Cherry board bow build along

[autologus]

I had a White oak Mollegabet do the same thing on me, it was a beautiful piece of quartersawn White Oak too.  I was getting it floor tillered and the limb failed catastrophically.  Made for a heart pounding moment.  When I looked at the break to diagnose the problem the porous rings were crumbly in the break.  The next few I make from that board will be roughed out then stored in the bathroom for a while to rehydrate.

Grady

[PEARL DRUMS]

Looks like you experienced typical cherry results this go round. I question how much a point or two increase in moisture will help. Cherry is hard to get a bow from.

[blackhawk]

That still would've blown up even if it was at optimum MC....but you need to keep your wood stored in around 40-50% RH and you won't have any too dry issues....get a cheap meter that measures temp n RH n find that place to store your wood...where did you get the wood from? How long have you had it? I'm having a hard time believing it was only 4% when you live in Michigan.

[twilightandmist]

ive had it for about a week. i just talked to the guy i got it from, and apparently he didnt think it was important to mention that it was kiln dried. what makes you think this wouldnt have made a fine bow? have you not seen the other cherry board bow i made? that one even had some runoff on one of the limbs, and it shoots well to this day.

[Bryce]

Kiln dried or air dried doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is moisture content.

[twilightandmist]

but just like food, if you cook it too long, it gets too dry. he runs a lumber mill, moisture content isnt exactly a concern for him. so the question isnt about kiln dried or not, its about how much time it spends in the kiln drying out. if your end goal is "Dry Wood", then your results are going to be significantly different than if your end goal is wood dried to 9 percent moisture content or another specific point.

[Bryce]

Yeah but you can't rehydrate food. You can with wood.

And I used to run the kiln at hardwood mill. We dry the wood to between 12-5% mc. And we'd use 3 different meters to check each stack.  And it was a concern for us (not saying it is for him) but we didn't want our product to warp and crack to where we couldn't sell it.

[twilightandmist]

im thinking he dried it too long, or wasnt entirely as concerned as he probably should have been. i probably should have checked the mc before i started making a bow from it.

[TRACY]

I've never tried cherry because it always seemed too brittle and have cut too many down after storms with fair wind. But , I have been wrong before. A guy built one out of tree of heaven and posted it here to my disbelief. I stopped being a naysayer.

I like the handle on try #1. Good luck with the next one.

Tracy

[twilightandmist]

well, ill try again soon!

[adb]

Back it!!

[okie64]

That stinks man. I tried cherry twice a few years ago, broke one and the other chrysalled badly. Havent had a hankerin to try another one. Too much good wood out there to waste time on inferior stuff. As far as the mc goes, kiln dried or air dried the mc will settle to its surrounding rh in a week or two.

[lostarrow]

I would be wary of the readings of moisture meters,Connor. I have a few,and they all read different. 4-5% is a pretty suspect reading,even for winter in Michigan. It hasn't been that cold yet. Even if it were dried in the kiln to say 6-8% ,as soon as it left it would likely start to gain and reach equalibrium at around 10% -12% considering the wet weather we had  until a week ago. If you brought it inside and stored for a couple of days ,it would drop again. If you find your skin is itchy, your lips are chapped and your sinuses are bothering you (nose bleeds) your house is below 45-50% RH. Get a cheap meter from  home depot  and check it out. Humans do best in a RH of 45% -60% (rough guideline) and so does wood. If you get a week of -20 C the moisture in the house can drop to 10% Rh or less even with furnace humidifiers going full tilt. Venmar systems make it even worse. What kind of meter did you use? The pinless ones give false readings on wood that is narrower than the meter.

[twilightandmist]

it was a pinless i didnt know that about them. all the same, i guess its a case of trial and error. ive never had bad results with cherry before, but maybe i need to stick to my staves and shy away from the boards go back to the roots

[BowEd]

An old sawmill man told me more than once that wood stored outside will never get below 14%.Whenever I take a stave in roughed out to a bow I leave it in the house sometimes 3 to 4 weeks at 45-50 percent humididity.Controlled setting by a hum. & temp. meter.I like 45% humidity at about 80 degrees.Weighing it to see when it quits losing weight.Putting a fan on it can help too.I'll do a few staves this way so I don't have to wait so long on the next one to dry.Kind of like an expressline.Now this can be hurried up if you make a hot box.The less density the wood the quicker moisture comes and goes.
If you would have left your board in an enviornment like this for weeks it may have worked for you I don't know or weigh it then put it in the shower then weighing it again as the moisture leaves.
I know it can be hard to wait but all wood is the same boards or staves.