Wood Moves

[DavidV]

I started roughing out a sapling bow from a 2" dia. sassafrass stave yesterday. I wasn't expecting much from it so I kept it 72" long and would have gone for 30-35#. I layed it out with the string going through the handle and figured this would be easy enough. Decrowned the back and glued on a thin paper backing, then roughed it out to near finished dimensions and put it away for the night.

This morning I get up to find that both limbs are bowed about 3 inches from where they wereand it has an extra inch of backset. I was really surprised because it didn't feel green when I was working on it, I cut it in November so I wasn't expecting it to be seasoned.

[randman]

It's amazing how much wood will move when you remove the opposing forces that will hold it in place. I had some nice straight pieces of American Hornbeam (my first experience with this wood) that I made the mistake of debarking and roughing to shape while freshly cut (something I do routinely with vine maple). Now I have some pieces of wood that look like a Korean Crab bow they have reflexed so much. Lesson learned with Hornbeam: Let it season for a while in the round and with the bark on. Some woods are not so severe and some will some will completely turn round on themselves.

[Joec123able]

Yep some times even dry wood will move because the wood relaxes when you take some away

[DavidV]

Does anyone have a way to fix it or is it firewood? I'd be tempted to steam it but it already has a backing.

[Pat B]

You can try heat to straighten it out. I'd get it close to bow size first though.

[Joec123able]

Try steam straightning it

[DavidV]

I ended up taking off a little more wood then putting it under some weights to straighten it out. If I can get it to hold that way it'll be great. I'll work on my other bows in the mean time.