Can you save a bow (moisture has seep into the wood)

[RT]

Hi ,
I have expose my bamboo back bow to a heavy down pour , although I have water proof my bow with 4 layers of polyeurethan some how water has seep into the wood.

When i restrung the bow , the tiller for the lower limb is out......... no crystal but i guess the water has cause the lower limb to weaken, thus the tiller is out, can we reverse the process,? what can be done to save this bow?

Thanks in advance , RT

[GregB]

Possibly remove the finish, heat treat the problem area while the bow is on a form, then put in a heat box for a while...

I don't know if that will cure the problem or not, maybe others will chime in with idea's.

[Pat B]

With it being a backed bow I would be careful about heat treating without knowing what glue was used.    You could strip off the finish and put it in a hot box or inside a house with a/c until the m/c drops, then refinish it.   I have sat through many rain storms while hunting and never had a problem with water intrusion into one of my bows. I have had the m/c rise a bit but that was a temporary situation. Can you post pics of the damage?       Pat

[RT]

Hi Pat,

thanks for the feedback, but i believe you have also experience hunting in cool and sometimes rainny wheather, some time the polyurethene turns whitish due to moisture entering the bow.

I guess, my problem here is i did not wipe dry the bow when i got to a dry place and that might have cause that area of the limb to be water log................................
sorry i do not have a digital cam at this point, but if i can get my hand on one , i will definately post a pic

[Pappy]

I would do as others said,take the finish off and bend back if possible about where it was and put it in a hot box or really dry warm place for a few weeks.Then take it out and adjust the tiller if necessary and reseal.That should do it.
       Pappy

[Pat B]

RT, the finish on my FG longbow turns milky in wet weather. Once it dries out it clears back up.
   I usually use Tru-Oil for a bow finish. With Tru-Oil I am sure the entire bow is covered(usually 4 to 6 coats) and almost encapsulated and water beads off of it in the rain. When I finish hunting for the day during a rain, I unbrace my bow asap and wipe it down with a dry cloth. 
   I don't use it but some folks use wax car polish on their bows for extra moisture protection if rain is anticipated.        Pat

[shaun748]

little off subject, but this little test pertains to what people often wonder about in regard to rain and selfbow.  I was very suprized at the results..long term Humidity seems to have more effect than rain............ Fortunatley the tiller was not affected to the extreme but I am going to reweigh draw when it dries.

The bow I decided to use is a hickory board bow that draws 58 @26... I have a thin 5 inch long jute cord wrap on grip area...Since I know I have always wondered what would happen to a selfbow in a downpour I figure maybe someone else has wondered the same, so I decided to test this to the extreme by fully submerging a selfbow for an extended time..

This particular bow is not boned or finished beyond a good med-fine sandpapering. The only finish I used was "mink oil" from a can.. I rubbd the mink oil in with paper towel then warmed the bow over blowtorch to melt it in a bit then hand rubbed it smooth. the bow has maybe 3 applications at this point...unfortunatley I do not have a humidity gauge to get the true moisture content of the bow, so I can only go by weight changes.

First I weight the bow on a postal scale.. 1 lb 7.9 oz...set was about 1 inch, this bow has not really been shot a lot at this point...on the scale the draw weight was about 58@26

I placed the bow in a plastic "trough" filled with water and fully submerged it by placing a lead weight on the grip.

At 15 minutes I removed the bow and weighed it again...1 lb 8.3 oz...I then placed the bow back in the water

at 30 minutes I again removed the bow..1 lb 8.5 oz...take into account some weight is the 5 inch grip of wet jute cord, tho I did use papertowel to remove some moisture from the grip before weighing.

I now put the bow on a scale to see what the draw weight was....I pulled the bow to 26 inches several times and it pretty much stayed around 54 pounds, tho I could feel a slight sluggishness, but 4 pounds after 30 minutes of full submersion is not bad..I only had time to take 4 shots before heading to work, but the bow performed suprizingly well and shot much better than I would expect....

after this I checked the set,,it was now at 1 1/2 inches(I did brace it very very low,3 inches, tho since I didnt want to induce extreme set)..

I set the bow in the sun for 5 minutes and the weight is now back to 1 lb 8.3 oz, which means the damp jute cord grip was indeed some of the measured weight change...
So over all the bow only lost about 4 lbs of draw and added about 1/2 inch of set..

