osage in the pond...

[nsherve]

A couple weeks ago I asked if anybody had ever stored osage under water until the sapwood had rotten away (and to keep worms out). I'll have to go re-check the replies, but I don't anyone has. So, yesterday, I dropped some into my pond (not a lot). I had thought that the wood would float....nope! It all (even the small ones) sunk like rocks! Thankfully, I did it in a fairly shallow spot near the bank instead of in a deep area. I think I'll leave it in until the summer time. I'll let folks know how it goes (if I remember to).

[Hawkdancer]

Set your sundial for Midsummer Day?
Hawkdancer

[Hamish]

Old timers in the late 19th and early 20thC tried the water curing method. I can't remember any preferring the water cured method over regular air drying. The consensus was that it produced inferior staves to air drying.


I think its going to take a long time for the sapwood to decay so much before it drops off. Some conditions will actually stop the sapwood from rotting. It should stop bug damage.

[nsherve]

Hamish, Do you know a website to read this? I know when a tree branch falls into the pond it rots out pretty quick... I'd like to know how they came to that conclusion. I'll let it air dry after I get it out, it'll take good while, but I'm not in a hurry...

[Swampman]

Wood submerged in water ends up being preserved.  It will take a long time for the sap wood to rot off. 

[High-Desert]

Whether I rots fast or slow in water is dependent on the the oxygen level and the amount of microbes.  Ponds typically have tons of microbes, and wood seems to break down very fast in them. Put the wood at the bottom of the ocean and it’s totally different. Anoxic, less microbes, and salt.
Trusting their opinion of whether it cured better....I wouldn’t trust that, because they also said the  only woods that make bows are yew and Osage, right.
This is a very worth while experiment, I’m looking forward to find out how it turns out.

[nsherve]

That's what I was thinking High-Desert. Since it's near the top (2-3 feet) the oxygen would be high. I'm no expert on this, but the fish aren't dying...

[Hamish]

Hi nsherve, From memory I read about the subject  in one or more of the legends of the longbow hardback series. Which one/s though, I'm not sure. Elmer has 3 excellent volumes(Archery, Book of the Longbow and Target Archery), possibly Saxton Pope, or in the Ye Sylvan Archers 7 vol's,. Most of mine are in storage at the moment. Target Archery is the only one I have on the book shelves, it doesn't even mention water seasoning, just air drying and kiln drying. I suspect it might have been one of Elmer's earlier books that mentioned water seasoning, and dismissed it.

[willie]

i think i read somewhere the water storage was preferred to the air by primitive people when they could not get back to working the stave right a way. think of nomadic people putting staves up for future use, and wanting  a local storage option

[Eric Krewson]

An interesting experiment would be to submerge a stave in the water for a month then take it out and see if the wood wasp eggs in the bark are capable of hatching into larva and eating up your stave. You could put out a piece of untreated junk stave alongside it when you take the first out of the water as a comparison.

I have always had the idea that sinking a stave in water was just a form of primitive bug control.