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drying conifer woods for arrow shafts

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Jim Davis:

--- Quote from: Marc St Louis on January 04, 2018, 05:13:58 pm ---I have easy access to Black Spruce ... but you don't want to bend the shafts too much or they will explode

--- End quote ---

Same is true of other spruce,  D. fir, syp, pretty much all stiff softwoods.

Hawkdancer:
Willie,
Is that commercial a US company?  Reasonable prices?
Hawkdancer

willie:

--- Quote ---As the above chart indicates (I think), white spruce is a pale shadow of Sitka
--- End quote ---
Jim, I have not tested enough samples to draw many conclusions. The 2 white spruce samples came from the same board, the difference between them is one was heat treated and one was not. they measured the same before one was cooked for one hour at 325 in the oven.
the "white spruce" board was from a local (just up the road) tree and had very fine growth rings just under the bark. In fact it was not really a full board, but the slab. I was a bit disapointed in its stiffness, but some of the "sitka" I tested was not as stiff either. the "sitka" was selected for fine rings, but was not as fine ringed as what is found just under the bark in a mature tree. I have put quotes around the white and sitka because my choice of words is my way to differentiate boards on my spreadsheet. Sitka, in the case of the samples above, is used to describe five different boards purchased at a mill about an hours drive distant. In actuality, the trees from that area a bit bigger, and are called sitka by the locals there, and local trees here are more often referred to as being white. In actuality the forestry experts were called in to help settle a lawsuit many years ago, and our trees were declared to be lutz spruce, a hybrid between the two. Most of us have given up trying to differentiate.

whether it is the spruce, pine, doug fir or larch I look at, there seems to be a somewhat of correlation between stiffness and
density. The relative stiffness (column N) is MOE/ .0000001*SG

And once again, there is quite a bit of variation in stiffness within a particular species. So much that all the species might just as well simply be categorized as light med and heavy.

 Conversations with the USFS Research Station about finding high stiffness, have suggested fine rings from butt logs, but beyond that, the FS  guy says it's a guess. Perhaps some of the less dense boards I have found that meet that criteria, are getting lighter from decay?

Steve, I had a pile of square doug fir arrow blanks, and picked one I thought would be "likely" to test well. It was fairly fined grained and I too was disappointed. I also have a hundred or so larch boards drying. They are slated for trimming out a house, but when that job is done, I will have a lot left to make arrows from. the best of the two boards I have sampled would be the equivalent of 75#@11/32" diameter spine.

Jim Davis:
Willie, what area do you live in.  I have understood Sitka to be a coastal species, at least in northern Oregon and Washington. I assumed the same to be true in B.C.

As for  fine growth rings, James Duff thought that not so important. Most of us think less spring wood and more summer wood to be useful.

Concerning "getting lighter from decay," if the wood has be  kept dry, I  certainly would not expect that.

willie:
Sorry for the late reply.


--- Quote ---Concerning "getting lighter from decay," if the wood has be  kept dry, I  certainly would not expect that.
--- End quote ---

Jim, much of the local spruce comes from old growth that was never intended to be harvested. A bark beetle blight has left a lot of dead standing trees that reorganized the priorities of forest managers, creating harvest opportunities due to fire prevention initiatives. Some of it has been standing dead for a few years.

Hawk, small local mill. PM me if you are still interested.

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