Seasoning staves

[Badger]

    I was talking on the phone today to a gentleman with a good many osage staves, the majority of them were cut 10 and more years ago, he told me they continue to warp the whole time he has them. He claimed he didnt know how long it would take them to stablize as he has never seen on stop warping. Not talking a lot of warp but slight warping. I know my older brothe build pool cues and usually gaes them about 5 years, taking them down every few months and turning a few thousands off of them to true them back up, he says he wont use them in a cue until they stop changing and this takes 3 to sometimes 7 years. Any of you experience this? Steve

[broad_head]

Badger
           I would guess that any raw wood that was exposed to natural changes in heat and humidity would move, as do the external wooden doors on my house. I would assume that when a wooden bow is sealed with a protective finish and kept in a heated house it would be stabilised? I have never seen any of my finished bows warp, at least not enough to notice.

                                                                                                                                               Peter (UK)

[Marc St Louis]

Steve
Some woods never stop working and some that do. What makes those that do warp is changes in the atmospheric humidity affecting the moisture content of the wood. BC is a very stable wood but Elm is not. HHB is also pretty stable.

[tom sawyer]

If the bark is on a stave, this slows drying considerably.  Possibly the delayed drying is due to this?  Otherwise, the movement may be due to changes in humidity and not to the stave still drying out?