Artificial seasoning of wood

[Selfbowman]

Springbuck intereasting. I had a guy give me some compressed oak that was used for loading heavy pipes on trailers. Was compressed to like 20000 psi. Not sure of the process but it made crappy bow wood. No elasticity. Arvin

[Badger]

  Springbuck, I would say 95% of the bows I have made were made from wood that was dried fairly fast. I have only made a handful of bows in my life from well seasoned wood. I have to say there is not a big difference but enough of a difference for an experienced bowyer to feel it.

[Morgan]

Springbuck, I think you and I have the same thought process on this. I believe that the woods that benefit from seasoning are the resinous pitchy woods. Whitewoods, don’t think it makes a hill of beans.

[Selfbowman]

Ok guys I got my hands on a good stave that was cut some 25-30 years ago just yesterday and if I do my job we will see. Steve I also have only worked On a couple of seasoned staves .this will be the most seasoned so far. What I have noticed on them is they are hard as a rock on the out side when you start to peel them. Wish me luck. Arvin

[willie]

It is my understanding that uneven drying (shrinkage) is what causes detrimental stresses, so if you were to make sure that the stave was completely dry through and through before you raised the temp?

or keep some humidity in the high temp box so that the MC stays at equilibrium?   ie some sort of steam process?

[CrescentWalk]

I have definitely seen benefit's in seasoned wood (even white woods like oak and yellow woods) but am curious as to why and how a large piece of wood such as a stave would get much harder and denser while a selfbow made out of unseasoned wood might see little to no change over the years. The wood that has been turned into a bow would technically still be seasoning.

I made a bow out of Sumac about 1 year ago that was seasoned (or dried) within 3 month's of harvesting it and I checked the weight on it a week ago and it's the same draw weight as it was when I built it 3 month's after harvesting.

And while darker wood's such as Osage will have more compounds and oil's in them naturally, even white wood's and yellow wood's have compound's in them that should harden over time as well since that is a part of what gives them durability, weather resistance, and so on.

Perhaps the wood has to season by letting it dry out extremely slowly without ever reducing it down until year's have gone by?

[Bryce]

Every six months I turn my staves to even the sap and moisture in the wood while the hot and the cold temper the wood over a course of at least six years for me to consider my yew fully Seasoned.