Wood that gets stronger in humidity?

[Sojan]

Hello all, after having made my first bow, and watching it weaken over time until it blew up... I noticed that the wood strains on the handle where I put my sweaty hand to shoot it were slowly raising up. After a few months, the wood all over was no longer nice and smooth, but the grain had lifted due to swelling and humidity. Of course, I did not weather seal the bow, so that only sped up the process.

Now, around here, we have problems with humidity in the house, and it is generally humid. Being that this is winter, and I can't spend time outside, that got me thinking. I know there are some woods that deal very badly with humidity, and you must do everything to protect them. So, is there a wood that does the opposite, and becomes stronger in humidity? So that way you let the bow get wet, and its fine (maybe even good), rather than doing all you can to fight the humidity.

Basically: are there any woods that you can make acceptable bows out of, and that work really well in humidity, or even better, get stronger when they are wet?

[willie]

Where are you located  Sojan? What was your bow made from?

I am not sure that there is a wood that will do it all, but there are some woods that do better than others, and some to be avoided, and most all will benefit from being sealed in humid conditions

[Sojan]

I am in the province of Quebec, Canada, and my bow was made of Maple.

[PatM]

    Ipe and compression wood of conifers.
 
Ipe  has its best numbers at 12%

[Badger]

   I think all woods become stronger in tension when humidity goes up but any gains here are usually lost to it becoming weaker on compression.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Quebec isn't much different than where I am and I have never experienced the same results, not even close. You should seal your bows with something. 

[Sojan]

Ok yes, I agree, sealing the wood would have fixed the problem with my previous bow. But I am wondering If I can use a wood that would tolerate extreme humidity, like shooting in the rain, my previous bow was just to explain how I started thinking of the question.

[PEARL DRUMS]

You can shoot maple in the rain, you just need to seal it. If you want quick, easy and VERY effective. Buy a spray can of Helmsman spray poly and give your bows 4-5 coats.

[Badger]

  I think bees wax and even paraffin are about the most effective water repellents and sealers

[PatM]

Beeswax is not..   Epoxy is actually the best sealer but realistically unless you are camping out, all our typical finishes and mixtures of finishes are perfectly adequate.
  If the guy is using no finish then anything is a step up.

[stuckinthemud]

When you sand wood you compress the grain; hard grain is compressed less than soft grain. When the wood gets wet it swells back up.  You need to always wet timber after sanding to raise the compressed grain and then re-sand it. You may need to do this more than once.  You can use this effect to your advantage, check out the Ukibori technique Japanese carvers came up with. 

[BowEd]

Sojan...After finish is applied giving your bow a waxing a few times a year or before a long term outing can help.Humidity is something we all put up with.

[Marc St Louis]

High humidity wouldn't be the cause of your bow breaking.  Sugar Maple, if that is what you were using, is a tough wood and not easily subject to breakage.

Paraffin is the best moisture protection but not very durable by itself

[BowEd]

Got an older gentleman here that I shoot with that back in his day he used a parrafin melted in for a finish on a BBO.Used it hunting in Alaska.Said he used the bow as a walking stick occasionally through swamps.He spoke very highly of the finish.He read Dean Torges' book back then and tried the finish.
If a person has the TBB book and looks in the chapter of the Turtle bow.The testing they did on bows.Grant Poindexters' name is there placing in the top five with that bow.He's quite a fella.Bow hunting all over the world.We call him the old duffer....lol.

[Springbuck]

    Ipe and compression wood of conifers.
 
Ipe  has its best numbers at 12%

This is what I was thinking Pat.  Maybe some other dense, oily tropicals, too, but definitely ipe.