In January this year the bowyer bug bit me. Ordered all 4 TBB and read most of all of them. Got one bow nearly tillered and heard the tick tick of a forming crack, got to shoot it twice anyway. I should have stopped and backed it but anger got the better of me. All along I intended to become proficient building selfbows and move on to laminated bows.
I have been enjoying this great site, the fine craftsmanship and the comradery. It has increased my desire to build bows. Presently my son and I have two bows near tillering and I made a discouraging discovery today. Our wood is too dry. I was aware of the humidity and moisture content issue but had been guessing we were at 7-8% in our bow wood. I purchased a moisture meter today, more like 5-6%.
The way I see it I have a few choices:
1. Build a cabinet for building and storing selfbows kept at 50% humidity to achieve ~9%.
2. Back everything we build.
3. Move on to lam bows and give up on selfbows.
I had high hopes for the Ash bow I have ready to tiller.
Any thoughts welcome. My Apologies for the long post.
Go to hickory, it loves the dry conditions. The cabinet idea is also a good one if you have the room. I have the opposite problem with too much moisture and so i keep the bow I'm working on in a room with a dehumidifier. Good luck with the addiction.
QuoteOriginally posted by Pago:
In January this year the bowyer bug bit me. All along I intended to become proficient building selfbows and move on to laminated bows.
Assembling a successful lam bow is much easier than crafting a selfbow so if a successful bow is your end goal, you have that backwards. But the two are different enough to be almost unrelated.
Hickory likes dry so choose a different wood. Osage can handle dry also. There are successful self bowyers in your area so I would find them and see what they do.
Unless you hunt in a cabinet, I doubt that would do much good. Wood will always stabilize to the ambient RH. If you hunt for more than a few hours, you won't be able to control moisture loss regardless of the finish and storage conditions at home.
I'm in the California desert, probably with conditions very similar to yours. I haven't had any issues with the hickory bows I've built. As razorback mentioned, hickory likes it dry.
Guy
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3732/9490019080_970a22608c.jpg) (http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2873/9490031316_6a3629db23.jpg)
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5447/9490033438_248f8f8c37.jpg)
Pictures of the Ash bow worked to one ring on the back and rough cut on the band saw ready for floor tillering. It has some character, there was a knot underneath the wood on the left limb and more material was left to compensate for the deformed rings.
I wanted to start with selfbows because it felt like learning to walk, understanding tension, compression and tillering, before starting to design and create lam bows. I have used bows my entire life. I once had a grooves spitfire I really enjoyed. But am amazed with everything involved with bow physics I didn't know.
I will look into hickory and osage. I have drooled over osage staves online but crindged at the price. Thanks for the advice and encouragement. If any Mesa/Phoenix bowyers fall across this I would like to catch up with them and trade notes.
Again thanks.
One of my friends is a prolific bowyer and loves osage. He lives in a climate that's not nearly as hot nor as dry as AZ, yet he still has trouble with osage if it gets too dry. Any pin-knot will develop cracks, no matter how small.
Stick with hickory and you won't have to worry about the heat.