Hickory bow design suggestions

[gutpile]

if you put in shower you will need to rough out bow and keep inside at least a month or more before it goes on to tillering.. hickory soaks up moisture like no other...if you are going to recurve go ahead and let sit.... gut

[loefflerchuck]

Heat treat the belly too. Hickory can handle being dryer than any other wood I know of. Out here in dry Utah it is one of the best woods. I made one that holds the world record for 70# primitive self bow flight shooting. It’s 57# long 1 3/4” wide above the handle tapering to about 1/4” with sharp recurves. It draws 67# @ 28”. I left some cambium on the back for a cool pattern. I love hickory!

[gutpile]

yes heat treats well but since you put in shower it will have to dry rather well before heat treating otherwise it will check pretty badly..gut

[Fox]

Okay so... back again  .... so i ruffed out the bow to floor tiller and have had it right next to the woodstove for 2 week... and i have  been weighing it on a kinda old scale and i have been looking at oz, but it hasn't lost any weight. So is it dry or is my scale not sensitive enough?

    -Fox

[BowEd]

If your scale will measure down to grams or 10th's of an ounce you should be able to see any change if at all within 2 weeks.Good advice from these fellas.You should easily get a 50# hunting weight bow from your stave.
A rule in the future working with woods you've never worked with before is to start wide enough and long enough.A chart to show what your moisture in your bow should be at certain temperature and humidity level.Hickory performs very good at 7% to 9%.Above 11% not as well.It's great bow wood.
As said earlier heat treating the belly of hickory does help with slowing down moisture absorbtion.Be fair warned though it'll gain some draw weight.That and sealing it with a good finish and keeping it inside while not using it will keep it that way.

[Fox]

Okay thanks for the great chart and advice... im going to have to get a better scale... should i get a scale or muister meter?

[DC]

The cheap digital scales you get from big box stores work great. I think they are about $20. Repeatable, accurate to within 1/10th of a gram.

[Fox]

Okay ill get one of them

[DC]

Sorry, I lied. my grain scale goes to 1/10 gram. My kitchen digital scale goes to one gram. Still plenty accurate. I can see the change in RH in my shop by weighing staves.

[Fox]

Alrighty so at some point my stave got a bit of cut on the back. The cut is about 6 inches from the tip and the cut itself is about and inch and a half long going with the grain not across it. Whadya guys think i should do about it?

[PatM]

Narrow it?