Seasoning wood

[Badger]

  Here is one we used to fight about all the time, Tim Baker and a few others argued on the side of quick drying and kiln dried wood while many of the purists argued in favor of slow seasoning of wood. I never really had a strong opinion either way. One of the threads here today about a yew stave made me think of this. My thoughts are that if you make a bow out of unseasoned wood the bow will continue to season as it ages just as if it were sitting in your wood shed as a raw stave. Last week I had pulled a bunch of bows out of storage that had been setting for several years not being used. Only a few yew bows, mainly osage bows. Yew seems to be the one that raises the most eyebrows when not seasoned. I wish I would have kept better records on the old bows or any records at all for that matter, but it does appear most of them had put on a few pounds including the yew. Out of curiosity I gave my buddy a call who I had made an elb for about 10 years ago, I asked him how his bow was doing and if he minded comming by to weigh it. I had built it for him at 55#@28. He only uses the bow durring his reenactment shows he does once a year, He said it seemed to put on weight as he can't get it back to full draw anymore. So, my thoughts are that seasoning does have some effect, how much I don't know.

[Badger]

  Something else I wanted to add with no hard evidence. I am thinking now that a well seasoned piece of wood might be less inclined to take set and that possibly heat treating may speed the seasoning process up a bit. Thing slike this are hard to verify as they take years to really get any solid evidence.

[Bryce]

He couldn't get it to full draw bc he's 10 years older

[Eric Garza]

I'm on board with the idea that wood seasons as it ages. I'm also starting to wonder if the process of seasoning is separate from the process of reaching equilibrium moisture content with surroundings. Maybe there's something going on with the resins in wood or the lignin or hemicellulose (or cellulose for that matter) that changes wood's character and performance in tasks that require bending? I also wonder if a wood's elasticity increases with age? As you mentioned Steve, these are questions that take years of data collection to really answer, and I certainly haven't shown that degree of dedication and patience so far.

[Badger]

  Eric, I am with you thinking that the solvents continue to evapaorate and the lignins somehow harden up like an old can of enamel paint. The older bows behave really well.

[Marc St Louis]

Steve
I'm sure you must remember that I was always of the opinion that seasoned is better.  I think I mentioned years ago that I believed that heat-treating helped the seasoning process along by quite a bit.

[Badger]

  I do rememeber, I was thinking about that when I posted. An old bow seems to act a lot like a heat treated bow.

[akswift]

perhaps there is a difference between the effects of seasoning and heat treating. Can any one comment about their efforts to heat treat seasoned wood? or does heat treating works better with unseasoned wood?

[BowEd]

I can't answer that question completely akswift but I'm in the section that thinks seasoned is better.It's just a matter of getting enough reduced staves around me to let them season at least a year or two before making a bow from them.

[blackhawk]

As wood ages it and its cells shrinks,and only time can do that...heat treating does seem to shrink the wood as well speeding up the process to a certain degree...as to how much and if the same as 10-15 years I dont know? I have a strong thought as well that seasoned wood is more bend resistant...and wood that's been quick dried compared wood that's been seasoned for years even if both pieces are at the same mc will have a different tone if bounced of the floor or knocked on it....its all because of the wood and its cells have shrunk creating a tighter structure within the wood...

I'm in the seasoned wood camp...although good and more than productive bows can still be made by quick drying measures....that's been more than proven time n time again...to each his own I guess...if that works for you then great...theres more than one way to skin this cat and be satisfied with your results

[Dances with squirrels]

I've noticed my bows gaining weight over the years too. Even my most used osage bow has gained about 4 pounds....and taken no additional set following shooting-in.

[vinemaplebows]

In my mind the wood , or more accurately the moisture in the wood is redistributed thoughout the wood with a constant loss of moisture over a given amount of time. Wood over time in room tempeture (even sealed) will loose moisture till it reaches it's equilibrium of air moisture. I also believe that wood that is extremely old has the increased nature to become more brittle, not to the point of being unusable, but you may need to adjust your design. Moisture is always in the wood, but what does the moisture in the wood do over time?? Does it decay the wood?? Is there a chemical exchange that happens over time to weaken the wood?? To my thinking regarless of how we humans try to preserve anything......everything will decay in some way over time even with our best efforts. One exception in my mind would be submerged oxygen depleted wood, but even then it's a matter of time.....nothing is forever.

VMB

[PatM]

We know that wood shrinks naturally over time and has to get denser. It seems that Tim's "good enough" seasoning has pushed aside what has been know for centuries as "best possible".
 You can make a great bow in just a few weeks, but you can make a better one if you wait a year or ten.
 I routinely split a tree trunk in half and make a bow from one half quickly and leave the other half for years before making it into a bow. The second half is invariably better, even if only slightly.

[mullet]

I'm in the group that thinks well seasoned wood is better. I can make a bow from ten year old wood and have fewer suprises and less set then a stave that is only been curing a year. I can heat treat that ten year old stave and to me it seems to shoot a lot faster then a newer piece that has been heat treated, also.

[artcher1]

Steve, I've mentioned many times over the years on these boards that you'll learn more about bow wood from arrow making than anything else. Something Tim Baker knew absolutely nothing about. And I'm sure you remember mine and Tim's discussion on this matter of seasoning over on PP some years ago. A real shame he couldn't see anyone's point of view but his own!

So, if anyone thinks that quick dry is as good as seasoned wood, then cut you some green billets, let 'em dry out real good, and make some arrows instead of bows. You're going to be sorely disappointed..............Art B