Increased wieght thru winter?

[bigcountry]

I haven't had time to build bows much in the last 5 months due to life and hunting.

So I got back on an osage bow I quit working on in August.  Last I left it I measured 57lb at 28" with 5" brace.

So I shot it (short drawn) about 40 times and it felt so heavy and sweated it for 5 hours.   Measured wieght again, and now its 57lbs at 26.5".

Think the dry air has strengthened it?

[Parnell]

I notice it here in Florida.  With humidity dropping enormously in the "dry season" my bow's can pick up several #'s.  Weird thing is, I swear Ipe bows pick up strength when it's hot and humid here during summer.

[bigcountry]

Thanks, I think I am going to take it down to 55lbs at 28".  Right now, it feels like its stacking at 26-27".  Might throw it back on the tree to reevaluate teh tiller. 

[aznboi3644]

I've noticed my hickory bow has gained a few pounds through the winter dry air.

[Cacatch]

I'd say the dry cool air would make it pick up some, but more than that I would say that your osage had aged and gained strength. I've had Black Locust bows do that. They get some age on them and they get hard and stiff. If you decide do work it down at all, don't take off very much if any. You'll find that as it bends the draw weight will tend to shrink back down. If it were me, I'd grease it down and string it up and pull on it a few times.

CP

[Pat B]

CP, that is the difference between dry wood and seasoned(or cured) wood.
  Christopher, During the dryer seasons with low humidity most wood bows will take on a few pounds as the R/H begins to rise in the spring that weight should reduce a bit.
  How long is your bow? At 26" to 27" of draw you shouldn't be having any stacking.How is the string angle at the tips at that draw?

[Cacatch]

Yeah Pat, I know the difference between dry and seasoned very well. I don't have access to any Osage but I have plenty of Black Locust and White and Red Elm and some Hickory. Working with cut hickory or White Elm,  the difference becomes frustratingly clear pretty quick between dry and seasoned 

I think it also has to do with a bow being thoroughly shot-in or not. It doesn't sound like he put many arrows through it back in August, if at all, so the bow still thinks it's a limb for the most part and hasn't really been tought to bend. Even if his bow wasn't well-seasoned if it had been truly shot-in I don't think it would have picked up as much weight.

CP

[bigcountry]

CP, that is the difference between dry wood and seasoned(or cured) wood.
  Christopher, During the dryer seasons with low humidity most wood bows will take on a few pounds as the R/H begins to rise in the spring that weight should reduce a bit.
  How long is your bow? At 26" to 27" of draw you shouldn't be having any stacking.How is the string angle at the tips at that draw?

She is 66".  Angle is well below 90degrees.  It may not be stacking, but real heavy.  I generally never shoot a bow over 55lbs.  So it may just feel wierd. 

This stave was well over 2 years old, probably 4 according to Mike M.  Only took 1" of set so far.    Just shocked it probably picked up over 3-5lbs. 

[Badger]

     I build all my bows for the flight shoots right at 50# on the money, the cool dry air of the salt flats will add bewteem 3 and 5# just over a fews days period and I have to tiller them back down to qualify. The most extreme I ever saw was an elm bow I did that I thought was dry, finished it up at 55# two weeks later was about 65# back down to 55 and then back up to 60 something, this went on for at least 6 months. I still can't believe it.

[Pappy]

I have that happen a lot here in TN. with Hickory and Hackberry, especially before I finish
them. I try and keep them in a dry place all the time when I am not shooting or  working  on them.
   Pappy

[crooketarrow]

    Likely it was'nt fully seasoned and had  a little to much moisture in it when you built it.This is not good this will cause string follow. This happens alot.People always want to hurry and finish that bow and take a moisture reading at stave level and its fine. Then when you get down to bow form it's not as dry as the outer stave. Moisture meters with prongs only take a reading as far as the prongs go in.  I like to build all some my projects in stages. Bows,arrows,knives,etc.
   But when it comes to bows I go exture slow.I never use a meter. Most of my staves are 10 plus years old. I'll still take it down to bow form. And put it up on a rack for month or so. After I look at it every day I may want to change it in some way. This way if it dose have some moistureths will get rid of it.White wood bows I'll hang under lights. I have racks with 3 low wattage lights above them.(WHITE WOOD likes to suck up moisture.) I'll just start another bow but likley I'll have other bows started in incompleted at stages.Some times I've got 3 to 5 bows started in different stages. Sometimes it'll take me 1 to 5 months a bow.WHO knows it's all in the mode I'm in.Or what other projects I've got going.
   Go slow I know it's hard to do. You won't be sorry. Find the place your happy with. It will make you a better bowyer.

[Pat B]

Christopher, Mikes staves are usually pretty fresh when you get them. He goes through so much wood it hardly has time to dry much less season. At last years Classic Mike gave me a 2" diameter osage pole that was cut the year before. After I had it at home for a few months I cut it in half on my bandsaw. It wasn't completely dry inside. I bound the halves together with spacers between and let them rest for another 6 or more months before untieing them. That was a month or so ago and I'm still not ready to use either one of them yet.
  Two year ago I bought a stave from Mike's Dad at the Hickory, NC shoot. It had been cut a month before. I reduced the stave to 3 staves(one pretty slim) and within a month made a 60" static recurve. The wood felt dry and even sounded dry under tools so I completed the bow. After a month or so I noticed frets. I'm sure it was the dry but unseasoned wood that caused the frets.
  An extreme example of humidity effecting wood bows is a sinew backed hickory bow I made, copying Jay Massey's Medicine Bow. Like I said sinew backed hickory plus it has rawhide over the sinew. When I made the bow it pulled 56#@26". A month later in our humid summer weather it dropped to 45#@26". I sent the bow out to Kenneth(Little John) in Colorado and within a month it was at about 65#.  That is a 20# difference over a few months. Granted all of the ingrediences of this bow, hickory, hide glue, sinew and rawhide are all very hygroscopic, meaning they take on and release moisture as the humidity changes.
  I also covered a well seasoned osage bow with snake skins using TBIII a few years ago and the weight dropped about 10# when I thought the backing was dry. A month later it was back up to weight.

[bigcountry]

     I build all my bows for the flight shoots right at 50# on the money, the cool dry air of the salt flats will add bewteem 3 and 5# just over a fews days period and I have to tiller them back down to qualify. The most extreme I ever saw was an elm bow I did that I thought was dry, finished it up at 55# two weeks later was about 65# back down to 55 and then back up to 60 something, this went on for at least 6 months. I still can't believe it.

Even with it sealed? I always wondered how sealed a bow is, with poly or any finish.  I guess your example shows "not as sealed as we may think".

[Pat B]

You will never completely seal a wood bow and you don't want to. Wood has to breath or dry rot will set in. What you want in a finish is something that will slow the hygroscopic rate down and then store your bows in a dry, well vented area. If your bow feels mushy when you string it, put it back up and grab another one to shoot.

[El Destructo]

I have this same thing happen every Winter here in the Texas Panhandle too...every year...between Thanksgiving and New Years....but My Weight Gains are a lot more extreme than this....I can put on 20-25 pounds in these two months alone....then I have to work it off before the Classic....got to look Good for Miss Joanie .....Cathy....and Marie....

Now seriously....my Bows will gain 2-5 pounds in the Winters here...but our Humidity is like nonexistent in the Winter here....Hickory and Elm are the two biggest gainers here.