Nice looking clone Arvin. Seeing the bow up close I liked how much more rounded your edges are than other high performance bows. Hard to duplicate a bow and get the same performance. I think you need to make 5 to have a better chance. Sometimes you can't tell from a piece of wood, sometimes you can. The little hickory bow I have with a couple records came from a stave I got online auction for about $30. It had a perfect natural reflex. The stave sat in my shop for about 5 years and I kept thinking "I need to make a flight bow from this stave someday". Every time I try and make a self bow to compete with it from a normal stave they come up short.
For humidity. I have a room with a RH meter and a humidifier. When I need to add moisture I let the humidity get up to about 60% for a few days. I have a incense cedar stave that is way too dry. I've had that in a bathroom and turn on a hot shower a couple times a day and close it in there at 100% RH. I swear the bear grease I have adds some "sap" to the wood as other bows get too dry without it. Some may argue that.
Chuck that’s interesting about the bear fat .
