Hickory and Humidity

[Buckskinner]

Was wondering if anyone has an idea of at what point humidity affects the performance of hickory.  I live in Wisconsin, and it definitely get humid here this time of year, but nothing like down south.  I have a humidifier in my shop set to 50% and it seems to run quite a bit so don't really want to run it much lower.   Is this low enough for hickory to maintain a low moisture content to leave the staves that I'm working on in the shop or should I bring them in the house where there's A/C when I'm not working on them?

[Pat B]

There is a wood working MC chart that lets you know M/C of wood by the RH and temp. Someone will come up with more info.
 Keep an eye on set as you tiller. If it starts taking set hold off until the stave dries out a bit.
 Hickory is one of my favorite bow woods. I've made a lot of hickory bows over the years. When not working on a hickory bow I put is in a hot box or hang it in our utility room where the R/H remains stable until the R/H drops. Heat treating the belly helps too.

[Pappy]

I have done a lot of Hickory also and usually keep them in the house when not working on them close to an ac vent. If the weather is humid as it is in Tennessee in the summer i usually tilller them in 3 or 4 stages, get it braces/then out to 10 or 12 inches/then out to 20 or so then finish up to draw I am looking for with some rest time in the dry in between. That may be a little over cautious but I am not in any hurry.
 Pappy

[Buckskinner]

I've decided to start bringing them in the house just in case, I don't think it's too bad in the shop but certainly drier in the house.  On a side note, I set up an indoor archery target in the shop yesterday, been so dang windy here, well I live on a bald hill so it's usually windy.  Decided why the heck not, now I can shoot 365 and not worry about weather. 

[Mad Max]

[Pat B]

Yeah, that's the chart. Thanks Mark.   
If I'm not mistaken, hickory was one of the main bow woods of the Eastern Woodland cultures. The Eastern woodlands then as now is a humid part of the country, everything east of the Mississippi.

[Buckskinner]

Excellent, thank you!  So, 50% is reasonable anyway for the shop.  I'm going to bring them in the house anyway since it's not a big deal, but good to know.

[George Tsoukalas]

Hickory is best at 8-10% moisture content.
My hickory bows are stored in AC.
Jawge

[Mad Max]

40/45% in the shop would be better.
I keep my Dehumidifier at 40%, in the winter it hardly runs but in the summer it runs a good bit.

I weight my staves in grams and keep a log book, when it quits loosing weight its good.
I keep my Osage in the barn, not the bow shop.
 

[Buckskinner]

I think I'd probably need to get a second dehumidifier if I ran it that low, it runs a lot at 50% - very comfortable in there though.  It's a finished 60'x35' pole barn, so a lot to pull out of.

[BowEd]

For that large of an area it's calling upon the dehumidifier to do a lot like you said.
I have the same graph in one of the TBB series books here too.Thanks to Tim Baker.
It does not take long for humidity to affect natural materials.Around a week or better I'd say.Taking the hickory bow out to shoot or hunt for a weekend does'nt show much of an affect though.Taking it out to hunt from your house to use and storing overnight in the house shows little affect on the hickory also.
Heat treating a hickory's belly does help to maintain the snap in hickories limbs.
I monitor my bows also.Store my bows in an AC house with a dehumidifier running in the basement also with analog humidity gauges at various places around the house.I live in southern Iowa also.
Be sure to vacume clean the filter on your dehumidifier regularly.Helps to extend the life of your dehumidifier as they are rather expensive.