Temps, humidity, angle of the sun, and altitude can all have critical effects on curing. Research has shown that hickory makes great bows in dryer climates such as the Black Hills of western South Dakota. In fact, the combination of factors that make the best cured hickory also happen to occur right in the Black Hills, also. If you would like to ship those up here I will store them in my shop for you. Feel free to drop in anytime you want to work on a bow.
I feel it really is best to let the staves cure slowly the first month or more before "forcing" the stave. In your more humid conditions maybe you can get away without sealing the backs, but I've found even osage that has cured several years will check on the back when I chase the growthring if I don't give it time to come to a stable relative humidity here. You got some nice looking hick, mister!
