Shop temperature

[Doug A]

How important is the temperature in your workshop?  I have an out building that I will be using as my shop, there is no temperature control at the moment.  I intend to acquire a space heater so that it is a little more comfortable this winter.  Will the temperature changes affect drying staves or already dried boards/staves adversely?  I am definitely not keeping a heater running all the time, that would be way too expensive.

[Pat B]

Temp should be no problem unless you are dealing with yew. I have heard that yew becomes very brittle in cold weather. The dry humidity of winter will continue to dehydrate your wood unless they are so wet they have frozen.     Pat

[shamus]

I would think Moisture control is much more important. My thoughts on it:   http://analogperiphery.blogspot.com/2007/02/relative-humidity-and-selfbows.html  

Temperature is for my comfort. Yew, of course can get brittle in extreme cold, but so can I. I'm not going to make a bow in the arctic.  

[Doug A]

Shamus, according to your page, a hickory board might not be my best choice, I might be better served by choosing walnut, red oak or maple.  Something that will dry out in my neck of the woods(South Jersey).

[Pat B]

Hickory is slow to release moisture thus making it susceptible to sluggishness and excessive set. If you get the M/C down to an acceptable level while you are building and stressing the bow, hickory is one of the best bow woods out there...my second favorite. I live in an area that is humid during the summer but dry in the winter. I build most of my bows in the winter and try to maintain the lower M/C with my hot box during humid times.
  I think people, and mostly beginners, try to put too much into building a simple self bow(boards included). Even if your bow takes on a bit of set you are still learning to see and achieve tiller and if you learn from it, it is not time or effort wasted. Your next bow will be better and your understanding of wood bows, construction and use, will increase. The bottom line is ...JUST DO IT!  Have fun and make bows.

[formerbutcher]

I've learned to accept some set 2 1/2 - 3 inches doesn't bother me.

[Doug A]

Thanks Pat

[OB]

Pat, what is considered "cold temperature"?  I built a boo backed yew SB, and plan to hunt it in the 20's.

[Dano]

Here's a calculator, that helps estimate MC, as long as you monitor temp, and RH. Tim Bakers little chart was pretty close using 70 degs as an average.
 http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/emc.htm

I have kept my shop in the 30-40% humidity range just by keeping a bucket of water in the shop, otherwise it would be between 9-20%. My wood drys way too fast out here.   :rolleyes:

[Dano]

Using the calculator you can see, it's not just temperature that causes Yew problems, if it were 10 degs and a RH of 20% the MC would get to 4.5, not sure what yew would self destruct at, probably 5% I guess.

[Eric Krewson]

My shop has two sides. One is for tractor, lawn mowers and such, no insulation. This side is very cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer. The other side is for my tools and bow building. My side is very well insulated and with two south facing windows. It will be tolerable even in freezing weather and stays cool until about noon in the summer.

I do have heat and air in my shop but don't use it except on very cold or hot days

[Don Stokes]

Your wood will stay dry if you keep the storage building just 10 degrees warmer than the outside air. Yew should not be a problem, any more than any other kind of wood. There's nothing weird about it.

[Dano]

Don, you need to read Glenn St. Charles' book I guess, it's the only wood I know of that requires to be rubbed or warmed up before using in the winter.

[George Tsoukalas]

My shop is in a heated cellar. When I'm done working on a stave for the day it comes up and sits on top of my forced hot water system. I have an understanding wife. Doug, what I would do is work on your stave and the bring it in the house.  Jawge