I finally noticed a change from high humidity.....

[PEARL DRUMS]

I have been shooting and building bows for quite some time now and never noticed any changes in the bows from the weather until this summer. The last 3 days have been very, very humid and hot. I went out to shoot last night and my perfeclty matched shafts were smacking the side of my riser and flying like chitt! At first I though I was doing a little something wrong with my shooting. I wasnt. My bow must have gotten a little sluggish from the weather and just wasnt zipping my arrows like it normally would. This held true with a few different osage bows I tried, however my hackberry didnt lose a step and fired a perfect arrow as usual. It seems strange that it took up until this summer for me to notice.

[Elktracker]

Interesting that it was so noticable so quik. What do you seal them with?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Tru Oil, lots of it.

[osage outlaw]

I finally got a digital scale and started weighing staves.  I have been watching the weight of a hickory stave slowly drop until this week.  It gained 0.3 oz over the last few days.

[Elktracker]

I will have to experament with my finish (spar urethane) about 5 coats and see what it takes to gain moisture and drop in performance. I live in the north west of Oregon its pretty humid but not as bad as some areas I guess.

[JW_Halverson]

I'm surprised the osage bows would pick up moisture and slow down.  Hickory is famous for doing that.  

Do you have a chronograph that you could get some numbers from?  It would be interesting to see how much it has lost.  

[Elktracker]

Yes I do have access to one I will get some numbers on one of my VM bows then leave it out for a couple weeks and see what the loss is and report back.

Josh

[John W. Cooper]

I do notice a pretty drastic change once winter comes along and my bows dry out.  I use about 12-15 coats of tru-oil.  A friend of mine has experimented a ton with different finishes and found that Zip-Guard 350 works excellently for moisture when dipped. It's quite expensive, though and if you aren't making many bows it wouldn't be worth it.

[Buckeye Guy]

Elktracker
You wont see much change as your climant is wet ,wet .and wet!!
Not like ours wet to dry ,dry to wet,cold to hot.

[Badger]

   I think bees wax is about the best moisture repellent.

[Gaur]

I've read that tru oil is actually a pretty bad sealant in terms of moisture. 

[gstoneberg]

PD, was that osage bow sinew backed?  I've shot osage a long time and never have noticed sluggishness on an unbacked bow.  Mine all have a poly finish though.  Sinew backed osage is totally different, dropping at least 5lbs every summer.  Consequently, I've only sinew backed one bow since moving here and that was to protect the back.  Gave that one away promptly.  I'm really surprised osage got sluggish.

George

[druid]

I made bl bow when air humidity was 55%. It spent all winter in my cabin where humidity was 75-90%. When I weighed there was no change- it was finished with pig fat and bee wax over it. Works great.

[Elktracker]

Elktracker
You wont see much change as your climant is wet ,wet .and wet!!
Not like ours wet to dry ,dry to wet,cold to hot.

That makes since, heck we have only had like 3 or 4 days of sun here all summer lol

[PEARL DRUMS]

No sinew on this one George. I dont have a chrony to actually verify it slowed down. What did happen were my arrows became too stiff and smacked my riser quite hard. I was stumped. I assumed it had to be the crazy humidity that set in around here the last week or so. The bow sounded louder, the arrows were too stiff and it just plain shot "funny". I have shot this bow lots and lots of times and know just what it should feel like when I draw and release. My shop is in our basement and iits 63 degrees and bone dry year round. All my staves are dried, stored and built/sealed down there. Maybe Im crazy blaming the humidity? I grabbed another hackberry bow and it was fine and dandy so blaming my form wasnt an option..............that day!