Do i need to dry wood ?

[Dreamcatcher]

Hey

   I cut trees from my hunting area.  oak,  pine, maple .  after i cut them, do i need to dry them ??

 i hear of people drying and sealing the ends of there new cut wood.  i had 1 peice of oak and it got deep cracks in it.  i am on to my new cut wood now

any info on bow drying or sealing, would be greatly appreciated.

ty all

[John Scifres]

Yes, you need to dry it.  I highly recommend Dean Torges' book "Hunting the Osage Bow" (www.bowyersedge.com) for some great info on cutting and seasoning wood for bows.

You should definitely seal the ends with shellac.  Keep it in a realatively cool and shaded place for a while and then you can split it into staves.  From there, you need to take off the bark.  Wood takes about 1 year for every inch of thickness to dry.  You can hurry this along a lot if you reduce your staves to bow dimensions and then force dry it.

[Dreamcatcher]

THANK U SO MUCH JOHN !!!

  I GUESS ME AND MY NEPHEWS WILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL WE START , SHAVING AND SANDING.  

  AND OFF TO THE WOODS I GO , TO FIND SOME GOOD TREES TO CUT.

TY AND GODBLESS

[tim-flood]

If it is real wet reduce to bow dims plus 1/2" leave limbs wide and clamp it with some back set to a 2x4 and put it in a car that sees some sun.

[Springbuck]

And put it up off the ground, out of the sprinklers, and out of dank places.

  I store mine in th crawl space above the garage.  Warm, but not too warm, dry, reasonably consistent..etc...

[shamus]

Drying and seasoning wood, from my website:

  http://analogperiphery.blogspot.com/2008/08/drying-and-seasoning-wood.html

[Roy Steele]

Seal the ends.Outof the sun in a dry place.