I am in the process of starting a new project, Bingham's RD. I have a lot of wood laying around but did not come from boyer supliers. This wood was left over from items like, banjo and dulcimers.
Can I use this this wood for risers, does it have to be a certain moisture %.
Thanks for your help.
Any wood used need to be dry.
That would be to the degree that your areas humidity lets it dry.
Those left over scraps should make great,looking risers.
What woods are you using for your dulcimers? Mahogany, cherry, black walnut, cedar, redwood, spruce,maple are sometimes used for dulcimers.
I keep some small blocks of wood in my house but large pieces and boards are in my aircondioned shop..I keep the AC on 75 degrees and I run a dehumidifier a few hours before I spray finish a bow. I have a cheap pinless and a pin type moisture meter. My risers blocks have a MC of 8-10% when I use them. I also check them after cutting them to rough shape since the pins only read the outside of the block.
Using walnut on the dulicmer and brazilian rose wood for the banjo
The only time I used black walnut I added two 070 strips of hard maple and one 040 piece of black fiberglass to the riser block. This was on a 42# D/R longbow. I was told to always add glass or wood to a walnut riser.