Thoughts/Ideas/Experiences on The Initial Seasoning of Bow Staves

[Limbwalker]

Hello Everyone,
I wanted to share some experiences and ideas on the subject of the first day or two of the seasoning process. Also I hope anyone with their unique experiences shares on this topic; what may be revevant to me, may not be for you (climate ect)

For me, the first 12-24 hours has been the make or break period, for the most part. Recently I've been trying different ways of going about it and so far the following has been working extremely well. Here is what I got so far. First, after cutting down a tree or a limb I let it lay for 12 hours or so. I do it when it's not raining. By the way I am located central east coast USA. So, I cut the wood once. One cut, not into stave lengths, no gluing/painting the end and no splitting. Just cut and let lay or put it in my back yard for about 12 hours. Typically overnight for me.

The next day I bring PVA glue or coconut oil when I return to the wood. I then cut the lengths I want and then paint the ends. I typically always split my staves at this time, as well as debar and de-sapwood if necessary.

Now I've been doing one more thing before letting the staves rest in my finished basement. A bead of glue or oil down the pith. Just down the pith, that's it. Moisture obviously takes the path of least resistance and moisture will leave through the pith way too fast and cause all that handle checking stuff.

So far this is my most successful method. I really think that easing the wood into its new climate, but still acting rather quickly within the time period presented. This has worked on Black Locust, Mulberry (habitual checker), Purple Leaf Plum, Eastern Redbud, Black Walnut, American Elm and I think that's all with this way of doing things so far. If I find something better I will write it here, I've been known to change my mind if something works better. So far there has been very minimal to zero checking even with the Plum (Only ones I left bark on)

Let me know what you think and if you have experiences or feedback on this matter and take care,
     
    Johny

[wizardgoat]

Time of year I think plays a big role.
I prefer to cut in the fall/winter for many reasons.
Aside from the cooler weather and no bugs, there's way less moisture in the wood.
I agree the first day is important, but also wood loses so much water weight in the first few weeks after cutting, the cooler weather helps slow that process,so you get much less checking and warping.
My experience is mainly with yew, checking is hardly ever an issue, but twisting,and warping definitely is.

[Badger]

   I struggle the most with purple leaf plum, I wrap in siran wrap and cut a few small slits for moisture to escape. I continue adding more slits for a few months before I take the siran wrap off. I have trouble with the pith splitting at the handle if I don't have the moisture down low enough when I rough the bow out. Nearly all my plum bows have a split in the hadle that often runs into the fades. The siran wrap and slow dry seems to work pretty good.

[DC]

With Ocean Spray I rough the bow out as soon as it's cut, seal the ends and fades and then put it in a plastic tube. I leave the ends of the bag open. I cut some 3 days ago and put a hygrometer in it the yesterday and it was 95% RH in the middle(at the handle). I'll watch that until it gets down to 60% or so and then take it out of the bag. I never have any trouble with the limbs checking. I wrap the handle right by the fades with a bike tube strap as tight as I can about 10 or so wraps. It doesn't seem to stop it splitting every time but it doesn't open up like clam. With yew I just stand it in the corner, no sealing no nothin'. My shop sits around 70% RH.

[willie]

generally the "free" water goes fast, but the evaporation rate of the "bound" water needs to be minimized.

a cellulose sponge is often cited as an illustration of free vs bound. there is the "free" water that can be wrung out of a sponge, and the sponge retains it's shape. When the "bound" water starts to dry out, the shrinking and twisting happens, due to the outside shrinking faster than the inside.

As noted, some woods need special care once shrinkage starts, and some from what I read (osage?) some need special care from day of cutting.

[George Tsoukalas]

I live in Southern NH. i like to cut whitewoods during the growing season. Seal the ends. Split it into staves.The bark slips right off.
Other than that. Not much to do.
Jawge

[Eric Krewson]

There was  fellow down in Georgia that was major stave dealer, don't remember his name. He said he would cut a tree when it had leaves, leave it on the ground for a couple of weeks until the leaves dried up.

He said  60% of the moisture in the trunk would be wicked up to the drying leaves and be gone, I have never tried this myself.

[bradsmith2010]

I mainly worked with osage,,
if I cut a green tree,, I would split it and leave the bark on,, then when I had time I would take off the bark and sapwood and then coat the back,,,
if I was going to make a bow soon,,
I would rough out to about floor tiller,, then coat the back and handle and fades,, for final drying,,
this being said,, I would keep the bow outside so it did not have to go into a heated house,, ,, once I got the bow to bending, I would still coat the handle and fades,, for at least a few weeks,,
if put a rawhide back on, I would make sure the handle and fades were coated, cause it would like to check there,, from the moisture getting back into the wood from the rawhide,,

[Dances with squirrels]

I've done it all sorts of ways. Last weekend I split some black locust logs into staves that I cut a little over a year ago. They were just out behind my garage in the weather. I don't usually treat bow wood like that, but I didn't really care about it much and always had better things to do. I finally needed the space.

Normally, I cut the tree and seal the ends with 2 coats of shellac right away. If not, I've seen the ends check in a few hours. I can't always cut overly long logs, expecting to chop off a foot of checked wood. Sometimes whether or not there's a stave or billet in there is a game of inches, or fractions.

