Seasoning cut-to-form Osage bowstave

[Scaramouche]

From TBB1:

"If green wood is worked to a single growth ring on the back, and the shape of the bow cut out with the thickness reduced to near finished dimensions, then the wood will dry in a matter of a month and be ready to tiller and finish."


Having done the above with a 67" Osage, should I seal the ends and back for that month? I'm trying to make the example bow from the chapter on Osage. It's my 3rd bow attempt total, having broken the first two, and I really don't want this thing checking.

[osage outlaw]

Yes.  Seal the back and ends.  It will probably check if you don't.

[Scaramouche]

Thanks. How much do you think it would speed things up to throw it in a hot car?

[osage outlaw]

It would probably turn it into firewood in no time.   Putting a green osage stave in a hot car is usually not a good idea.  Put it in a warm dry place.  Stand it up in a corner of your house and let it dry there.

[toomanyknots]

If you took a green piece of osage and reduced it to near dimensions, you do have a good chance you will have to do alot of bending and correcting to get it straight after it drys, as there is a good chance it will warp and twist as it drys out. To deter this, you can strap it down to a 2 x 4 the entire time it drys. I would recommend that. I like to make bows this way, I don't really see the point in waiting 2 years if I can make a bow in a couple weeks, . After I am sure the stave is completely dry, than I'll throw it in the hot car to finish it off. Usually if it wanted to check, it would of by now. Sometimes it still does though. I have thrown a stave that is over a year dry and pretty much dimensions, in a hot van and checked it later that day to see it had all warped and twisted from the heat. So be careful.

[Scaramouche]

Yeah, I definitely don't want it warping. As it is, the log developed a check despite having sealed it three times with TB2. Unfortunately, it checked perpendicular to the natural bend, so I was only able to get one stave out of the log that wasn't crooked side to side. That stave (the one I made the bow form from), has about four inches of reflex on both limbs, so I'm worried about even being able to brace it.

I've got it sitting in the corner next to my desk. I decided patience is the ideal here, since the first two bows I broke, both bow boards, were ruined because of my impatience with the rasp while chasing rings. A lesson, I think.

So I can wait. But my fingers are itching something fierce, and I swear my spokeshave is whispering to me. This really is becoming an addiction.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Do yourself a favor and set some staves aside to dry normally. You will be glad you did sooner than later.

[Scaramouche]

Yeah, I've got some mulberry quarters set aside just for that reason, sealed with the bark still on them, as well as an actual log that I cut a kerf out of to let water escape. I was reading in TBB1 about how that kerf will widen as it cures, and I wanted to see that.

As I've gotten into this, I've been learning about woodworking too, so I've been putting wood aside to cure for that as well.  It's difficult, in that I don't have a sealed shop. Everything is basically curing in the open; the only real protection is from the rain.

I've been using TB2, but I think I might invest in some poly just for sealing.

[osage outlaw]

If you want to expiriment with quick drying, try using hickory.  I have put roughed out hickory bows in hot cars and they didn't warp or check.