Bow making contest ( drawlength changed. Make it to your own draw length )

[Emmet]

I worked on mine today and ruffed out the bow on the band saw. I made a mini bow to test how it bends and handles grain violation. It bent along way and didn't break but took a lot of set. It didn't seem to have much snap.

[willie]

Emmet

Actually those two pics are of the same stud, different ends tho.

sound like the wood you are working with might be  a little too moist still, but you inquired how to keep it damp on the back? I think that I did read about someone oiling the back of pine. Are you working with hardwood or softwood?

willie

[Emmet]

I'm working with hard wood,Madrone for this project. Moister rite now is 10.5 %. It's real dense and if it wasn't for blue stained streaks I don't think you could see growth rings. I'll see if it does better after the moister drops. First time using this wood.

The moister in my staves seem to go below 5% after they sit a year or so. What I've tried  on some is leave em in the bathroom while we shower before putting finish on. I don't think it does much for keeping the moister up. The last few I've  warmed the bows with a heat gun and rubbing several heavy coats of teak oil on, I use the heat gun to drive the oil in. It seems to drink it up fairly well. Then seal with tru oil. So far I haven't found doing it this way to be bad, Is seems to be working good.

[willie]

Emmet

5% seems awfully dry. Are you in the desert? How do you tell what the moisture content of the wood is? Madrone is not a wood I am familiar with, but blue stain in other woods is a sign of being too damp

[Emmet]

Willie, I'm in the PNW. The Madrone has been drying in log form for close to three years. Iv'e never used it before and theres not a lot of info as far as bow making with it that I've found other then brittle, weak in tension. Since cutting it open it has been dropping moister fast. Its and 10.5 now. I expect it to hit 5% as the Osage, mulberry and elm staves I have are all at 5-7 any time I check. A little higher around 9 during rainy days but its just the surface as it drops when the rain stops. I check it with a meter.
I've been trying to see if this wood will bend without breaking so I made a small bow to monitor moister and bend. With 10.5% it bends but it's like bending rubber.
 

[Emmet]

Here's the results of my bend test on the Madrone.
At 7% moister it snapped with very little bend. This same piece at 10%
 bent to about 90 degrees and stayed there.

[willie]

Emmet

I would not have thought that the M.C. would get that low unless you are on the eastside, but as you say, the surface is where the meter is reading and where the strain is the highest and the breaks get their start.

Have you tried and experiments with oil on the back? Fish oil was reportedly used in Scandinavia on the backs of spruce and pine years ago.Maybe time to troll a king?

Madrone sounds like a challenge to work with

willie

[Emmet]

Fish oil is easy enough to get and certainly worth a try.
I'll see how it compares.

[PlanB]

Just to keep the thread updated.....still waiting for cottonwood sapling and stave to dry -- weighing every day. Sapling has been roughed closer to outlines, and rasped some, but no tillering yet.

[PlanB]

Some photos of the sapling progress:

Chopped out, first photo:

And after drying some, rasping down.

[Dakota Kid]

I finally found a sumac that's got my name on it. It must be 10"-12" in diameter which makes it a giant. It has a date with my battery chain saw in it's future.  I also found another unlikely piece for bow making in my scrap area. It's a reclaimed piece of trim of an unknown hardwood. I think it might be tulip poplar, but can't remember where I got it so I'm not entirely sure on that ID. I might have a better idea when I start working it and get the stain off, but where I cut the end the wood has a greenish tint. I plan to get one more stave in the mix for this event hoping to get at least one success out of 3. I think I'm gonna check out what driftwood the beach has to offer.

Just to clarify, is it the species or the means of acquisition/ condition of the wood that determines an "bad bow wood"? Say I find a piece of yew an the beach(not likely) that has obviously spent some time floating around the lake and taken some abuse. Is that enough of an unlikely success to be used in this competition? 

[PlanB]

Perhaps maybe a bow made from the most unlikely piece of wood, with again parameters like 40@28,  voted on by participants once again. Wood being a bug hole stave or pine board or a stave nobody would consider maybe a piece of red oak cut moulding.... Something ridiculous.

Dakota, that was the original challenge --though the length can be your draw, if not 28". So anything can be entered -- whether you win with a particuar entry depends on the amusement of the voters....

[sleek]

^ What he said that I said.

[lostarrow]

Damn, I knew I should have grabbed some of that corkscrew Hazel from the brush pile!

[PlanB]

Have to admit, I'm liking Dakota's sumac plan.