hickory pyramid

[catfishon]

i got this thing starting to bend pretty good today but noticed it wanted to stay bent ?
i think the wood must not be dry enough ?
i clamped it belly side down with a 2x4 block under each end on the limbs to add some reflex.
the limbs are about 1/2" thick at the widest point and taper to 3/8 at the tips. i dont have a hot box so im just going to take it with me to work and leave it in my truck all day .
any better ideas? and how long do you think a piece like this may take to dry ?
i cut this blank from a 1 1/4 thick x 8 " wide  rough cut board, that was cut at a sawmill last year.
i was also thinking of heat treating the belly of this bow ,would that help get the moisture down ?
 

[Little John]

Some one will come along with more experience than me, but where and how has this piece been stored? Should make a killer bow when you get it dry. You might just have to make a hot box, not hard.    Kenneth

[Dano]

Your local hardware store will prolly have this, a combination thermometer / Relative humity gauge. Keep this where you store the bow and use this calculator( http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/emc.htm ) and you can control the moisture pretty well.

[El Destructo]

send it to Me Catfish......This Danged Desert is so dry...our relative Humidity has been no Higher than 15 percent for three Months!!! That Locust I cut three weeks ago....already clanks when you bump a Stave on the Concrete....it's drying way fast!!

And shouldn't a Pyramid Bow be about the same thickness all the way to the Tips....doing all tillering from the Sides....at least thats the way I have been taught to do them?

[catfishon]

i read some where that just a small bit of taper would reduse string follow
i will let you know how it works out .
even with this thing only a 1/2" thick i think it would pull way up there in the pounds.
like maybe 100#
maybe i made it to wide?

[Pappy]

If you don't have a hot box just put it in the house near an AC duct or in front of a heater where the humidity is low.leave it clamped untill  you go back to work on it and after each sesion put it back in a dry place.Never try and bend it while you are tillering it more than the weight you want it to be.What kind of wood is it ? Hickory,Oak ? I usually heat treat the belly after I get them out to about 20 inches.
   Pappy

[shamus]

 How wide is the bow? 2"? It looks like you have a good layout

I prefer to tiller a pyramid traditionally, by reducing wood on the belly. You already have the taper set with the initial pyramid layout. Monkeying with that during tillering just seems an overly-complex and backwards way to do things. Lay out the pyramid in width, and that makes the thickness tillering easier…but does not guarantee a uniform limb thickness. It just makes tillering a little easier because the thickness taper will not be as severe.

Your bow is reduced to a good point. A sopping wet bow reduced in such a way should be dry in a few weeks or so. Putting it in your car is a good idea with hickory, because it's hard to over-dry hickory. Other woods can be more sensitive to such treatment. I would not advise throwing other woods into a hot car unless you have a very high quality moisture meter to monitor your progress.

If the board was cut a year ago, it should be dry. The relative humidity (RH) of your climate may be coming into play.  I had a similar experience with hickory. A nice dry bow that lost 2" of reflex in the first few bends of floor-tillering. But Illinois has an average RH of 60%. In any case, that piece of hickory is still waiting to be finished. I'm just not motivated to work on it.

I'd throw it in the car for a day, and then see how it reacts when you give it a bend. 

[catfishon]

shamus , im in indiana so id say the rh is about the same . my bow is 2.5" wide and runs down to .5".
it seemed to be better after a day in my truck . i have pretty good tiller now and even shot it a few times today. still a little on the heavy side so i just shot with a short draw. but i was impressed by the design and way it shot.
anyway, after some shooting i unstrung the bow and found it had about 2" of set in it. but 15 min. later it was almost straight agin ?
 is this a sign of to wet a wood or does hickory just do this? is there somthing i can do to correct this. it shot good but maybe it would be better with no set?
i clamped the bow back up with some reflex agin and placed it next to my hot water heater . not sure what else to do .                                        any help welcome
                                                                            john f

[Hickoryswitch]

Well i dont know a thing about pyramids. But the hickory here in central ky. does'nt have too many problems with stayin wet. I should have a RH at least similar to yours I think. Most of my bows are in the 50 to 60 lbs range. What kind of poundage are you goin for?  Wet wood won't completely rebound will it?

[Sidewinder]

I like the looks of that one. I love my hickory pyramid. Shoots like a demon. I triple coated mine with spar urathane to help slow down its moisture senistivity. A hot box made of a couple sheets of insulfoam from lowes is very easy to put together in about an hr and a half. Here's a link if you decide to go that way.  Hope it helps. I look forward to seeing that one finished with a full draw.  Danny

http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/hotbox.htm