trip, wouldn' t work. For one, she is not that gullible, and two, it was my fault she was throwing things around since I was being lazy and didn' t keep things kept up. I know when to admit it was my fault and this was one of them, no blame to throw elsewhere. Oh well....

Thanks again guys,
Josh