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drying conifer woods for arrow shafts

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willie:
I recently tested some various conifer woods that I had set aside for arrow shafts.

after ripping air dried boards to square arrow sized blanks, I placed the stock into a warm box for a week. (about 120 degrees F.) and tested for deflections. I then baked the blanks for an hour at 300/325 F and tested again

 
white spruce         lost 5 and 10 % strength after toasting  (two samples)

lodgepole pine      one gained 3% strength and the other remained unchanged

western larch       three samples remained unchanged after toasting


testing will continue, but I am not sure how at this time. any suggestions or recommendations? questions welcomed too.

Badger:
  Did the baking have a toasting affect on them. Interesting regardless, I would have expected close to 10% gain from the larch, not so much from the pine

willie:
Steve, sounds like you have been down this road before. I was disappointment in my spruce results, but the board I chose may have had too high a ring count.
I guess I shoud have said I baked them, cause toasting implies that they got browned maybe? I was not hot enough for that, although it did bring some brownish spots to the surface.
why would you expect better results from larch?

Badger:
  I thought the larch might have more lignins to harden up if that actually happens when we heat.

JNystrom:
I understood that pine would benefit from heating, spruce not so much. At least a friend told me so, when he tried it.
Spruce didn't work at all in my brief test's.
ps. I wish i had that long oven to bake the shafts. Maybe i should just cut them shorter, experiment with oven and replicate the good ones with heat gun.

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