Newb in need of advice...

[DanB]

Hello all,

I'm new to bowmaking, so please forgive my ignorance. I made a longbow when I was in high school, and I enjoyed the challenge, so I thought I might try something new. I should mention high school was a while ago, so I may have forgotten most/all of what goes into it.
Trying to make a static recurve bow out of hickory. Unfortunately, I live in the city so all I have access to is kiln dried lumber.
I soaked the wood I was trying to bend in water overnight, steamed it for two hours, and as I was bending it over my jig it cracked along the growth ring.
So my newb question is, did I pick a board with growth rings that are too close together, or is there something else going on here?
Any advice would be appreciated. I knew going into this that I would probably break my first few attempts, but now I'm not exactly sure what went wrong.
Thanks!

[willie]

Dan, welcome to PA
sounds like you have the required patience, so hope you do not mind if I ask how thick the piece was you were trying to bend?

[DanB]

Thanks for the reply.
Where it broke was approx. 5/8" thick, but the board narrowed to approx. 1/2" near where I was going to attach the handle.
It was a pyramid limb, 3/4" wide at the tips where it broke, 2-3/4" near the other end.

[DC]

What kind of radius was the bend?

[DanB]

Around 30 degrees, starting 3" from the end of the tip.

[Pat B]

Welcome to PA Dan. Sounds like you were on the right track. It should have bent after 2 hrs of steaming. It had nothing to do with thin growth rings or being kiln dried but it may not have been treated properly from the stump. Sawmill lumber, lumber from a lumber yard isn't cut for bow building although some is OK for bows. If the log had laid on the ground for a while before it went to the saw mill it could easily been attacked by fungi. It really doesn't take long for fungi to attack wood if it isn't properly handled, after all that is the job of fungi and whitewoods like hickory are very susceptible.

[DanB]

Thanks for the advice Pat, I thought it might have been something along those lines. I don't suppose there's an easy way to tell whether or not a board from the hardware store is any good or not? I've read the first two volumes of the TBB, but I don't remember them mentioning any tricks when it came to that.

[Pat B]

Dan, on some hickory I've had that was bad the wood was almost powdery on the surface where it should have been hard and slick. Others had discoloration.

[willie]

 5/8 is on the thick side for bending. did you feel it giving way slowly as the bend progressed, and was it a quality board? most of the big box stores sell dubious wood for other end purposes

when the sap rises and the trees start to bud  (soon I hope) is a real good time to cut a quality stave. that way you can be assured you materiel has been handled right. the ring could have been compromised any number of ways before you got the board as pat mentioned.

[DanB]

It didn't really give much indication that it was about to break. It did creak a little, but I expected that.
Unfortunately, I live in a fairly big city, so finding a tree I could cut staves from is pretty much impossible. Kinda stuck with what I can get from the local Menards.

[goomba]

How does soaking the wood in water help? Just curious.

[PatM]

Soaking wood makes it 'green"  again which is the best state for steaming.
   
  I think soaking and boiling works better for kiln dried wood though.

 A lot of recurved Hickory  board bows were made by Ben Pearson's company.

[DanB]

Good luck?
Honestly, it probably doesn't. I just figured it would probably heat all the way through more evenly if the board was saturated.

[willie]

soaking overnight might not have made much difference at the center of the board where it appears the rings separated, and sometimes steaming is not always as hot as it appears. hard to tell at this point.

if you want a birch stave of bow quality, i will be cutting some soon.

[DanB]

Sorry for the (really) late reply, my daughter (1yr old) has five  new teeth coming in and has been a handful lately.

But... success! Planed a new board down to 3/8" and tried again. Steamed for two hours, but this time I didn't take the time to soak them overnight. Both limbs bent without any splintering.

Now I'll get to know what it feels like to break a limb during tillering...