This bow was fully submerged and still seemd to resist extreme absorbtion..

[Butch Speer]

I agree w/ Pat. A lot of finishes will turn milky when exposed to water. Doesn't mean the bow has taken in moisture, just the finish is effected not compromised. I've made bows that I thought were tillered only to find out later I hadn't really tillered them properly. Everybody messes up at times Seems to me that I read where Jay Massey came up with his finish for arrows & decided to try it on a hickory, sinew backed bow. At the end of a trip on the river, he finds his bow has been sitting in the water all day. Didn't seem to bother it tho. It's a pretty nice finish. Not as rich looking as Tru oil but I think it looks as good as poly. It's cheap & easy to apply. Don't understand why it isn't used more.

Butch

[RT]

Hi all ,

Thanks you all for sharing your experiences and inputs..........ok, will remove the water proofing and put in in a drying bow and see how thinks goes.............oh , by the way , i used Smooth-on to glue up the bow and i am aware that too much heat will actually cause the glue to delam, low heat, maybe for 2 weeks should work.

Shaun did mention about high humidity.........i like in Asia and humidity is is most of the time approx 90% to 95% in city area and maybe higher in the woods.
 there is an area that I frequent to hunt and I have built a hunting lodge to store my stuffs there. I have also experience my stuffs being very wet and mouldy (although this shed is water proof) but due to the high humidity in the jungle, it is really bad and moisture does get into a laminated self bow even though you have it well water proof and does change the tiller of the bow......... will apply the above method to get the moisture out of the wood.

Cheers all 

[Pat B]

I believe that the R/H has more of an effect than actual water. As the humidity rises and falls everything that is hygroscopic in nature will increase and decrease in M/C along with the R/H.     
   The story I heard about Jay Massey is that his boat capsized and it was 3 days before he found the bow with "Massey" finish on it along the river bank and it was no worse for the wear. My experience is that the sinew backed hickory "Massey Medicine Bow" I built had changed almost 30# of draw weight depending on the area of the country it was in. When it was in Colorado(dry) its weight went to almost 70# but in soggy south Georgia when Hillbilly took it hog hunting it was too much of a noodle to hunt with. This bow has Tru-Oil, Massey finish and a quick spray of satin poly to cut the shine so it is well protected.
   Bows of oily wood are less effected by moisture than non-oily woods. I don't know if the finish actually keeps the M/C completely stable but I want my wood bows to breath so dry rot doesn't get to them. Pat

[Butch Speer]

Pat,
I just glued up a hickory stave today. Would have been my first hickory. All the others have been Osage. After hearing about your bow, I wonder about going to the trouble of making it! I enjoy the whole process of bow making but I can't see much since if it's a waste of time.  Has anyone else had this kind of problem w/ hickory? I live in Mo. & the humidity gets pretty bad. Thanks for any info.

Butch

[koan]

Butch, dont sweat it..me and Auggie live here in Mo. to and Auggie makes alot of board bows from redoak and is gettin good performers with only minimum set..and he dont use a hotbox ....Brian

[Pat B]

Butch, Hickory is one of my favorite bow woods. I live in high humidity half of the year. Our winters are pretty dry and I heat with a wood stove so my hickory bows hang around the wood stove in the winter. I also have a hot box for times of high humidity and hang my unused bows next to the hot water heater. I try not to let these differences in woods keep me from using them for bows. By realizing their limitations I get the best of each at the appropriate time. Building bows of any wood or effort is never a waste of time, as far as I am concerned.      Pat

[Butch Speer]

Thanks for the info Brian. I've got a hotbox so that's not a problem. I've got quite a few osage ready to go but, I've got two hickory boards that have  been waiting for 4 or 5 years. Got them from a fella at Mojam. Just figured it was time to use them.

Where do you live in Mo? I'm about an hour SW of St. Louis.

Thanks Pat. I'll still give the hickory a go.  I shaped it on the saw & wouldn't take long to finish. Just didn't know what to expect.

Butch

[Butch Speer]

Also meant to say that I glued the handle on with Sumo glue, the foam stuff. Hope it holds. Never had to glue up a handle before.

Butch