Worked down Osage Drying Time

[BarredOwl]

I have a short piece of osage that I cut about a month ago and worked it down to about 3/4 of an inch thick right away and just the past couple evenings I worked it down to what I hope to be near finished width and just over 1/2" thick.  It has been in the low(er) humidity, air conditioned house for the past couple weeks.   It will need some heating and straightening which will be my first time ever to do that.  How long should I wait if at all to start heating and straightening and how much longer should I wait to start tillering and bending it?

[Joec123able]

Id sayy another 10 years and you'll be good to go lol .......... Just kidding You can start straightening right away it shouldn't hurt it just make sure it's sealed up so it doesn't check and crack I'd wait around 4-6 months for tillering 

[BarredOwl]

I have the back shellaced and the ends dipped in in shellac about an inch deep.  Will that do it?

[Badger]

  I buy green stave often cut within a month of me receiving them. I trim them into a bow down to a soft floor tiller then weight them, if they stop loosing any weight for a few days I finish them up. Usually a month or slightly more.

[wizardgoat]

I'm with badger. I bought a kitchen scale and haven't looked back since. Just keep cutting wood too, you'll eventually just have a flow of dry wood, and will never have to mess with wet wood much

[dwardo]

Another vote for needing an accurate set of digital scales. Mine were from a local supermarket for about £10 and are invaluable.  Now I rough out a stave, clean it up with a scraper, weight it and mark the weight on the handle in pencil then it goes in the rafters and... repeat.
Once I run out of timber I go back to the first stave and see how much weight it's lost and mark it up again. Once I come across a stave that hasn't changed weight I get it clamped into a form and heated. And so on, rambling lol its all I have been doing for weeks now. 

[Pappy]

I give them at least a year,I know dry is dry but not for me, and also I never heat one first if it is less than 2 years old,I steam,then minor adjustements with a heat gun after steaming. Probably will check if you heat that one much as green as it is. Opening another can of worms here.
   Pappy

[Dean Marlow]

Month old cut Osage will crack on you if you try and straighten with heat. I am like Pappy. The longer you wait the better. Dean

[Pat B]

A few years ago I bought a stave that was a month off the stump. I split out 3 staves and in another month I started making a 60" static recurve bow with one of them. It felt dry, worked and sounded like a dry wood but shortly after building the bow it began to take  set and fretted on the belly. I set it aside for a year, ground out the frets and added an osage belly lam and completed the bow...and it still shoots well today.
 Now, I'm like Pappy and prefer at least 1 year of seasoning, more is better.

[Badger]

  I do believe that osage improves as it seasons. As for checking, as long as I rough the bow out first to floor tiller I have never had an issue with osage checking. For some reason it seems like elm and hickory take a lot longer to dry out. I don't usually monitor things long term but I have one bow about 6 years old that I have been competing with, every year I have to take a few scrapes on it to make my 50# weight, it also seems to be getting a tad faster each year, as the distances it shoots have gone up consistently. I have never been able to build up enough stave stock to wait a year. I would need a warehouse!

[Pat B]

Any time I expose a new back, no matter how well aged the wood is or what type of wood it is, I seal the back with shellac. I've had 10 year old osage check in a matter of an hour after exposing a new back ring.

[JW_Halverson]

A kitchen scale that weighs in grams will cost you about $20 US....cheaper than the cost of one stave!  And it can really do you a good turn by telling you when the wood is about at equilibrium with your local conditions.  Badger ain't steering you wrong!

Your local conditions might vary from season to season, too.  In that way, you never really are out of the woods, so keep the back sealed like Pat B mentioned.  Where I am, in South Dakota, I just KNOW that osage is going to check on me no matter how long someone has had the stave up curing in their rafters. Period. Known fact. Non negotiable.

I still get checks across the backs of staves I am working on, because of my attention deficit issues, I can forget details.  Almost so bad I can walk out of the house without pants.  Fortunately our climate is cold enough that the draft gives me a clue before I get too far down the driveway.  What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, drying checks. 

Now that your piece of wood is down close to final dimensions, keep weighing weekly until you have 3 wks without change.  Remember, one gram is a whole cubic centimeter of water!  That is a fair amount when distributed thru a bow sized stave!  But once it is stable, make double sure your back is sealed tight and the ends are tighter, and put the stave in your car while it is parked in the sun.  That will help push the last of the moisture out of the stave.  A week of that and you might lose a few more grams of water and at that point I think you might be ok to try a heat gun to make corrections. If not, and you get horrible cracks and checks, disregard what I have said.

Good luck, post pics, wear pants.

[BarredOwl]

Man, you guys on this forum are quick to help a guy out.  I appreciate all the input!  Sounds like heat correcting is fairly risky no matter what.   This piece is just a short piece that I intend to make a plains style bow for the kids and myself to dink around with and get some practice tillering and straightening before I get into my better staves.  I think I will weigh it periodically throughougt the next year and maybe try to start on a piece of hackberry sooner and save even my short pieces of osage till next year about this time. 

Thanks again for all the advice especially the pants advice.  Can't go wrong with that! 

[H Rhodes]

These folks on this site really know their stuff and you have been given some great advice.  For my two cents, seasoned osage is really special stuff.  It works better for me all the way around.  I haven't noticed any difference in dry or seasoned whitewood staves.  I will rough one out and go to work on it once it quits loosing weight.  Osage (the KING) is going to make a bow that lasts you a lifetime if you do your part, so set it aside for a while.  Seasoned osage loves hand tools.  Chasing rings is easier on a seasoned piece.  I think it is worth the wait.  There is a can of worms all opened up....   I am sure someone will chime in that has tested their theory and will say that there is no difference in dry or seasoned wood, and that may be true.  Maybe I am just sentimental about old fenceposts.... 

[George Tsoukalas]

Weigh it like Badger said. When the weight is constant for at least a week, make a bow.

If you dry heat a green stave  you will have problems. The moisture wants to leave quickly and if you shellac the back and ends the belly may well split.

I use a moisture meter and check the mc through out the bow making process. I stop and let it dry before proceeding.

Jawge