Elm bows

[BrokenArrow]

I received an elm tree a couple month ago and sealed the ends then left it for 2 months in a dry place (moisture was 35% and dropped to between 20-25%).
A couple weeks ago I quartered it and left all but one to dry. The one I chose to work on was left in the house for 2 weeks and the moisture dropped to below 10% then I started working it.
It is about 3% moisture on the tips and 5% in the limbs and 8% in the handle area.
The tree cutting to the almost finished product was about 3 months in a dry climate 50% humidity.
Does anything seem wrong here as I hear that you should leave wood drying for up to a year?

[wizardgoat]

i only use my moisture meter on occasion when i expose new wood on a bow im working on.
to really gauge how much moisture is in your stave you have to weigh it.
go buy a digital kitchen scale, and you'll never go back to poking holes in your wood.
under my bed i have a bunch of roughed out bows. i weigh them periodically and write the weight right on the bow.
every week or 2 i pull them out and weigh them all again. 
once they havent dropped any weight for a week i know they should be good.
i live is a pretty wet environment, and cut all my own wood so i found this to be the best way to ensure id never work wood that wasnt ready to bend.
you live in a dry climate, so wood drying goes much quicker for you

[Pat B]

Did the elm log lay on the ground after cutting it?

[BrokenArrow]

I think it did lay on the ground until cut but the moisture was 35%. I had it stored once cut on hooks in my garage.

[Pat B]

How long was it on the ground? It really doesn't take fungi long to infect wood laying on the ground. After all, that is the job of the fungi and it does its job well.   

[DarkSoul]

Don'r rely on a wood moisture meter.
It is basically impossible to dry wood down to 3% or even 5% moisture content in room temperature conditions. You would need high temperature and/or very low humidity level for extended periods of time for that. Put the moisture meter in a drawer and rely on the weight loss method: no weight loss for at least a week means the wood has reached EMC. Use that table to learn to what MC your wood reaches EMC. You WILL need one year for a full size raw stave, but several weeks can be enough for a nearly finished blank to reach EMC when you dry it indoors.

[mikekeswick]

+1 to the above.
No way is it at 3%! Moisture meters need to be set to the wood species to be anywhere near accurate. Only the expensive ones have this feature. They measure resistance in the wood and most woods are different.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Elm dries quite fast, its not very dense. If you can find a place in your house that is warm and around 40-50% humidity, a 2"x 2"  stave will be ready in 3-4 months.

[Will H]

Go buy a 3lb scale and a thermometer that shows RH (relative humidity)

[BrokenArrow]

What would be the optimal moisture level for elm wood as once it is reached I will seal it with urathane and it will loose no more moisture?

[Pat B]

Optimum moisture for most bow woods is between 9% and 11%.   Also, sealing bow won't prevent moisture intake or release. All it does is slow down the rate at which the moisture enters or leaves the wood.

[Marc St Louis]

The only thing that I wouldn't do is leave it whole and sealing the ends.  Bacteria start to work on Elm real fast.

On another note I read, or maybe heard, a long time ago, so long in fact that I don't remember where the info comes from  , that the best way to season bow wood was to hang it butt end up for at least a year.  Up until a few years ago I still had the odd log that I had cut many years before hanging from a shed