Tillering in cold weather?

[mmattockx]

I am about to start on my first board bow. I live in central Alberta and it is still winter for the next 6 weeks at least. My workshop is unheated so it means I would be tillering a bow at below freezing temperatures. Is this a problem for the wood to handle? Any special precautions I need to take or extra steps/techniques required? I will bring the board out to my workshop and let it acclimate for a week at least before I start working on it.


Thanks,
Mark

[bradsmith2010]

I have never done that,.,should work ok,,,maybe over build it a bit,,,,till it warms up

[Stick Bender]

I tiller most of my bows in winter some times when I only have a hour or so I don't bother with my shop heaters 25-30 deg I have never noticed any difference vs warmer months on self bows, I dont think I would tiller a sinew bow in the cold !

[bushboy]

I live in central Manitoba,north of winnipeg.my concern would be more about humity than the cold.ive tillered many bows in -25c without a noted problem.the wood being over dry could be a culprit being Alberta is so dry.some wood species can handle dry like hickory.

[Deerhunter21]

Any special precautions I need to take or extra steps/techniques required? I will bring the board out to my workshop and let it acclimate for a week at least before I start working on it.

nope no special techniques. as long as the woods not wet it will be fine to tiller right now. acclimating it will only postpone your shavings for a week. nothing else.  Im tillering a bow in -5 degree weather. the only heating i have is my jacket and a heat gun.

[Weylin]

Like Bushboy said, moisture content is your limiting factor. With really cold temperatures comes low moisture content. That lowers the tension strength of your wood and makes it more prone to breaking. If you can keep your staves/bows somewhere with a healthy relative humidity then you should be able to shoot them and work on them for the day without worrying about the cold.

[mmattockx]

I live in central Manitoba,north of winnipeg.my concern would be more about humity than the cold.ive tillered many bows in -25c without a noted problem.the wood being over dry could be a culprit being Alberta is so dry.some wood species can handle dry like hickory.

Thanks to all for the replies. Good to know our weather won't hold me back much in this. As for humidity, if the wood stays outside the RH isn't usually that low. Right now it is -3C and RH is 84%. The low humidity really is more of an issue indoors when you bring that low moisture content outside air inside and heat it up. RH in my house is often down in the mid 40's in winter but outside not so much. As long as it is the RH that matters and not absolute moisture content of the air I will be OK. If not then I could have issues with it. Only one way to find out, I guess.


Mark

[aznboi3644]

My shop is not heated and I’ve built bows in there this winter in 20F with no problems.