Drying bows with silica gel at humid bow camps

[JNystrom]

I have multiple situations in a year i wouldn't dare to shoot my best bows while at longer bow camps, because the outside air moisture is so high. First day outside is ok, but soon the bows keep sucking moisture, especially at night time in tent storage. At summertime the quite frequent rain doesn't help either...

I just made a tube of 2m long, 12cm of diameter (75" x 5") from air ventilation tube, which could be my future wood storing place. If i make the tube totally airtight i could use some moisture absorbing material, such as silica gel or even rice. Drying with the common light bulb heatbox would be easy, but at the wilderness/park areas we don't have the luxury of electricity.
I've investigated that that the tube itself would need 20g silica gel to keep it around 40-50% moisture. Of course the difficult thing in measuring right amount of silica is, if you move in moist bows and open the tube frequently. They say silica gel can absorb 40% of its weight in water. I have 100g of silica gel, so i will do some tests and report back!

Do anyone of you have good tips to keep bows dry on longer bow camps?

[Tuomo]

Weintraub - Demystifying silica gel

About everything you must know about silica gel!

http ://www.apsnyc.com/uploads/Demystifying%20Silica%20Gel.pdf

[JNystrom]

Thanks Tuomo! Now there is only that really complicated looking equation to solve... hmm, lets see if i still go with try and error hah! I'm about to get 400g more silica, so i think i will have some results in even a period of one day.

[Tuomo]

And if you want to be a pro, then order this, Datalogging Humidity Detector PCE-HT 71N:

https ://www.pce-instruments.com/english/measuring-instruments/test-meters/humidity-detector-pce-instruments-datalogging-humidity-detector-pce-ht-71n-det_61504.htm?_list=kat&_listpos=8

Just collect data for few days or weeks and then see what has happened inside the tube.

I have a hanging scale from them, it is very good quality.

[simson]

I have thought on speed drying, just the way you suggest.
Alternative: use sawdust and replace every day

[JNystrom]

I don't think i want to buy any more gadgets, but thanks for the tip.  Good ol' testing till you get a feel will do just fine, i think.

Simson: Like you said, things can turn in to speed drying quite fast... I have a analog moisture meter i can fit in the tube, so i'll use that to gauge the proper range. If you are looking to just hold certain level of moisture in the container, it might be best to add silica over a time rather than throw all of the bags in at once. Like this there would be always fresh, 0% silica to suck more moisture as the bows get more moisture while they are outside for shooting. This starts to sound like a nice experiment and a one that could prove good use!

There are some videos and discussion on other wood working platforms about drying wood with silica, but what they do is bury the wood piece fully in to the silica grains. They use small pieces of wood that would be later on used for turning in lathe, for example. So for bows you would need quite a lot of silica to maybe fill a tube. After all its not that expensive, about 20 euros/kg and reusable until infinity.

[JNystrom]

Norways bowcamp at skurven came and i think my tube did quite well. It raised some eyebrows among my primitive friend, but at least my whitewood warbows didn't chrysal unlike, hmm some other guys bow...
When i left for the camp, i had all the bows at stable 50% air moisture. I eventually had only 170-200g of silica in the tube, but storing the bows over night in the tube made the bows only suck 0,7-1% of moisture during the 9 days. I left one old bow outside for a referance point and that bow absorbed about double the amount, 1,5-2%.

I made couple of really heavy english warbows during the camp, from osage, elm, rowan and maple, which really benefited from the lower moisture. I'll post them soon on the warbow section, as soon as i get good pictures out of them. They all are 130-160# @30" and 72"-74" long.

[Pat B]

J, did you take any pics of the event.
 Interesting study you did with the silica. Could be helpful for wet climates.

[bjrogg]

It's interesting and even if it's not perfect it's gotta help.
Bjrogg

[Badger]

Lots of good desiccants, rice, charcoal, many more listed on line.

[bjrogg]

Lots of good desiccants, rice, charcoal, many more listed on line.

That's true Badger. I once saved a cell phone by putting it in a bag of soybeans for a week.
Bjrogg

[upstatenybowyer]

Hmmm.... very cool idea! Thanks for sharing. 

[JNystrom]

You're welcome! I did take some pictures, i'll attach couple of them here. If you are interested, you can find the events homepage in facebook by "bowmakercamp skurven". It is open for anyone to join and there you can see more pictures if you are interested. Naturally everyone around the world is invited to join. The camp is held every year at first week of august, lasting about 10 days.
It's held in Norway so most of the people there are from Norway, but also some other countries like Finland (us), Germany and Britain. Will Sherman was supposed to come there this year, but he sadly he had problems with the ryanair strike...

[bjrogg]

Beautiful pictures. Looks like a awesome camp.
Bjrogg

[JNystrom]

Thank you Bjrogg. It is! Too bad there is still the limit for 250kb pictures, forces you to downscale the pics quite a lot... Server disc space is quite cheap nowadays so i don't understand the limit.
The camp is actually a long tradition, was it 8 years now? Good that we have something similar here as you guys have in the states.