hickory and humidity

[Deerhunter21]

so i have a hickory stave in my garage drying and im excited to start building with but first, at what humidity is hickory not worth your time anymore. where i live the humididty is always around 70%.

[Pat B]

Bring it in your house for a month and keep it in the house while you're building it and after it's built. Under a bed is a good out of the way place to keep it, not in your garage unless you have AC in there too.
 Hickory preforms best at about 6% but is OK up to 10% to 11%. It may be a bit sluggish or take some set at that R/H but if you live in a humid area that's what you have to deal with. Many of the Eastern Woodland Natives use hickory as their primary bow wood.

[Deerhunter21]

do you mean while im working on it too? because the garage is my workshop.

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes, hickory and humidity do not agree. 6-8% is ideal. Jawge

[Pat B]

Work on it in your shop but bring it inside between work sessions. Hickory is very hygroscopic, meaning it takes on and releases moisture to the atmosphere but it takes a while for that to happen. I've sat on stand through rain storms with a hickory bow and it never got limp. When I got out of the woods I wiped it down and stored it in a dry place.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Hickory gets an undue bad rap. Do as Pat says and also seal it with Minwax Helmsman. It will slow down moisture gains and losses to the point it doesn't matter.

[bradsmith2010]

I always remember,,,Jay Massey used hickory sinew in Alaska,,something. Bout hickory he must have preferred

[airkah]

I live in Florida where its always humid too. I've made a couple hickory bows, and jept them inside when I wasn't working on them. They turned out alright, took a little more set than I would have liked, but that very well could have been from me and not the humidity. Maybe the performance isn't what it would be at lower hunidity, but it stays a very forgiving wood worth using.

[Hawkdancer]

Might also keep it in a good case with those neat little dessicant packs that come in a lot of stuff.  Keep a good finish on it as well.  If we get 70% R/H here, it is probably raining!
Hawkdancer

[Mafort]

I seal mine with polyurethane every time I finish working on it.

[Eric Garza]

Hickory responds very well to heat treating. I find a good deep (but not necessarily dark) heat temper can largely alleviate the tendency of hickory to absorb moisture.

[StickMark]

My first year of hunting coues whitetail with a stickbow witnessed many misses.  At the end of the backcountry- monsoon season Arizona hunt, I got sick of missing just under the belly of deer.  So, I shot a lot of stumping  shots in the wilderness.  Lo and behold, shooting low.  When I got back to so-called civilization, I weighed my N.A. d-bow hickory bow.  I entered the wild with with a 45-46 pound draw, and now had a 38 pound bow, or less. 
Poor tillering, yea I was a rank novice pilgrim, and also not understanding hickory built in 7-15% relative humidity and used at 40% and much higher.
I did not heat treat that Texas bought hickory.  I just put some Watco Danish oil on it and called it good.
It was not good.

I never had a season like that again.  My trophy deer was 20 yards from me, and I knew I was only good at 15 or so.  Trophy deer survived to die by lion kill.  My friends still kid me.  It still hurts.

Yeah, hickory absorbs.  Arizona can be silly stupid with humidity swings. Be aware of hickory and humidity.

[timmyd]

depends on what you want. if you just want a self bow that can shoot, you will be fine. If you want to get max efficiency out of the bow, then the only way you will do that is to build yourself a drying box or something similar to build hickory bows. you can keep them inside but that won't cut it. my house right now is fluctuating between 45-50% humidity with the AC running. my hickory staves will peg at 12% moisture and honestly, that just won't cut it with hickory. It will take lots of set and be sluggish. I keep my hickory bows in my drying box until I get the finish put on them and I don't put the finish on them until my moisture meter is reading 6%. Again, you don't have to do this but be prepared for a less than optimum bow. Hickory has to be dry to be good and you can't do it just by keeping it inside unless you live in a very dry climate.