preserving osage staves in water

[luke the drifter]

perhaps i am not typing the right phrase.  what about preserving osage staves in water?  how long in long enough?  i thought i had read about it somewhere in this community.  any thoughts?

[Pat B]

When I cure bow wood I want to eliminate the moisture. I have read about water curing but I believe it replaces the sap with water which in turn dries out quicker. I would rather give the sap(resins and such) plenty of time to solidify as part of the wood cells. I think this would make for stronger, more resilliant bow wood.

[bucksbuoy]

I have wondered about this myself. I know they do this for wooden instruments likes violens and such but I think its more to enhance sound and not strength. I can almost guarantee it will make the wood more brittle. But it probably helps to even out inconsistencies too. Still, I want to experiment with it and see what it does. Im also curious between the difference in fresh and salt water. I know this is one of the trade secrets for makers of acoustic stringed instruments and there is little info on why they do it.

[Pat B]

One problem I have with salt water is if your wood absorbs the salt it will continue to attract moisture into the wood as salt has a tendancy to do even after the wood has cured out.

[Bill Skinner]

Go look at the" Worth Salvaging" thread.  I don't know how it will work, I plan on getting it out of the woods this week.  Bill