boiling

[stuckinthemud]

I find I may need to boil a 65" long stave (NOT steam!) anyone any experience of doing this - will I need to get a water trough custom welded?

[leonwood]

Ther is an awesome picture of a long simple metal barlike cooking device in one of the bowyers bibles. I think it's Tim Bakers way of boiling whole staves
Ah found it:

[DC]

You'll notice Murphy's Law at work here. He went to all that work making that thing and it's too short to get the whole stave in .

[Pat B]

Why boil and not steam?

[PatM]

The trough is a bluing tank for gunsmithing.

[JWMALONE]

I seen an ole timer once that had a 7 foot piece of steel pipe had the ends threaded with some caps screwed on there  with a  slot cut down the length big enough to get the board in there. Then placed it over a long narrow fire supported on the ends by tripods made from rebar. He made rocking chairs and other furniture. Same principle, may be the cheapest and most importantly the safest way to accomplish your goal. He done it that way for years.

[stuckinthemud]

Why boil and not steam?

Boiling is more thorough and less likely to lead to checking in particularly dense timber

[Pat B]

You can seal with shellac to help prevent checking. With steaming you can heat smaller areas at one time and just do it in sessions instead of having to make a vessel to boil the whole stave. Even if you do boil the entire stave will you be able to clamp it successfully before it cools too much.

[Bob Barnes]

Does boiling do enough more, than just water logging the stave, that just sinking one in a creek wouldn't work also?  ...just asking...

[Pat B]

I doubt boiling would add that much moisture to the stave at least not very deep. It takes lots of time relatively speaking for moisture to penetrate wood.

[stuckinthemud]

This particular timber has proven very resistant to steam or dry heat but boiling small sections has worked, but I need to boil the handle section, so the whole stave will have to go in the bath.

[Pat B]

Will you post pics of there you want to boil?

[Bryce]

I prefer to soak Overnight before boiling. I've found that it takes less time in the hot water to achieve the goal bend.

What's the wood?

[stuckinthemud]

Thanks Bryce, the wood is Common/Mountain Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus).  I love the kind of bow it makes, really snappy, but the frustration is that it just will not respond to heat once its seasoned, other than by boiling and that doesn't always work.

Pat, its more of a batch than a stave - I've cut four staves, two need a lot of straightening, two just need the odd tweak.  There's another stem there I want to cut that might yield another four staves.  I posted a truly awful picture a few days ago of the worst one here http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,62293.msg872551.html#msg872551

 

[Pat B]

What kind of laurel is it? do you have a botanical name?
 You can reduce that stave in the original pic to floor tiller shape then you'll have a lot less wood to work with.