Beat eastern bow wood to handle high RH

[Fox]

I have been strugling with humidity quite a bit... its commonly 80% here in va... the woods i have access to are... Elm, hickery, black locust, black walnut Eastern red cedar, beach, and cherrie... are any of those perticularly resilient to moister ?  Or is there not much difference and i need to figure out a better sealant and place to store them?

[Weylin]

The first three are the only woods on that list that I'd be in a hurry to use for bowmaking. Out of those three I'd say that black locust would probably handle a high RH the best on it's own. If you give hickory or elm a good heat tempering on the belly it can make a big difference in their ability to handle humidity without taking set. Osage would be your best bet. It definitely grows in VA.

[Fox]

Thanks for the replie weylin...i thought the locust might be best... i love osage but have only seen patches on land that i can't get access to... and the only time ive worked with it was from a dead limb i found on a tree in a public park... it was amazing to work with but had too many issues so the bow came apart....

[Jakesnyder]

I am still in love with hickory. We got some real sense shagbark up here in PA and if you are careful you can make a low set fast bow. It's not a second rate bow wood in my book. It gets fairly humid up here in western PA and I will sometime clamp a blank to a caul and dry it out over a fire. Then do a hard heat treat.
Yea osage is more elastic but good hickory dont break. Just my 2 cents

[Eric Krewson]

My friend Darrin is in the process of doing extensive testing with fire hardened hickory and moisture absorption. So far his tests are off the scale positive, last time I talked to him he was testing bow #5.

We have just entered the hot, muggy, high humidity part of the year hear in N Alabama, Darrin has a good pinless moisture meter so he can check on the moisture transfer to his fire hardened hickory bows and finalize his testing.

[George Tsoukalas]

I don't know about VA but in black locust is a really good wood in the humidity. Jawge

[Pat B]

I've made bows with all these woods except beech. Like Weylin, the first 3 are my favorites and hickory and elm are #1 and #2. Our humidity today here is near 90%. It will fluctuate through the year but stay high during the spring and summer. IMO, hickory is the most affected by humidity but with good seasoning, low stress building, heat treating and proper storage hickory will make a very effective bow. It was one of the main bow woods on the Eastern Woodland culture in their humid environments.

[HH~]

Good elm i would say is best. Get it dry as a chip. Then you steam of heat it into about anything. Yep, it will take some set and hot humid weather will affect it even yeRs later.
But:
You’ll never break it, if it gets spongy after 10,000 shots. Stick it on a board in attic for a week and shoot another 10,000 arrows thru it.

The right elm from a good tree with a crowned back and flipped tips make a hella fine shooting bow. Absorbs shock very very well, leave some weight in riser and keep some width in to mid limb and you have a bow that will shoot after you’ve left this world!

Hedge

[Fox]

Okay thank you all for the replies. Seems like the first three are the best and the locust the best to deal with the humidity.....  and really dry hickory and elm is great too...
Pat b you mention hickory being used by eastern woodland people... i have been wondering how they kept there hickory dry? Cause i often don't have somewhere  that's lower then 60% to store bows... so was wondering how they got around RH... anyone know?

[bradsmith2010]

I used to live in Tennessee,, and my black locust bow,, took the humid conditions very well,,
I didnt even heat treat back then,, It still shoots great today 20 years later and holds a nice profile,,
this may be been said,, but I dont think you can go wrong overbuildind a bit,,

[DC]

Okay thank you all for the replies. Seems like the first three are the best and the locust the best to deal with the humidity.....  and really dry hickory and elm is great too...
Pat b you mention hickory being used by eastern woodland people... i have been wondering how they kept there hickory dry? Cause i often don't have somewhere  that's lower then 60% to store bows... so was wondering how they got around RH... anyone know?

Maybe they just didn't care. As long as it would kill a deer or an enemy

[dylanholderman]

Yeah I think that concerns over moisture/performance in general are a modern convention.
Not to say that our ancestors wouldn’t appreciate a fast bow just that they were probably more concerned with reliability than than speed.

[PatM]

In all probability the technique of fire heat treating was a very real thing.  Without getting all mystical about it as a lost art.

 Heat treating wood to make it resistant to moisture is well documented for other uses.  You can make Poplar behave more like Ipe for outdoor deck material with heat.

[Fox]

Yeah thats kinda what i was figuring about the humidity.... a bow with an inch or 2 of set will kill a deer as good as  any other i suppose..

[DC]

I don't know hickory at all but does excess moisture affect the dependability of the bow or just cause it to take set?