Apple branch billets (another question)

[GB]

My neighbor did some heavy duty trimming on his apple tree and I grabbed a couple of pieces before the city came with the wood chipper.  They're 37" long and about 2" diameter.  I'm going to try Z splicing them and hopefully end up with a 66" long rigid handle bow.  I have to admit I'm mostly a hickory or bamboo backed board bow guy.  The handful of bows that I've made from staves were already seasoned and this will be the first time I've worked with wet wood.  So...how dry do they have to be before I can splice them?  I'd like to rough them out while they're still wet, but wonder if I should wait until after I splice them.  So far I've just peeled the bark off and sealed the ends.

[simson]

Seal the whole surface, It tends to split!
Apple is very good bow wood. Let it season at a dark place, and not windy

[mikekeswick]

First off wood shrinks as it dries. DO NOT splice them together now!!! The splice will fail as the wood dries. Same deal with takedown sleeves.....
Apple will check very readily. Rough them out so the limbs are a constant thickness from fades to tips. Full width everywhere. Seal the back very, very well with thick pva or similar. Then put them out of any wind and light. You want to take your time with these and leave them alone for a good long time.
As Simpson says apple is top quality bow wood.

[GB]

Will do.  Thanks for the advice Simon and Mike!

[GB]

I roughed one out to about 7/8" thickness, a bit thicker at the fade, and I'm going to seal it good.  Is that thin enough or should I take it down to 3/4"?  It's 1 3/4" wide and I'm only shooting for a 45# bow so I have plenty of wood.  Guess I'm being cautious because I still have to orient the limbs when I splice them.  Also wonder if I should strap it down to a 2" by 4" while it dries.  I'm going to rough out the other half later tonight.  Pretty good looking white wood.

[H Rhodes]

If it has just been cut, I would strap it down, but I would seal it asap.  Thinned down so much while green, the possibility of checks is much greater.    Let it dry till the stave has quit losing weight for a week before thinking about making your splice.  I would throw it under your bed for a couple of months and go back to it later.  Looks like some interesting bow wood - I am not real sure of it's properties since I have never worked with apple.  Can't wait to see what you make out of it. 

[DC]

Remember that the limb is thinner but your handle is still full sized, shorter, which helps but still full thickness. Your limbs will be dry enough to tiller before your handle area is dry enough to splice. Keep your eye on the handle. That's where I've seen most checking. Don't rush at all. I'd wait six months, a year if you can.

[GB]

Thanks for the advice guys.  Yeah, this is the first time I've worked with fresh cut, wet wood and I've heard and read different approaches to keep it from checking.  Guess I'll seal them good, strap them down, and keep them in my basement for the time being.  I have heard that apple can check badly.  I have a moisture meter and a scale and can wait a year if that's what it takes.  Hope to post a shootable bow a year from now.

[crooketarrow]

   Just seal the whole thing and store it in a dry spot for 6,8 months. Then make your splices.

  I've made apple wood bows but never from billets. Mine were staves ,I let them season 2, 5 and I made the last one. It seasoned for 11 years before I built the bow.

  I rate apple wood first class bow wood. Seasoned apple wood is hard so it's not a easy wood to work.

  But has good speed and cast good. My second bow was read'lly fast and snappy. 62" 57#@26  Use it that buck season. Killed a big doe's missed 2 fox squirrels, missed a red fox I rattled up. Shot over him around 15 yards walking fast. First fox I've ever rattled up and I've did a lottttttttt to rattling.

 I only remmeber because it was a dog wood arrow and a very nice TEXAS chert tip. Those two probley took me weeks to make them both.

  Since you've cut it down that thin you'd better strap it to a mold. Is this what to mean when you talk about straping it down.

   Always let your bow wood season as is. If you do cut it down some to bow form. Have a mold to strap it to. Because any wood cut down that small, let unatented (not straped down) it will warp baddy ,some woods it'll be surver.

[GB]

Thanks for the tips, crooketarrow!  Glad to hear that it's good bow wood.

[Springbuck]

Apple is really good quality wood, except for that barber-pole twist.  Around here, when people trim apple trees too aggressively and then neglect them again for several years you get lots of these LONG, 2" vegetative shoots growing straight up.  I keep an eye out for them, and the couple times I had a pair of good ones, they worked pretty darn well.

[GB]

I'm really hoping to get a bow out of these billets.  I roughed out the other one and sealed them both up good.  Now I just have to be patient for a few months and hope they don't check. .  I went back the night after I picked them up and grabbed two more about the same length.  These are thicker, 4" diameter.  The city guys must have been there with a chipper early the next day.  For someone who lives in town and hasn't found a place to cut my own wood yet, this was a nice surprise.

[mikekeswick]

Thinner wood will check less readily than thick wood - fact. As wood dries it shrinks. Wood checks because the outer wood has dried and is trying to contract however it can't crush the 'insidewood' that hasn't dried at all yet and so something has to give = checks. The thinner the wood is the less 'inside wood' there is and therefore drying is more even = much less chance of checking.
You did the right thing thinning them. However I would probably have left the bark on for a few months. Seal the whole handle area and the back asap!
H.Rhodes was probably talking about the bark removal side of things.
Taking the bark off will make checking more likely because you have removed it 'waterproof' covering. Exposing the back to drying quickly.

[GB]

I sealed the entire surfaces on both billets.  I reread Tim Baker's "Making a Stone Age Bow" in TBB3 and he suggests thinning the wood as you have said, Mike.  I'll leave the bark on the other billets I have.  I haven't split them yet, just sealed the ends.  Thanks for the info!