Seasoning wood without meters

[Ippus]

I'm just getting started with bowmaking, and the budget is super-tight. I've found humidity meters online in the $5-$10 range, but it could be awhile before I can get my hands on one. Looks like even a cheap moisture meter might be $20+, and I recall reading something about their accuracy being variable...

Given:

• RH in my area ranges from 10-50% this time of year - I'm in semi-arid SE Idaho.
  
• Humidity in my basement tends to be more stable and not as dry, as far as I can tell; I have some stove-length chunks of cherry and black locust that have been down there for 2-3 years and look as tight as the day they were cut (no checking or splitting that I can tell) - their larger brethren in the outdoor woodpile are split like mad.
• I will most likely be working with Siberian elm (I have a tree-service guy who will just give me what I can haul away). I was planning to split it and seal the ends, but leave the bark on, and eventually turn it into ELBs with the sapwood on... for my first few projects.

1) Is it feasible to season wood without benefit of RH meter in the basement to actively monitor, and no moisture meter for the wood itself?
2) Can I just weigh the wood green and then check it progressively until I'm seeing no further weight loss?
3) If I can't track down an accurate enough scale, is there a rough way to judge when the stave should be dry enough?
4) Given that I'm splitting it to stave-width, should I try to dry it faster with the bark off, or is that too big a risk given the aridity of my local climate?

[wizardgoat]

I don't even worry about moisture till my stave is a bow blank. If it's s bow blank that means it was s stave for about 6 months to over a year. Then I use a kitchen scale and monitor the weight. 

[bow101]

I can usually tell by just a small cut and rolling the sawdust between my fingers. If it clumps easily its to wet.  If it clumps slightly but does not stay in a ball then I wait another few weeks or a month.  My favorite method is hanging the wood near the ceiling where the heat is.  It works for me.

[Pat B]

I go be sound and the feel of the tools cutting or rasping and then by the bend and recovery. A well seasoned stave will have a ring to it if you drop it on a concrete floor from a few inches up. If it still has too much moisture it will have a thud sound.

[bradsmith2010]

also little mentioned,, but once the bow is brace,, if you pluck the string it will make a note,, if you draw the bow a bit and the note goes lower,, the stave is still to wet,,

[George Tsoukalas]

I've never used much elm as it is gone form my area.

Left to its own it generally takes 1 year for every inch for the stave to dry

For most whitewoods you can take off the bark and there will be the back of the bow.

Then rough it out and begin to floor tiller getting the limbs to bend an inch or 2 and it will dry much faster. You can monitor the weight and wait until it holds constant for a few days.

Jawge

[mullet]

What I'd like to know is how do you calibrate these meters to different humidity readings and Barometric changes?

[bowandarrow473]

My staves are generally roughed to .75-1 in thick and left to dry for 2-6 months without the bark. I have some though that have been around for 2 or more years and I have never gotten to them. For a .75 in thick bow in 50 percent humidity you should be good to go in a month or two.

[Danzn Bar]

My staves are generally roughed to .75-1 in thick and left to dry for 2-6 months without the bark. I have some though that have been around for 2 or more years and I have never gotten to them. For a .75 in thick bow in 50 percent humidity you should be good to go in a month or two.

Two or more years??? you must have gotten started building bows at an early age......
DBar

[bowandarrow473]

I started at 10, but have always had a passion for primitive weapons ever since I built a spear when I was 4. I'm still learning every day as I am only a bow maker of three (almost four now) years.

[Drewster]

A kitchen scale as Wizardgoat mentioned to monitor the stave weight, a $10.00 hygrometer from Lowes or Home Depot to monitor your environment and a wood equilibrium moisture chart which you can download for free and you'll be good to go.  And yes, a cheap moisture meter is a waste of money.

With a kitchen scale that will weigh grams and a microwave, you can do an oven dry test which will give you very accurate moisture percentages.  Cut a thin cross section of your stave an inch or so from the end......if it's long enough.  Weigh the "green" piece.  Put it in the microwave and run it for a minute or two.  Weigh it again and record the weight.  Keep cycling it through the microwave until the weight stops dropping.  If you burn the wood, you've gone too far and your test results will not be accurate.

Subtract the dry weight from the wet weight and divide that by the wet weight.  Multiply that by 100 and you will have the moisture percentage of that piece of wood.

Hope this helps.  After some experience, the feel and sound of the wood as mentioned above will keep you in good moisture content ranges.  Good luck and have fun.

[mullet]

Drewster, I use a microwave to bend wood.

[Drewster]

Drewster, I use a microwave to bend wood.

Geez, you must have a BIG microwave if you're doing bow staves......bet it works well.

[Springbuck]

I live in Utah.  That's all it takes.   If I rough out a bow, it's dry in a couple weeks, and then I almost always temper the bellies anyway.  If it isn't dry enough by then, I'd be shocked.