Osage sapling

[Muskyman]

True or false?  Found this on a website

No need to wait.  I have made a finished bow less than three weeks from cutting the tree live.  Same day work your stave down to a blank and heat with steam and straighten on a caul with 2" backset, let sit 24 hours.  Work bow down to the point it looks ready to floor tiller and place in hot box/drying box  for a week. Take it out and file with it a little at a time, storing back in the hot box or hot car in the sun when not being worked.  After about 2 weeks you can tiller the bow, it may take some set when you do.  Put it back on the caul (with about 2" backset) and heat toast the belly with a heat gun (Outlined my Marc St Loius in TBB vol IV on heat tempering).  This will drive out most of the rest of the moisture, and stabilize the osage. Finish the bow.   Viola! for those kids who just can't wait!

[BowEd]

Good point....Yes steam contrary to what people might think drives out sap from the wood safely and dries it faster actually.Water evaporates from wood faster afterwords.
Never tried it and can't vouch for the time factor but they say it's the same as submerging wood into deep deep water at least 20' for a period of time.The pressure drives out the sap.
Long ago I did the same thing hurrying up the drying process to get a bow in a matter of weeks off the stump and think there's nothing to this bow making.What's the big deal?As time goes on I've learned that air drying while collecting staves is the safest and gets the best quality of resilience from most woods for being a bow.All woods are not the same.
Exception might be hickory all because of the dry heat treatment it gets.
Heat treating wood above 15% moisture will create checks.
I've found that if the back has been sealed with shellack that the wood takes the heat treatment better and the factor that it actually takes air out from the wood shrinking it making it denser.
Keeping enviornment at 50% humidity and weighing the wood can tell you it's moisture content from a roughed out bow.
To make quality durable good performing bows with different characteristcs within each bow and different woods patience is something that can't be replaced.
Continue on and you will find out in time.What I've stated is hands on experience/long time tested info. from hundreds of bows from at least 8 different types of wood.

[bownarra]

True or false?  Found this on a website

No need to wait.  I have made a finished bow less than three weeks from cutting the tree live.  Same day work your stave down to a blank and heat with steam and straighten on a caul with 2" backset, let sit 24 hours.  Work bow down to the point it looks ready to floor tiller and place in hot box/drying box  for a week. Take it out and file with it a little at a time, storing back in the hot box or hot car in the sun when not being worked.  After about 2 weeks you can tiller the bow, it may take some set when you do.  Put it back on the caul (with about 2" backset) and heat toast the belly with a heat gun (Outlined my Marc St Loius in TBB vol IV on heat tempering).  This will drive out most of the rest of the moisture, and stabilize the osage. Finish the bow.   Viola! for those kids who just can't wait!

True-ish.
Yes for certain you can do quick dried bows. you can even make very high quality quick dried bows.
It is often touted as something that beginners can try.
I would suggest that it is one of the hardest ways to make a good bow! You have to know very well what you are doing.
Whereas on the other hand it is very easy to make a quick dried poor bow.
Using steam on wet wood is 100% a great idea. It works very well and is one of the only methods to dry some tropicals safely. Black and white ebony for example is a prime candidate for steam drying. The steam is only another method of applying heat. However the differnce is that the R.H. doesn't go down around the wood so the outside deosn't get a chance to shrink too fast and cause checks.

[Eric Krewson]

I ruined a number of staves trying to quickly dry them in a closed-up car in the sun, I had the same results putting them in the attic and behind the water heater out in the garage, some had checks you could drop a dime in. This was during an Alabama summer, perhaps if you live in a cooler climate it might work.

If you cut out a bow blank to the almost the floor tillering stage and steam it will shed a lot of moisture, I was trying to dry full sized bow staves.

[Muskyman]

Okay, first I’ll freely admit that I’m a newbie. My lack of patience is two fold. First I’ve never been super patient. Secondly I’m 66 and will be 67 early next year, sooo I’d like to try and do this while I can still draw a hunting weight bow.
Another question I have is this. What about if I was to find a dead limb or two on a Osage tree that’s not rotten. Would that work for a bow?
Also not really sure what R.H. means, guessing radiant heat?
Really new to all this and am just anxious to try my hand at an Osage bow. I’ll cut my tree and wait my year or so but in the mean time I’m just looking for a way to improve on my bow building. I’ve known about Osage as a bow wood for many years.
I’ve been shooting a bow for many years. In my 20’s I was shooting in tournaments and belonged to a club and always shot recurve un-aided even when the compound bows came along I stuck with my recurve. Never cared much for them. Just didn’t think they looked like a bow. Kind of how I feel about the in-line muzzle loader too. I was more of a flintlock guy. Spent quite a few years standing on a firing line at Friendship, Indiana shooting my flintlock at the shoot down there. Lot of time spent in my brothers Sue style teepee on hunting trips as well. Good times, for sure.
Sorry about the long winded bio. Just wanted to let you know where my head is at.

[Pat B]

The nice thing about osage is it doesn't rot easily so if you find a dead branch in good shape that is big enough for a bow it should make a good one.  Also, RH stands for relative humidity meaning the humidity in your area at the time. Bow wood achieves equilibrium with the RH over a period of time. That, however may not be dry enough to build a bow but if you take the stave to floor tiller stage and can store it in a dry location, your home with a/c for example, you can get it down to 9% to 11% where t needs to be to build a bow. Be sure the back and ends are well sealed.

[Muskyman]

Thanks Pat, I’ll keep my eye out for a dead limb that looks like it might make a bow