How dry to splice billets

[blafleur]

Hello, folks, my first post here, though I've been lurking and learning for quite some time.  I have some osage billets I cut in August, and thought I'd do some roughing out to cure my impatience.  Can billets be splice before completely dry, or do they have to be completely dry and ready to finish?

Such a wealth of info here, I almost feel like I wasted money buying books.

Thanks,
Bryan

[DC]

Wait til they're dry, you don't want them moving around.

[PatM]

You can do a lot of shaping before you splice but you want them dry before you lock them down with glue.

[DC]

 With Osage billets would you want to chase a ring first so you could line the back up nicely?

[mikekeswick]

Dc - yes.
You want them at no more than 8% m.c. or else as they shrink the glueline will be put under tremendous unnecessary strain.

[Eric Krewson]

I have made about 100 spliced bows, I often cut the splices before the wood is completely dry, about 16% MC but never on green wood. My take on the subject is if you cut your splices you have very thin wood that has to dry out instead of a big stave. Using my moisture meter I find the cut ends dry out completely in a week or two because they are so thin. I have never had trouble with the cut area shrinking or moving to make the splice not go back together correctly for glueing.When my meter shows the splice cut wood to be dry (12% MC is ambiant where I live) I glue the billets together.

I may lay out the rest of the bow after I splice the billets and make a bow blank or I may just stand the now spliced stave in the corner and let the rest of the wood dry out.

I have never had a failure on billets I have glued together, never ever.