Arizona it's a dry heat

[Pago]

In January this year the bowyer bug bit me.  Ordered all 4 TBB and read most of all of them.  Got one bow nearly tillered and heard the tick tick of a forming crack, got to shoot it twice anyway.  I should have stopped and backed it but anger got the better of me.  All along I intended to become proficient building selfbows and move on to laminated bows.

I have been enjoying this great site, the fine craftsmanship and the comradery.  It has increased my desire to build bows.  Presently my son and I have two bows near tillering and I made a discouraging discovery today.  Our wood is too dry.  I was aware of the humidity and moisture content issue but had been guessing we were at 7-8% in our bow wood.  I purchased a moisture meter today, more like 5-6%.

The way I see it I have a few choices:

1. Build a cabinet for building and storing selfbows kept at 50% humidity to achieve ~9%.

2. Back everything we build.

3. Move on to lam bows and give up on selfbows.

I had high hopes for the Ash bow I have ready to tiller.

Any thoughts welcome.  My Apologies for the long post.

[razorback]

Go to hickory, it loves the dry conditions. The cabinet idea is also a good one if you have the room. I have the opposite problem with too much moisture and so i keep the bow I'm working on in a room with a dehumidifier. Good luck with the addiction.

[John Scifres]

Originally posted by Pago:
In January this year the bowyer bug bit me.  All along I intended to become proficient building selfbows and move on to laminated bows.

Assembling a successful lam bow is much easier than crafting a selfbow so if a successful bow is your end goal, you have that backwards.  But the two are different enough to be almost unrelated.

Hickory likes dry so choose a different wood.  Osage can handle dry also.  There are successful self bowyers in your area so I would find them and see what they do.

Unless you hunt in a cabinet, I doubt that would do much good.  Wood will always stabilize to the ambient RH.  If you hunt for more than a few hours, you won't be able to control moisture loss regardless of the finish and storage conditions at home.

[Grey Taylor]

I'm in the California desert, probably with conditions very similar to yours. I haven't had any issues with the hickory bows I've built. As razorback mentioned, hickory likes it dry.

Guy

[Pago]

 
 

Pictures of the Ash bow worked to one ring on the back and rough cut on the band saw ready for floor tillering.  It has some character, there was a knot underneath the wood on the left limb and more material was left to compensate for the deformed rings.

I wanted to start with selfbows because it felt like learning to walk, understanding tension, compression and tillering, before starting to design and create lam bows.  I have used bows my entire life.  I once had a grooves spitfire I really enjoyed.  But am amazed with everything involved with bow physics I didn't know.

I will look into hickory and osage.  I have drooled over osage staves online but crindged at the price.  Thanks for the advice and encouragement.  If any Mesa/Phoenix bowyers fall across this I would like to catch up with them and trade notes.

Again thanks.

[Sal]

One of my friends is a prolific bowyer and loves osage.  He lives in a climate that's not nearly as hot nor as dry as AZ, yet he still has trouble with osage if it gets too dry.  Any pin-knot will develop cracks, no matter how small.

Stick with hickory and you won't have to worry about the heat.