Cut some Ash

[Basinboy]

Cut me a Ash this evening! Now the long wait for it to dry.....
 
 

[takefive]

Nice!  Looks like you'll get a lot of straight staves out of it.

[Crooked Stic]

You need a bigger chopper-------  :rolleyes:

[DanielB89]

goodness Gracious!  

You should have enough wood for a few bows! lol.

[Roy from Pa]

Sweet...

[SportHunter]

Nice tree, I liked working with ash. Looks like you'll get a bunch of staves out of that one.

[Basinboy]

Ok folks I'm new to this stuff. What's the preferred method? Do I let it dry for a year after painting the ends? Do I split it into staves first?

[monterey]

Nice chunk of wood.

Did it the hard way too.   :eek:  

Chain saws are gooood!

[Pat B]

I'd split the log in half, give it a few weeks then split into staves. This time of year the bark will come off easily so be sure to seal the back and the ends.
 You can reduce one(or more) of the staves to almost bow size and it will dry pretty quickly.

[BMorv]

Basinboy, I was in the same boat as you a month ago when I cut an elm tree down.  I'm pretty impatient, so I knew I didn't want to wait a year before starting a bow.  I re-read the BB1 section on "Other Bow Woods" and they detailed how you can dry a whitewood bow stave in as little as a month.  So I followed the method and I now have a stave that I'm ready to work this weekend.  To summarize, you need to get the moisture content to 9% without damaging the wood.  I put one of the staves inside for 2 weeks and that took the moisture content from over to 30% to a little over 20%.  Once you get the MC to around 20% you can dry it in a hot box/ attic (or any place with a temperature between 100 and 150 deg F) until you get it to 9% MC.  I sealed the ends and back with glue during the hot box step. My stave spend 72 hours in the hot box before it was at 9% MC.  Here's some of the pics of my elm tree drying process.                    

I've only tried this process on this elm tree, but according to BB1, you should be able to do it with Ash or any other whitewood.  Hopes this helps,
-Ben
Where in South Louisiana are you located by the way?  We may be neighbors.

[Basinboy]

Originally posted by BMorv:
Basinboy, I was in the same boat as you a month ago when I cut an elm tree down.  I'm pretty impatient, so I knew I didn't want to wait a year before starting a bow.  I re-read the BB1 section on "Other Bow Woods" and they detailed how you can dry a whitewood bow stave in as little as a month.  So I followed the method and I now have a stave that I'm ready to work this weekend.  To summarize, you need to get the moisture content to 9% without damaging the wood.  I put one of the staves inside for 2 weeks and that took the moisture content from over to 30% to a little over 20%.  Once you get the MC to around 20% you can dry it in a hot box/ attic (or any place with a temperature between 100 and 150 deg F) until you get it to 9% MC.  I sealed the ends and back with glue during the hot box step. My stave spend 72 hours in the hot box before it was at 9% MC.  Here's some of the pics of my elm tree drying process.                                

I've only tried this process on this elm tree, but according to BB1, you should be able to do it with Ash or any other whitewood.  Hopes this helps,
-Ben
Where in South Louisiana are you located by the way?  We may be neighbors.

I'm pretty patient since I had cut a few trees last year and I have one left I'm starting on now. It's a hackberry and I'm hoping it's better than the water oak I used for the first 3 try's at building a selfbow. They all broke :/..
Looks like you found that elm in the marsh. Let me know how it works out I might have to go cut one to play with next year.
I plan to cut a bitter pecan and persimmon to dry for future builds. Thanks for the info!

[twitchstick]

   

[BMorv]

Yeah, the woods on our family's property are full of water oak too (the property is not technically a swamp, but holds water for most of the year).  From what I've read, the hackberry should be similar to elm.  Stronger in tension than in compression.
Can I ask if you were testing the moisture content on the selfbow's you tried?  
 
Good luck on the hackberry. Let us know how it turns out.
You should have some good staves from that ash tree too.
I'll post pics once I'm done with the elm bow.  I'm still debating design options.

[Basinboy]

Originally posted by BMorv:
Yeah, the woods on our family's property are full of water oak too (the property is not technically a swamp, but holds water for most of the year).  From what I've read, the hackberry should be similar to elm.  Stronger in tension than in compression.
Can I ask if you were testing the moisture content on the selfbow's you tried?  
 
Good luck on the hackberry. Let us know how it turns out.
You should have some good staves from that ash tree too.
I'll post pics once I'm done with the elm bow.  I'm still debating design options.

I did not test the moisture content. I know it lost a bunch of weight in the year I let it dry.
How does one go about testing moisture content?

[BMorv]

I bought a cheap moisture meter online for around $20.  The reason I ask is that the 1st 2 board bows I tried to make ended up breaking on me. Turns out they had too low of moisture content, around 7% (poor tiller and low moisture content = snap).  
The stave that has dried for a year should be dry enough to make a bow, but I would want to check to be sure.  You want to be between 9% and 12% MC.  I would say 10% or 11% in our humid climate. Above 12% and it will take excessive set, and below 9% it will be brittle.
There are other ways to check moisture content that don't involve buying a moisture meter, but I haven't tried them.

[scrub-buster]

Nice ash log.  I cut a small one Wednesday.  The borers are bad here.  I wanted to get a few ash staves before they were all dead.

[Basinboy]

Split it open. Got 5 good staves. Ends are painted now the wait.....
 
 
 

Looks like the borers were starting on this one. A trail right up the center