question about stabilizing wood..

[paco664]

i am curious as to if any of you guys have ever stabilized staves?
i was considering making a long pressure pot and inserting the limbs for a 3pc takedown with the limbs made of hickory...  my reasoning being the stabilization resin making the wood impervious to moisture and basically making the bow bulletproof..

what are you guys opinion on doing this?

thanks in advance

[Badger]

  I would no longer be a primitive bow, I am not sure how it would affect the properties of the bow as far as tension and compression. I would imagine someone has looked at this.

[simson]

I'm sure there will be no benefits, besides it wouldn't be a primitive either.
Stabilized would is saturated with epoxi (used for knife handles or so), so the limbs would take massive amount of mass - not good.
The other thing, think of how a bow works  - wood cells are under tension or compression (back and belly). how should they do the elastic change when they are stabilzed = full of epoxi.
Such a bow would collapse immediately on the weakest point after a short draw.

[Pat B]

Age your staves under proper conditions for 2 or more years and they should be stable. There is nothing you can do to prevent wood from taking on moisture if it is in a moist environment. Once your stave is at equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere you can keep it in a dryer area(inside your house with heat/ac) and that will equalize the wood to that area.
 Wood is hygroscopic, meaning it takes on from and releases moisture to the atmosphere but that moisture movement doesn't happen over night but at a rate of about 1 year per inch of thickness in general. It will dry faster under dry conditions and absorb moisture faster under high humidity.

[PatM]

People do this all the time with bamboo fly rods to beneficial effect. 

 Part of the properties of great bow woods is no doubt because this process has essentially happened naturally. Yew, Osage and Ipe are packed with resinous substances.

 You can actually buy wood that has already had this process done on it.  Guys have posted bows with bellies made with this product.

 Using pitch while heat treating a belly is a cruder form of this process.

[ohma2]

Im sure there will be rebutal to thus but i have only noticed moisrure broblems with one hickory bow I made or had.that bow was a ed scott bow that came to me in a trade and it was as wet as a noodle.after getting it dry it was a fine bow .i live in a very high humid state but if dry before sealing and kept sealed ive not had a problem with hickory.

[Pat B]

Even sealing a bow won't necessarily keep the M/C down. Once it is at a low M/C(9%-11% for most woods, 5%-6% for hickory) keeping inside your heated/ac home should keep it in the right M/C level or you can store it in a hot box. Do be sure that you don't allow the M/C to get too low or your bow could explode when drawn.