Advice on drying a dogwood bow stave

[markinengland]

I plan on getting out tomorrow and cutting a dogwood bow stave or two.
Any advice on how to best dry this wood?
Mark in England

[Pat B]

Mark, I cut a dogwood(Cornus florida) tree a few months ago. I got 3, 6' poles from it and immediately sealed the ends with shellac. On the butt piece I split it after a month, sprayed the ends again and about 6" down the split side and have it in my basement to dry. There was a little checking in the ends but nothing serious.     Pat

[wvfknapper]

Pat

Does the dogwood from your area twist bad,,, around here a 6 ft piece will twist over 90dg from end to end, just wondering if it grows like that everywhere.

wvflintknapper

[markinengland]

Pat,
How easy does it split? Does it dry Ok in the round? The stuff I will be cutting may need to stay in the round as it will not be much over 1.5 to 2 inches diameter.
Mark

[Hillbilly]

I don't know about the dogwood you have there, but ours checks really bad, especially if you leave it round. I split one of the poles from Pat's tree a few days ago, I'm looking forward to trying it. I've made gluts and knapping billets from dogwood, but haven't tried a bow from it yet.

[mullet]

  I have a stave of Pacific Dogwood thats been drying for 4 years. It hasn't checked at all but has twisted a little.

[Pat B]

Mark, cut it long if you can so checks on the ends can be cut off when it is cured.  Are you planning to make a bow from the pole or two bows?  What specie is your dogwood?
  WVFK, the butt log(4"dia) had about 30deg twist in a 6' pole. It had been an understory tree so it was tall and straight. Other under story trees, around here, like sassafras can have 90deg or more in 6'. There in a sourwood tree near my deer feeder that has 3 complete twists(3x180deg) in about 10".
       Pat

[GregB]

I cut a dogwood last spring and treated it the same as we do hickory. Split it into half's, and peeled off the bark. Sealed the back and ends and have it in my basement. I haven't looked at it for a while, but I don't think it has any bad checks at all.

[markinengland]

Well, I have cut four bits of dogwood. I'm looking forward to seeing what can be done with them. I'll take some pics tomorrow and post. One has a really interesting kink in it.
Two are quite small in section, two a little larger. I may try to dry the small stuff quickly and see what happens.
I don't know if it is twisted. Doesn't look like it but I may not know until I start working it.
The diameters are not really big enough for two bows so each will make one bow.
I think they are Cornus sanguinea (common dogwood). No doubt a different species to those in the US.
I hope this may be a new "Low Calorie" wood here in the UK. I have spent a lot of energy in the past looking for yew and good ash. If dogwood turns out to be good for simple flatbows and longbows that will be great as there is so much around and it is so easy to get out.
Mark