Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: ccase39 on March 05, 2019, 11:20:38 am
-
Just got some nice staves of Degame but had to cut the trunk down to 2 1/2 by 8” boards in order to get them home in checked baggage. It was cut day before yesterday. What is the best way to seal it so it dries correctly? FWIW the bark is still on the edges of each board.
-
Is that 2 1/2 feet long? How much use is that going to be? Interesting about the bark. Maybe all the Cuban bugs are already here so they don't care any more. Can't help with the drying, I've never even seen a piece of Lemonwood.
-
Seal the ends and stack them with spacers between each layer. Check them regularly and if you see checking starting seal that area. Shellac would be a good sealer because it's easily removed later.
-
Wondering if I should just seal all of the exposed wood. I’ll send pics to clarify
-
Is that 2 1/2 feet long? How much use is that going to be? Interesting about the bark. Maybe all the Cuban bugs are already here so they don't care any more. Can't help with the drying, I've never even seen a piece of Lemonwood.
Sorry I have two that 2 1/2 by 8” wide by 2 1/2 feet long. And 2 that are 2 3/4” by 8” by 5 feet long
-
Is that 2 1/2 feet long? How much use is that going to be? Interesting about the bark. Maybe all the Cuban bugs are already here so they don't care any more. Can't help with the drying, I've never even seen a piece of Lemonwood.
Sorry I’m playing with resizing on iPhone. I’ll make it clearer and add pictures of the cut pieces later. the guy who cut them put them over his shoulder and rode off on a bike and had them cut on a saw that was probably powered by a saw with a belt attached to car wheel turned by a hand crank lol
-
+ 1 for a couple of heavy coats of shellac brushed on, maybe more on the end grain.
-
You are bringing it from a humid, tropical area so dry it slow in a not too dry area for a while.
-
Thanks Pat. These are only 24 inches. Probably can’t get bows out of them but will find a use for them. The longer ones made it through customs but got onto a different plane somewhere between Atlanta and here. They will be delivered tomorrow. Should I shilack the entire thing and dry it slow? Sorry for the small pics as I am still figuring out how to resize. If anyone can verify that this is actually Degame that would be great. I don’t know enough about it.
I’ll get more pics
-
I have zero experience with that wood type. The only thing I can contribute is whenever I saw lumber I strip it with 1"X 1" stickers. I would seal ends for sure if you haven't already. Stack them one on top of the other with the sticker strips leaving a space between them. If you can put something heavy stripped on of them or strap them down to keep them from warping as they dry. I personally wouldn't seal all the exposed wood. I would seal end and maybe a few inches of each board. A fan will help dry and keep Mold from growing. Might want to give it a few days before the fan. You will have a good amount of surface for boards to lose moisture. Hope that's all good advice for your wood type. I'd probably reseal the ends at least another time especially since they are short and you probably want everything you can get from them.
Bjrogg
-
I cut some cherry for flintlock stocks, everyone said is was bad to check and warp if not stacked and dried carefully. I put one thin coat of shellac on the whole blank and 3 or 4 on the ends, I leaned my blanks up in a corner and had "0" checking and warping.
If I was dealing with boards I would shellac all sides of the boards and stack them with stickers between the boards.
-
What do y’all mean by stickers? Thanks for great advice.
-
Small pieces of wood used as spacers in the wood stack.
-
Small pieces of wood used as spacers in the wood stack.
Gotcha. Thanks for the help.
-
This is a wagon load of ash I sawed earlier this winter. Maybe you can see how the boards have a air space between them and are strapped down top keep from warping. This ash was dead for awhile and then logs on a pile for a year before sawed. It was around 40 percent moisture when I sawed it. I put it in shop with heat at 57 degrees and a fan on it for about seven weeks. Then I put it on my mancave walls. It looks great. You'd want to let yours dry longer I'm sure and possibly slower.
Bjrogg
PS most of this was cut 3/4" thickness
-
Eric, so the cherry that you sealed all sides on, did it take very long to dry? I thought about doing this more than once, but was reluctant because I thought it would trap the moisture in the wood, and cause rot issues.
-
This is a wagon load of ash I sawed earlier this winter. Maybe you can see how the boards have a air space between them and are strapped down top keep from warping. This ash was dead for awhile and then logs on a pile for a year before sawed. It was around 40 percent moisture when I sawed it. I put it in shop with heat at 57 degrees and a fan on it for about seven weeks. Then I put it on my mancave walls. It looks great. You'd want to let yours dry longer I'm sure and possibly slower.
Bjrogg
PS most of this was cut 3/4" thickness
Thanks man. Great looking rig.
-
The wood looks like degame to me. It has the right buff colour.
Definitely seal the entire board on any of the dense tropical timbers. They dry very differently from US trees, and are more prone to checking.
It was common practice for lemonwood/degame staves to be coated with shellac. You have gone to a lot of trouble to get this timber, it would be a shame to lose some of it to checking.
-
The wood looks like degame to me. It has the right buff colour.
Definitely seal the entire board on any of the dense tropical timbers. They dry very differently from US trees, and are more prone to checking.
It was common practice for lemonwood/degame staves to be coated with shellac. You have gone to a lot of trouble to get this timber, it would be a shame to lose some of it to checking.
The airport service dropped off the big pieces this afternoon and I got it done. Thanks to all for advice
-
My blanks were 3" thick, they dried in my shop in about 2 years. One cost of shellac will still let the wood dry out but will slow the surface drying so the wood won't check.
Any bow you make, no matter how well you have it sealed with fluctuate its MC depending on the ambient MC.
On my flintlocks I have very tight inletting for parts, a week of very dry weather and my inletting may have small gaps in it from wood shrinkage. I have at least 5 coats of finish on my guns and they still shrink in dry conditions. This is common among all gun builders.