Thoughts on rapid drying wood?

[ntvbowyer1969]

]I have a conundrum right now y,all. I am about out of seasoned wood right now but i have cut,split,glued the ends, and bug sprayed over 100 staves of osage. I cut the wood in Sep.of 2017.  I heard some people say it i'snt as springy as seasoned wood. Is this true at all? I peeled the bark off and worked the back down to ring. I then used spray poly to treat the back and the ends from getting drying cracks to start. My next question from all of you would be should i rough out the shape of the bow and thin it out more to speed up the drying time more? (which i would love to be able to be done) Or should i be patient and let it season? If i can rough out the bow and speed up drying how close to final dimensions should i go? Also should i spray poly the handle and fades areas to prevent drying cracks also? My final question is should i use the weighing technique to see when the wood quits loosing weight so i can judge when i can finish the work on it? I am using the spray poly thinking it will be easier to remove with light scraping for final sanding. Should i worry about the limbs warping at all from rapid drying? I would like to keep the natural reflex to the bow right now if i can. so far the handle area is set back 2 3/4" or so. I didnt want it to shrink from drying and curl up like a banana. Any thoughts,ideas,and comments are appreciated. I am going to post pics of the stave so you can see what im working with. Also sending some pics of Osage porn...









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[Morgan]

I can’t comment on Osage, but when I am whittling down a stave to speed drying, I have started gluing where I cut the fades on the belly from the handle to the limb. One that I roughed out and didn’t do that checked badly where the cross grain cuts was exposed.

[ntvbowyer1969]

Ok thx bud. Yea i have never did this before. I have always used seasoned staves for at least 1yr or more.

[Morgan]

Outstanding stave haul!

[ntvbowyer1969]

Yea thank God for my sons..They were a big help. We split over 100 staves and many truck loads of staves. We had a assembly line set up. Two splitting ,one gluing,one spraying bug spray on the staves. Then we switched up the positions. Everyone growled a little when it was back on split detail.

[willie]

if you are willing to experiment with one of those staves, you could reduce the stave to as near as you dare to slightly oversize and monitor closely, like every day especially if the weather is drier, look for the small beginnings of checks. control the humidity  by using plastic wrap or  changing to storage areas that have different temps. a bendy handle design will be less trouble than a thick handle that needs more time to dry.   If the design calls for, say, a 3/4" handle, then keep your slightly oversize thickness (and whatever max limb width) all the down the limbs until it's ready to work. buy a moisture meter to help monitor?

probably more work than one wants for a single bow, but you will learn how to best handle that huge stash

just an idea to try. I have never dried osage, and it is said to dry slower than others, but I think your key is close monitoring

[Stick Bender]

I have speed dried osage but the stave I did was 9 months off the stump before I started , at the time I used a make shift hot box with a electric blanket , but have switched sense to light bulbs , I started out at 90 Deg for 2 weeks then upped to 120 Deg another 2 weeks and finaly to 135 deg and I just thinned the stave to 1 1/2 and shellacked the whole stave , it worked great the bow is still holding reflex a year down the line , I just preety much followed Dean Torges method in Hunting the Osage Bow. You can get away with a 1 bulb box if you get a assortment of incandesent bulbs 80 watt to 200 watt and a vent the box. If the staves are still preety green yet I would maybe start out at lower temp but same concept. Also the stave took some nice reflex during the drying , Dean Torges (RIP) did it a lot !

[DC]

I'm with Willie but with 100 staves I would experiment with 3 or 4. You can afford to loose 1 or 2. Rough them out to varying degrees, seal the ends and fades. Then subject them to some aggressive heating. They are almost 6 months dry so it should go pretty quick. If they do check you can make shorties or kids bows. Definitely get a kitchen scale that weights grams. You'll probably weigh them daily just out of curiosity. Write the weight on them so you get the satisfaction of watching it drop. I'd actually start a bow before you are really sure they are dry. It gets you tillering and you will see how much difference a dry stave makes. It will help you recognise it in the future. Once you start making bows you will notice that the wood gets better and better as your stash dries out.

[Badger]

  I do a lot of osage that has only been cut a few months prior. I much prefer seasoned wood but I can't say I have had any problem roughing out the bows and then letting them set for another month to finish. They will pick up a little weight as they season more. They get rid of quite a bit of moisture in the first few months I think. I would guess if they are stored in a dry place they should be down around 20% after 3 or 4 months. I think most of the osage I work is around 10% which is not optimum but they still perform good there. 

[Dances with squirrels]

I've 'rushed' many Osage staves through the drying process. By now you could have, many would say should have, had all of the bark and sap wood removed. Here's my process.... this is the safe way. It can actually be done faster.

Cut tree. Split into stave-splits and seal the ends. Store in unheated garage or basement. Wait a few to several weeks. Much of the moisture will leave through the sides.

Remove bark, sapwood, and follow one heartwood growth ring from end to end. I go quickly and aggressively to this ring with the drawknife, it is going to be violated, so is intended to be 'one above' the bows back. We'll get to the good one later with a scraper. Seal the stave immediately once the bark and sapwood is off and the heartwood is exposed.

Establish a centerline, following the grain, and narrow the stave to 2" wide or a little less end to end.

While allowing plenty of room in the middle for the handle and dip area, about 12", make the limb areas of the stave 3/4 to 5/8" thick from dips to tips. At this point they can be steamed and straightened, or reflexed if you want.

Allow it to continue to dry in an unheated basement or garage for a few more weeks while you work on the others. After they've dried this way for several weeks, safely, you can try to introduce one to the drying box, or a warmer/drier environment, and see how it does. Start with box off, room temp, and turn it up a few degrees 4 or 5 days.

This was all covered in detail in Dean Torges' book Hunting the Osage Bow. If you don't have it, you should get it.

[ntvbowyer1969]

Thx everyone. a lot of info to absorb. This gives me a bunch of great ideas try out.

[Hawkdancer]

Nice haul!  Bet that took a lot of sealer, not to mention pizza to feed a hungry crew!  Now. Theboyswill have wood to make their own bows !
Hawkdancer

[Springbuck]

  That is some serious osage porn.  I've never seen that much in my life!  Where do you live, man???

 "My next question from all of you would be should i rough out the shape of the bow and thin it out more to speed up the drying time more?"   Any wood can be dried faster by making it smaller, so go ahead.  Just do your roughing out carefully so you don't make dumb mistakes, like I often do.    

 I vote you clamp or otherwise secure them once reduced and seal em like you are, already.

[ntvbowyer1969]

Springbuck, Thank you. I live in Pennsylvania.It grows everywhere here. The main places to find it is along old property lines,farms and scattered throughout wood lots where it has propagated from the fruit seeds. I usually just knock on doors and ask for permission to harvest some. I usually take one or two of my bows to explain what i do with the wood. If they are hunters i even offer to make them a bow. Most of the time they are happy to get rid of some from their small lawn tractors getting flats from the thorns and having to clean up the heavy fruit in early fall.

[Springbuck]

  I've seen three individual trees growing in yards here in Utah, and one long line of maybe 20 of the squattiest, oldest, twistiest trees ever in a city park in the Ogden area.  I sneaked in and cut one sucker about 4" across and 66" long from the middle of the really bushy tree on the north end, growing straight up the middle.   The wood is VERY hard and dark, even for osage, but there isn't 2 feet of straight trunk anywhere else in all those trees.  That's the only osage I have ever harvested myself.