rehydrating red oak

[youngbowyer33]

i have a red oak board, and i dug in to rough out, and it came out in big chunks. i left it for 2 weeks, but it still looks really dry.ive bent quite a bit, and haven't heard any sounds yet. my question is is there a way to rehydrate it, or do you think it is permanent damage?i think i will sand it down and see how it is. my dad said there might be some oil like there is for furniture(our teak table), that might work, but him and i are both unsure. thanks in advance.

[Dano]

 Can you explain these big chunks better? There are very few woods that can be too dry to make a bow. Do you have a dry climate where you are at?

[Pat B]

Sounds more like a fungal problem or grain swirls. Generally an oil treatment would only be a surface treatment or at least very shallow into the wood. That wouldn't prevent a too dry board from breaking.
  Take a small length of the same wood and build a miniature bow. It should react the same as a regular sized bow and if there is a problem and the bow blows it shouldn't hurt too bad. ..physically or emotionally. 

[George Tsoukalas]

If you find your drawknife digging in you need to turn the board around  particularly if you are working the edges.  Jawge

[makenzie71]

If you find your drawknife digging in you need to turn the board around  particularly if you are working the edges.  Jawge

Ditto.  This is how I ruined most of my staves while working with a draw knife.  If you're digging into the grain it will follow and split the wood.  Sometimes it's hard to see which direction you need to carve from...always hit it one way then try to duplicate the cut going the opposite...which ever cuts less meat, that's the direction you want to carve.

[youngbowyer33]

ill try and post a picture because my description isnt really good at all, and i was using a hand plane, and my climate is pretty humid but it is alot dryer now because of the cold.

[makenzie71]

Is it a dense board?

[George Tsoukalas]

Same applies with a plane too. Do post pictures. Jawge

[Pat B]

I never liked using hand planes or spoke shaves on bows because I could never adjust them well enough to only take off a small, thin shaving. I have a lot better luck with a rasp and/or scraper. Once I get a bow to floor tiller stage, that's all I use.

[George Tsoukalas]

I don't use planes on bows either. Jawge