First Black Locust bow in the works.

[twisted hickory]

So on Monday I did well on my endrocrine exam and decided to reward my self with a special treat to myself.......6 hours of whittling on a new Black locust stave! I cut a nice tree down a month ago and got 8 nice staves out of them. Some of the staves you could get two bows from. This bow came out of the smallest stave.
I have never worked black locust before so we will see how this thing comes out. It has two pin knots and one bigger one that does not show in the back.
Aside from drying time I am going to see how long this thing will take to make. I always wondered how much time it takes so I will keep track and keep updated as I do I will guess 20 hours. The stave has not been aged but the roughed out to floor tiller stage the bow is currently setting beside my wood stove to dry it out. We will see how it works. I will begin the straightening process after one week so next thursday will begin that part. I will post more picts after that is done. It should be dry by then as the humidity in my mud room next to the stove is 25-25%
I am kinda new to this so any advice would be gladly considered
Thanks for looking,
Greg

[bow101]

So far it looks real fine, can't wait till I get working on some of my cuttings.        Is 1 month to semi tillering to soon...?, am I wrong 'bout this.......

[twisted hickory]

So far it looks real fine, can't wait till I get working on some of my cuttings.        Is 1 month to semi tillering to soon...?, am I wrong 'bout this.......

Yes, it's a little soon to do more than just floor tiller. I would imagine at least 5 in of set if I strung it and gave it a pull It does seem to dry a bit quicker than the hickory I have worked with. I just finished debarking 4 staves that have been setting in my shop since Christmas  and the cambium was still soaked! When I started drawknifing off the sap wood it was a little damp but nothing like the hickory. The heart wood is quite dry. It will be intresting to see how dry it is in one week next to the wood stove. I will borrow father inlaws moisture meter and test the handle to see what is says. I have found the handle really holds the moisture. If it turns out a mess I have 7 other bl staves and 6 other nice hickory staves waiting one of which has been near the stove for  over a month so I know its dry.
Greg
Greg

[DarkSoul]

I will post more picts after that is done. It should be dry by then as the humidity in my mud room next to the stove is 25-25%

If your room has a humidity of 20 to 25 % (you made a typo I guess?), your wood will reach an equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of 4 to 5% which is dangerously low for most woods (except maybe hickory)! Do NOT permanently store a project you're working on in that room. You can use that room for quick drying wood, but leave it at least a few days in a room with higher humidity (say 40-50%) afterwards to gain some moisture again.
Don't rely on your father inlaws moisture meter. They tend to get false readings since they need freshly exposed wood to work. Get an accurate scale and monitor the weight of the stave over the course of a few days. When it stops losing weight (=water) a few days in a row, the wood has reached EMC (of 4-5% which is too low). Then put it in for instance a living room with 40-50% humidity for another week or so. I'm guessing that bow blank, in its current state, will need at least two to three weeks near the wood stove to reach EMC, but monitoring the weight loss will tell you.

Are you sure that is black locust? It looks remarkably light colored. The grain could be black locust though, but I've never seen this wood so light. Did you remove the sapwood? Or could it be a different species of wood? Maybe the camera flash is playing tricks on me...

[twisted hickory]

Dark,
Yes typo I meant 25-30%. No I don't store bows there unless they need dried out. I just use it as a spot to quick dry wood or after coat of varnish to dry it out. At the other end of the house it is in mid 40s as far as humidity. The basement stays around 50-55 percent. The wood is a little lighter than most I am totally sure it's black locust. It is the camera flash.
Two to three weeks? What about 9% if the humidity is around 30% would it not reach 9% in like 7-10 days? As long as I get it down to 9%. The next stage will be to set it up on my jig and straighten it out some to get the tips in line with the handle. If I took it down to 5% the next series of posts I would show would be bl kindling

[twisted hickory]

Okay so now I am at 7 hours of work on this bow. I took it out to the shop and got some lines on it to see how far the limbs needed to be moved in order to get the string down the center of the handle.
Attached are picts.
Question, one limb has to go over 1.5 inches and the other .5. Generally speaking how far PAST center do you have to go to get correction to stay with dry heat?
Thanks,
Greg

[twisted hickory]

So today I have 3.5 hours in the bow. So I am up to like 11 hours of work on the bow. I set up a jig to take some kinks out of the limbs. The one limb had to be moved 1.75 inches to get it inline with the handle. The other tip didn't need any correction. I put 1.5 inches of reflex to it as well the one limb already had that much reflex to it. I lightly toasted the belly with heat gun and applied pine tar/ turpintine mix as it heated then let it cool, wiped it off and did a little more work on the limbs. it is a pyramid type limb style. I would think by Monday I can start to tiller it out. I am shooting for 45 lbs at 27 inches.
If anyone see something not cool about the knots in the limbs let me know. I have never worked a stave with knots in it before. The only one that I am wondering about is the larger one on the belly. It doesn't come through the back but it's a little close to the edge. We will see what happens.
Thanks for looking and advice,
Greg