If I have time, I split osage and remove the bark and sapwood, and seal the backs with shellac. Whitewoods get the bark removed if it slips, if it's tight I may just leave it on for a while.

About pith or core, I usually split them into staves and then reduce them some right away, basically making them 2 - 2 1/2" wide, and 1" thick in the limbs and 2" in the handle... so the core of the tree, and a lot more, is gone while it's still wet. I do any steaming, straightening and reflexing that day or shortly after.

Initially I store them in a part of my garage that doesn't get too dry and only bring them into my shop when I think they've lost enough moisture that they won't check. Shop has heat, a/c, and dehumidifier.

[Limbwalker]

Wow, lots of good and interesting replies. It's clear where one lives seems to play a huge role in seasoning. The thing I noticed was the first bit of seasoning made a big difference for me, especially Mulberry. I was always getting nasty checks in the pith and all over the belly side. I just got a hold of that plum last week and so far so good. I'm surprised because I've read that it's a pain. Makes me wonder if I'm gonna wake up one morning and it will havve checked all over.

I have one plum stave roughed out and one just split with the bark still on. Both have no checking so far. When Willie said the fee water must leave quick, I tend to agree. When I cut the plum, the branch was super heavy and when I came back the next day the branch seemed almost half as heavy Eric, that is really interesting. I wonder if that could be part of what I'm experiencing. I plan on trying to leav something with just one cut for two days next time. Since I've been doing this I've had no checking at all on Mulberry which has never happened.

 Badger do you live in a dry climate? It's very humid where I'm at. Upper 80% to 90s humidity for me. During the summer anyway. I will agree that plum so far seems to be clean and dense. Almost has a creamy texture to it. Beautiful wood, this is Purple Leaf.

Wizardgoat, that's interesting, see this is my first year learning to make bows so this is my first Summer at it. I will say I did enjoy harvesting during the winter, so much easier to navigate the woods without all the briars and bugs. I have found several hackberry trees and cut two of them down, the one has horrible earlywood ratio, I broke one bow from that log already. I just cut another hackberry and the rings are so thin it's hard to even tell where they are. Does anyone know how quickly Hackberry can be dried out if I rough out a bow? I'm thinking two months.

Dances, I'm thinking your messing with bigger logs? The biggest I've gone for is a 10" Black Cherry. Nice wood. The average size tree I've been taking for staves is 4-5" and no less than 3". I like 4-5 for most tension strong woods so far. A bit of a crown, but not very pronounced. For flatbows anyway. So I usually have some pith to deal with in the handle area and the pith never goes down the middle it seems for me. I've yet to cut a big tree down worth splitting into staves. I'm sure the feeling is different at that point.

George, I cut a couple white oak, little ones maybe 3" dia, and I split and sealed the ends. They checked so bad that they became unusable. Is this normal for oak? I was a bit surprised. This was last winter as well. Hey I used to go up to NH for a few weeks every Summer to visit my grandfather when I was a kid. Man I remember the air was so clean and crisp. I loved swimming and fishing up there. I think we went to Lake Frank.

[Bob Barnes]

my latest haul is some American elm that a storm took down.  The limbs are straight and  the thick bark peeled right off, with a little coaxing.  These are 4-8".  I painted the logs with shellac before putting them in the barn to dry.

[nakedfeet]

George, I cut a couple white oak, little ones maybe 3" dia, and I split and sealed the ends. They checked so bad that they became unusable. Is this normal for oak? I was a bit surprised.

This has been my (limited) experience. The first white oak I cut checked like crazy and most of the wood became useless. It also just didn't have the density to make anything heavier than a very light bow. The second white oak I cut didn't check, because I sealed the back, but was even less dense and more useless. So I've kind of given up on cutting oaks, for now.

So far I can't find any real patterning about which woods will check and which woods are good pretty much left alone. But so far, this is my experience.

- White oak: Checks like crazy if you don't seal it right away. I imagine other oaks are similar.

- White ash: Only dealt with small diameter saplings, but I didn't seal it at all (back or ends) and didn't have any checks.

- Sugar maple: Didn't seal it at all and no checking. However, the wood I had did *not* make good bows. Might give it another chance sometime down the road. Considering a fairly small diameter sapling to try it again.

- Eastern hop hornbeam: Back will check pretty bad if you don't seal it within the first day or so of having the bark off (when freshly cut). Favorite local wood by far.

- Black locust: Only have one stave that was sent to me by someone (huisme -- but he doesn't seem active in bow building anymore), but he sent it bark off, sapwood on, no sealing. I think the ends are sealed though. Didn't check at all.

- American elm: I sealed the ends, but didn't seal the back. Didn't check.

[Selfbowman]

I mainly build Osage bows. I like to get staves cut in the winter pealed or not. Seal the ends and back if pealed. Let sit in top of the bow shop for two years. Try to keep 50-60 staves in the shop. Build 18-20 a year. Took a long time but I have dry wood now. You have to invest in your hobbies if you want dry wood. Arvin