Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: mutt on November 03, 2020, 07:54:44 am
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I have a hickory stave which I am roughing out while its seasoning/drying. There is about 1/8" of cambium on the back.
To remove this would I be better off to scrape it with a draw knife or try to draw knife it off the regular way you would remove bark or chase rings? the stave has been cut about 3 months. its on there pretty tight.
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Try to get under the cambium at one tip and see if it will lift off, in pieces or all at once. If it was cut 3 months ago, during the growing season it might just work.
If it won't peel off use your draw knife gingerly and get what you can without damaging the white hickory below. Then you can either use a curved instrument, like a spoon to get what's left in the valleys. Sometimes re-hydrating somewhat helps.
You might try laying a damp towel over the cambium first and see if that helps loosen it up some for you.
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I wouldn't use a draw knife.. too easy to lift a splinter or gouge back... I use a scraper if its tough.. never tried dry heat cambium is really thin and may toast it right off... or loosen.. worth a quick try.... that might work ..or wetting like Pat suggested.. but I try to stay away from hydrating hickory where I live... mine I cut in summer so it usually pops off with bark... a lil doesn't hurt on back either... camo effect... gut
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A little bit of moisture shouldn't go into the wood and if it does, not enough to worry about.
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I agree Pat.. wondering though if dry heat would curl the tips of cambium enough to pull it too... gut
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+1 to Pat’s recommendation. Get as close as you feel comfortable with the draw knife and then switch to a scraper. Bevel down with the draw knife won’t pull up splinters unless you’re recklessly digging into the wood.
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If you leave it on does it just pop off later?
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the sap is whats got it gripping ... I've left some pieces on before in dips that I couldn't get off... after I sealed bow they have stayed no issues... since the sap is whats holding it... I really would like to hear if dry heat will loosen it... I dont see why not... I have never tried it though but seems logical now I think about it. ... gut
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Sometimes it will pop off later. I try to get as much off as possible. I don't mind some in the valleys. Gives a good camo effect.
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i'll try some dry heat this evening on one of the tips.
If you get a piece starting to pop off and you just grab and pull will it pull up splinters from the back?
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You'll just have to try it and see. I don't know. If it does, it shouldn't hurt anything at the tip.
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sweet.. dont cook it though.. if its going to work just getting it hot too touch will tell the tale.. you dont want to cook the back... gut
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Something that may be worth a try is an iron and a wet cloth. I have no experience with Hickory but I have noticed with other wood that laying a wet cloth on it and applying a hot iron momentarily loosens the bark. You have to do small areas at a time as the bark glues itself back down pretty quickly.
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That might just be the trick, DC.
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You can run the stave through steam to get it to loosen.
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Well...I have heat gun and a wallpaper steamer, I'll give them both a try this evening and report back tomorrow
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Do you have a pressure washer. I think BJ has used on for removing cambium.
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Ok, heres the verdict.
I tried the dry heat but didnt have much success. It did make the cambium pliable and I was semi successful at getting it to lift up a little but my opinion is that it cooled to fast and just reverted back to being stuck. Sorry Gut. Just to be fair I didn't try all that hard cause it seemed like it was shaping up to be a pain in the butt and I was more anxious to try the steam.
Steam turned out to be the ticket. I wet a wash cloth and let it sit on the tip and however far it reached down the limb for about 5 minutes. Then I held the small wall paper steamer attachment over the wash cloth for about 5 minutes you could not hold your hand on the wash cloth it was so hot. I pilled the wash cloth off after I unplugged the steamer and wedged my 3" pocket knife between the cambium and the back and started prying and working down and the cambium started to lift and peel off in a matter of minutes I had gotten past the point I had steamed and had to stop because the cambium layer was starting to beak apart. I am just going to do small sections at a time and see if I can get it off in one piece.
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another pic
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I might have to try that I have a wallpaper steamer that we never use
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I should have added that after the wood completely cooled 15 minutes or so, I checked the moisture content on the back of the bow where i peeled the cambium up and it was 7%.
The moisture on the outside of the cambium was 13.6%
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Dean Torges was under the impression that steaming wood helped dry it out, I agree.
I worked in a coal fired power plant for 30 years that produced power with steam. Water turned to to steam expands by by a factor of 4000%. If you get a limb above 212 degrees the moisture in the wood will expand to the outside of the wood, it won't be going into the wood.
As an unrelated footnote, airline pilots have a mystical air about them for their expertise, child's play in my opinion. I flew as a crewchief in the Army so I was around a lot of pilots.
Here is my control board on a 500 MW generating unit back in the late 70s, there are two more boards behind me not shown in the picture. The auto controls seldom operated and I ran a majority of this equipment manually, I flew by the seat of my pants so to speak. I had to know what was what and be able to go out into the plant to each individual component and isolate it for maintenance, thousands of things.
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Thanks for sharing that Eric,
That's a bit like I feel trying to make and shoot primitive bows except I'm always turning the wrong knob or pushing the wrong button! Lol
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I actually just tried the pressure washer idea. It works awesome. My pressure washer is 3000psi and it curls the cambium up as you work down the stave, then you just pull it off by hand and continue. It also doesn't affect the wood at all as far as leaving marks or cutting into the back of it.
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well you gotta try Im glad it worked. but I was under impression it was small pieces of cambium... that is a thick piece there... great job... will put the results in my pocket for keeps.. gut
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I just feed the stave through a foil covered boiling pot and pull the bark off in one piece. There are numbers that indicate steaming wood actually increases tensile properties.
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Just to be a pain in the a$$, that ain't cambium, that's the inner bark. Cambium is one cell thick. I know it's semantics and almost everyone knew what he meant but I just hadda say it ;D ;D Look up cambium.
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Yes, but you need to remove the cambium to get the inner bark off. It's the" glueline".
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cambium IMO is the lil brown pieces left after bark is removed.. what I was imagining he was wanting to remove is what is left on the stave in the pic above... JS.... gut