Drying Billets

[Jack Skinner]

Being from Wyoming I have never taken a tree all the way to a bow. Recently a friend brought me a osage log from his family home. I cut off the top part because of limbs coming out. This left me about 50 or so inch log which I then split into quarters. I then sealed the ends and left in garage about a month. Now here in WY it got cold right at the start of winter and has not warmed up I am thinking the log is sitting there not drying because it is frozen. So I looked tru BB1 and came up with taking two of the splits down to heartwood then made 40 long by 2 wide sister billets from them and sealed back and ends with white glue. I also brought them into the house and stored under bed.

Now those with knowledge in how long to go before these are ready to make bow from. What am I looking at here for drying time. Are we taking months or years. I have two large splits with bark and sap wood left on and two sets of sister billets sealed taken down to heart wood.

Are there ways to season faster without causing checks that are not in BB1. I dont think I have the patience for watching wood dry.

I did just order a cheap moisture meter from Home Depot that got good reviews for checking moister in water damaged homes, should that work OK for checking moisture content.

Not having trees on the plains of WY has me at a disadvantage to this part of the selfbow process.

Any advice help would be appreciated.

[2treks]

Congrats on the osage Jack,
My take on it is this.
I have made lots of self bows from greenwood. Meaning that It was cut and with in 6 months I made the bow.
This is how that process would work,
Take fresh cut log and recuce it to bow blank dimensions. to the floor tiller stage.
SEAL it with some heavy duty sealer. Then take that "bow blank" and steam it and straighten it on your caul. This will drive out the "green" moisture. Now it is very important to let the newly "seasoned" bow blank to re-hydrate.
I always left mine alone for a month at least. Michigan is wet in the summer and dry (in my shop/house) in the winter so use your judgment here.
This will make a nice bow. One of my favorites was cut in Feb and shooting in May.
I re-worked the handle on that bow a little this past fall and hunted with it. I first made the bow in 2002 and shot 100's and 1000's of arrows thru it until I became corupt with the glass bows. That bow still hold 1.5" of reflex.

Gary Davis goes thru this in some detail in his bow making DVD.
 http://www.3riversarchery.com/Rattlestick%3A+A+Selfbow+Tutorial+DVD+By+Gary+S.+Davis_i7041_baseitem.html

I still feel that a better bow can be made from good air dried wood. 3-5yrs.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

CTT

[Jack Skinner]

Thanks Two Tracks Maybe I will try the quick method on one set of billets and let the other air dry.

[2treks]

Good luck Jack. A fine bow will result from the steaming/straightening. I use steam on green wood one time only. Dry heat for any tweaking. Only Dry heat on old wood.

CTT

[Jack Skinner]

I bought a cheap moisture meter and tried it last night on my billets that I had removed the bark and sap wood from. They were already showing down to 9-8%. Which means they are ready to use. Then I read the manuel and it says that the local humidity can effect readings. Well its normal here in WY to not get above 50% unless there is precip. As a matter of fact the humidity will be in the mid to low twenties today. So now I have to wonder is the wood that normally would take months to dry ready or is it the local humidity affecting the readings of my meter. I would guess that most of the bowyers on this web site are in areas with high humidity so your wood will season a lot slower than mine, but ready in basically a month? I guess the only thing to do would be to start working a set of the billets and see how they react to tillering. I have gotten staves and held on to them for a few months before working and had them break as if too dry. I could be using a faulty set of standards from areas with high humidity to go by as far as time in seasoning wood.

Any folks out there with experence seasoning wood in western dry environment?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Weighing them daily is more accurate in my mind. I would find it hard to believe they are 8-9% after a few days. Osage doesnt let its moisture get away very easily. Moisture meters arent very reliable in my eyes.