Drying Wood

[Craig/FL]

I was planning on glueing up a osage/boo board bow this weekend. The material has been out in my barn and its been raining non stop all week, I have a feeling with all this moisture in the air the wood and boo should be died some. What would be the best way to dry it and how long would it take to do so. Thanks, Craig

[Robertfishes]

craig, what I ve seen people do and what I did 15 years ago was to build a plywood box 2 ft square and 7 ft tall, with a door of course, and I put a porcelain light fixture with a 75 watt bulb and a very small fan, just enough to move the air and heat arround, also install a termometer, I insulated mine with half inch foil backed eps foam. I havn t worked a piece of wood in 14 years, last week I opened the box up for the first time since then and found 3 un finished bows, two of them backed with deer rawhide. maybe someone with more experiance will give you a better answer...

[Craig/FL]

Thanks Robert,
I think I have most of that stuff with the exception of the insulation. If the rain hold off I'll start making the box today.
Kinda cool finding those bows after all those years, those deer rawhide backed bows sound interesting, maybe we'll see you shooting one at the fall shoot this year..

[Robertfishes]

Craig,use the search function and search hot box you will get 3 pages of threads.I sent you a PM about someone you may know who can help you.. I'm starting to build glass bows now, I will work on the self bows in between glass bows. the ones I found are an osage self bow, hickory self bow and a red oak board "youth bow" that I made for my cousin when he was 8 yrs old, he shot it once and said he didn't like it... he's 22 yrs old now. I just need to refinish the red oak bow, make a new string and I will give it to a kid who needs it. any of the big box hardware stores will have the insulation.

[Pat B]

A hot box is a good idea for building and storing bows. Until you get one built, set your wood and boo near an a/c register. Your a/c is a giant dehumidifier.