I was wondering if you could build a area in your heat/ac system to dry wood. I have easy access to my duct work coming out of my unit and am thinking about building an area to lay a few staves in to dry. I think the heat might be too much but the ac air would be cold but dry and should dry them quickly with all the airflow and not heat. So what do you think. I hear about laying them near a register or vent but what about in the actual system. I would remove all bark and seal back and ends on pieces to avoid bugs and checking. Am I crazy or would this work?
I don't think I'd want to put it in the duct work although it would work fine. Keeping it in your house, like under your bed, will yield the same results and in about the same amount of time. You can only speed up the process just so much and IMO slow curing is the secret to good bow wood.
If you need to get one to work on you can take it down to floor tiller stage and it will dry in a month or two, depending on the wood you are using.
I read somewhere that dried seasoned wood will make a better bow that just dry wood? Makes sense I guess. I think thats what Pat is getting at.
I know that the wood is better aged but I also know a lot of guys dry with a stovepipe over a light bulb. I was just thinking the air movement in the duct work would do it fast without the heat. AC makes for dry air. Probably wont do it but seems it woul work. And I would be useing roughed out blanks ready to tiller.
Depending on what type wood you are using you can have a stave ready to work in probably as little as 2 weeks. Putting it in the duct work will probably work. No reason for it not to. You should rotate it end to end occasionally so it dried evenly.
I built a 60" osage static recurve and had it shooting 2 months off the stump. It felt dry, it sounded dry but after a month of shooting it began to hinge and fretted is one area. I sure it was because the wood was still too "green". I later added an osage belly lam and fixed the problem.
I know "Patience Grasshopa"
I think you should try it and report the results. I bet if you thinned a stave down to near bow dimensions and coated it with shellac that it would do fine even with heat. But don't try it with your best staves :)
I am sure that aged wood makes better bows. I am also sure that fast dried wood makes fine bows. I have also made an osage bow in 2 weeks but it did follow the string more than it would have if I would have dried it the right way. I prefer at least 2 years of aging. But 10 years is better. I have a log under my bench that was cut in 1999 just waiting on something special.
John, my birthday is July 28th! d;^)
I've noticed that fresh (just dried) made bows can perform just as squirrely as fresh made arrows. And with a good chance of crooking as they season out also....Art
I just made my own hot box, which that sounds very much over the top...it really isn't. Just a box with a couple of light bulbs to help mother nature along. I'm talking like a constant 150deg. to just keep things constant.
Am I so wrong? Constant temp, constant humidity, unless I change it and a box full of wood.
You can get your staves ready to work on quickly if you take em down to just about a bow blank and let them mature for a couple months. Then your safe to go forward with it. JMO
Pat B, July 28 huh?
SEMO_Hunter,
I have a hotbox like that as described in Dean Torges' book "Hunting the osage Bow". If you haven't read it, you should. It is the treatise on fast drying wood. 2 months is plenty but 6 months is better but 6 years is better.
Yeah, I can understand all of that and I do agree that natural aging is best, but sometimes we don't have that luxury.