Drying Branches

[ravenbeak]

Hi Guys,

I am looking for some tips and techniques on how to dry branches without checking,

Specifically for branches in the 2 inch diameter range.    Do you work them down first with a hatchet on the belly side to expose some drying area or leave them round and seal the ends?   Not sure how to prevent them splitting open.

Any help is greatly appreciated

cheers,
Jamie

[Bryce]

What's the wood?

[k-hat]

I highly suspect it's a yewhaul 

if you haven't sealed the ends already, definitely do that asap, but i'm sure you have.  other than that, sorry, i haven't worked any staves that small.

[Pat B]

I have not worked branches for bows but I have a 2" peach sapling I harvested in Jan or Feb. I left the handle area round but cut the belly side off of both limbs. I clamped it to a form shortly after harvesting and cutting out the limbs and just the other day I removed it from the form. I haven't worked it yet but hopefully I'll get on it shortly.
 I have used 2" osage suckers like this too. With them I cut the stave in half, lengthwise and bound them back together until they dried(at least 6 months) with small wood spacers between the two halves to help with aircirculation for drying. This process has worked very well for me. You might do a search for "Pole Bows".
  One thing to remember about branches...there is a top(tension) side and a bottom(compression) side. For some woods the tension side is what you want and on others the compression side is what you want to use.