Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
80", 80# Ash warbow build along (low-budget style)
WillS:
Dunno! Never had the chance to work with it!
mikekeswick:
Ash doesn't 'suck up' moisture anymore than other woods....what it does do is take an awful long time to get very dry. It's like hickory in liking to be dry. I would suggest that an MC of 6 -8% is ideal. Plus unless you are working in somewhere with a very low r.h. the bow isn't likely to be aiming for an EMC of less than 10 -12%. So you have to do something anda hotbox etc between tillering is a very good idea.
It's well worth heat treating ash - it transforms it. The real coup de grace is trapping the back heavily. The reason ash takes so much set is that it's compression strength is nowhere near its tension strength. Go and do some bend tests one on a rectangular slat and one on a slat that has it's back trapped and belly heat treated. I found significant differences.
Micke D:
@Mike - "The real coup de grace is trapping the back heavily". Can you please explain trapped/trapping?
WillS:
Trapping is the process of chamfering the edges of the back so that the back of the bow itself is thinner than the bow. Turns the bow sort of into a trapezoid shape, that you then round.
Mike, what about the really heavy bows made of ash that follow rough Mary Rose profiles, so no trapping at all? Most of the top bowyers who are working with ash aren't heat treating, or trapping and turn out super heavy bows (well over 140#) that have almost no set (by which I mean around 0.5" to 1")
Is this down to different types/quality of ash, or is it skill as a bowyer or something else? Perhaps it goes back to Del's question regarding the age of the ash tree (sapling/mature)? I know that the ash I've worked with tends to be one or the other - either it wants to take a sack of set regardless how carefully I treat it, or it won't take any at all. I don't like heat treating, and I don't like the look of a trapped back so I avoid both, and I have a selection of bows both with and without set. Most of my ash staves come from a handful of trunks I selected about a year and a half ago, and I don't really know their age so maybe that's a deciding factor.
OTDEAN:
Using different techniques defines someone who knows what to do I would say. Not liking to heat treat 'EVER' just seems a bit odd. I get the whole "I AM AN ENGLISH WAR BOW SOCIETY GUY LOOK AT MY MUSCLES RARRRRRRRRR I SHOOT HISTORICALLY ACCUARATE HEAVY WEIGHT LONGBOWS" but even Joe Gibbs has heat treated some of his bows because I have seen them.
Ash is a great wood, sapling or mature, just use the right technique to get the best bow possible. Go ahead, walk past the next Yew tree and hug an Ash, you know you want to! >:D >:D
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