Force drying exsperment

[Stick Bender]

Hi Fellas with getting rained out for hunting this week end figured I would play around with building a drying box but I'm remodeling my upstairs & have every square inch of space just about in our spare bedroom /junk room taking up ,came up with this Idea I know in Adam Karpowitz horn bow book he warmed bow limbs before bending with a electric blanket so I'm trying a experiment ,the stave I'm trying it with is osage about 13 months off the stump  I weighed the stave in grains & wrapped the stave in paper towels and loosely wrapped it in the blanket & set the temp to 92 F I'm going to run the blanket for 10 hrs a day for a month and re weigh ,the blanket has a 10 hr timer you can't over ride any body got any tips on force drying ? I figured it would be safe with this stave as prior to trying this this stave hung in my shop that averaged well over 100 F in the summer.

[DC]

I would put another thermometer in there until you're sure it's not getting too hot. Sometimes when you wrap things like that in multiple layers they can get hotter than you expect. I guess it would depend on where the blankets thermostat reads from.

[Drewster]

Has the stave been roughed out into a bow or is it still a full stave?  It seems that if the stave is 13 months old and you've had it in you shop this summer at 100°, you don't need to dry it much more.  Have you been monitoring recent weight loss?  It should be minimal at this stage.  If you do keep it in your blanket wrap, I would monitor it every few days.  You don't want to get it too dry.  It's osage, not hickory.

[Stick Bender]

No it's not ruffed out other than 1 5/8 In. Wide & 1 1/4 In. Thick I'm just trying to get the final moisture out made one last year that was a year off the stump & it picked up draw weight after about 5 months after it was made just trying to avoid that on this one I plain on letting it acclamate as I work on it & before long string.

[Stick Bender]

I'm actually lifting the blanket and reading with the infrared thermometer I think these blankets temp is controlled by the amount of voltage/current that's put to them in the controller as far as I can tell it doesn't kick on & off  plus it's only running 10 hrs a day then resting 14 hrs

[FilipT]

A whole month of drying, after it was cut 13 months ago? My hazel bows are after initial reducing while green completely dry now. It was about 5 weeks, next week I will be tillering them.

[JW_Halverson]

At 13 months off the stump, you can really push the limits without causing any checking.  You have already lost a majority of the water in that stave and now you are just cleaning up the final percentages. 

[Drewster]

Why don't you rough your limb thickness down for final drying?   No need to dry wood that you're going to remove.

[Stick Bender]

I'm probably not going to have time to work on this bow tell late November so figured I would dry it out some now & let it reaclamate  to ambient conditions if I had had more time I would have thinned it down some.

[George Tsoukalas]

I'm not sure if water + electric blanket= disaster.
Just a thought.
Jawge

[Badger]

  I wouldn't even fool with the electric blanket. 13 months off the stump you are pretty close to equilibrium for your location. I would rough the bow out and them maybe a couple of days in a hot box.  Most of the staves I buy are green and wet, I rough them out about 6 months after being split then let them sit for a few more weeks before final tillering.Sometimes I use my car as a hotbox. I have had osage continue to gain some weight for up to 10 years after finishing. I think the wood seasons and gets harder. I have had other osage bows never change weight after final tiller so it is hard to tell what is really going on.

[willie]

I realize that you said that there was not enough room at your place for a proper hot box, and most of the advice seems to favor a box rather than the blanket.........

I have somewhat the same situation here, and have taken a 2' x 8' styrofoam board @ 1" thick,ripped into 2 pieces
1' x 8'. it is  horizontal with an old florescent light fixture inside. 2 bulbs = 100 F. < 5% RH

would fit above door on 2 cheap shelf brackets or similar if you are creative enough

[mikekeswick]

Good luck with your wood drying!
Adam doesn't say to warm hornbow limbs before stringing though! This would cause set in the braced bow.

[Stick Bender]

Yep your right Mike should have said before tiller corection, Willie I went to the big box yesterday & was looking around at ideas but nothing would seem to work in that space was looking at 6 " pvc pipe but to heavy the only other space I have right now is next to bows & staves as shown so was looking just for temp drying I also have a hickory stave I want to try ,Steve thats interesting about the hedge & gaining weght maybe Im chasing the wrong tail

[Jim Davis]

If the electric blanket is rolled around the bow, the blanket itself is going to get pretty hot. All the heat from all the elements is going to be trapped. When in normal use, each element section is able to radiate its heat into you or out above you.

You could end up building a new house instead of remodeling.