Author Topic: Ok to splice green wood?  (Read 1970 times)

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Offline Taxus brevifolia

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Ok to splice green wood?
« on: June 17, 2018, 01:26:51 pm »
Like juniper for example, which many prefer to work green

Offline DC

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2018, 01:31:31 pm »
I wouldn't do it but I've never tried. I just don't think you would get a good glue joint. Why would you want to except for impatience :D

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2018, 01:50:53 pm »
OK, here is what to do; cut your splices, take a heat gun and dry your splices out several times over a couple of days then splice. I do have a moisture meter so I knew when my splice wood was completely dry.

I have done it a bunch of times, you still have to let the stave dry out though. 

Offline Hamish

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2018, 06:40:53 pm »

Joinery on green cut wood sounds like a bad idea for a bow splice, especially if you want the joint to hold. Wood will shrink/ move/warp in length, width and thickness as it dries. A joint cut when wet, and then dried out won't fit very well, maybe not at all.

Different species react differently, to the stress of drying. Some woods might handle a heat gun on wet wood without cracking, most won't. I would think a light softwood like Juniper, semi dried would handle this approach better than say a dense hardwood like osage.
I personally wouldn't bother unless it was built as a survival bow in an emergency situation.

Given that Eric has had some success with the matter, I would like to hear more about the types of wood that were successful, and how green the wood actually was before cutting the joinery. Obviously the greener the wood the more movement of the wood.


There are ways to safely speed up drying, cutting down a year or two wait to a  month or two.  Roughing the billets to nearly finished dimensions, sealing the back and end grain, then putting them in a hotbox where you can slowly increase the temperature.

I have made some furniture out of green wood, frame and panel chests. They were made this way in days of old. The wood is rough worked to dimension, then left to season for a period of time(the longer the better at least 1 month. It is then worked to final dimensions, and mortised. Then assembled, and then pegged across through to joint to mechanically fasten the structure together. No glue used at all. It is a very different application to a bow splice or the stress that a bow undergoes.

The piece continues to season for a year or two. The previously flush joints and tightly fitted panels, are not as good cosmetically because of uneven shrinkage. They are structurally sound though. It works but is nowhere near as good as using seasoned wood, from the start.

Offline Taxus brevifolia

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2018, 08:13:38 pm »
Ok that's why I asked, seemed wrong. It's incense cedar, I'll just season it with the yew.

Offline Taxus brevifolia

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2018, 10:58:12 pm »
In case anyone wondered, this is what made me ask. The way I cut this billet, the grain doesn't line up, but thanks to PA (Bryce, specifically) I have an idea how to still use it. This will be spliced, once it dries. Each limb is 36"x2". I could cut two 2"-wide limbs or four 1"-wide limbs. Plenty of time to decide.

Offline Badger

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2018, 11:44:14 pm »
  You can get a piece of wood down to 10% moisture pretty quickly. At 10% I believe they are stable enough for a solid glue joint to hold.

Offline Taxus brevifolia

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2018, 02:04:26 am »
Oh cool, I won't have to wait so long. I guess I ought to learn how to gauge the moisture

Offline DC

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2018, 11:06:24 am »
I've weighed the stave right after cutting if your scale will take it. I took an offcut of green wood and weighed it, then I put it in the toaster oven at 150-175 degrees until it stopped losing weight. Then you compare the before and after weights to get the percentage of water that left. I found after 2 or 3 tries that the dry wood weighs about 65% of the wet wood. This will vary but not by a lot. So if your green stave weighs 1000 grams it will be about 650 when dry. The first few days the weight will drop rapidly but then it slows down. Lower SG woods seem to dry faster so your cedar should go pretty quickly. Probably much like Yew but it all depends on your local humidity.

Offline Bryce

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2018, 07:23:30 am »
Like juniper for example, which many prefer to work green

Simple answer would be no. Do not splice green billets. Billets can be dry enough to splice within 6 weeks in a nice dry atmosphere, or if kept in a warm house or something like that.
I prefer working dry juniper, your less likely to have any kind of tear outs and string wood.
If your using stone tools then working to rough demensions it would be ok.
But nowadays our tools are equipped to handle good dry hard or soft wood with ease.
Clatskanie, Oregon

Offline Taxus brevifolia

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2018, 02:58:41 pm »
Very cool, thanks B

Offline Bryce

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2018, 01:45:42 am »
Np amigo.
Let us know when your all spliced up and ready to go.
P.s. what state are you in? I’m right on the nw part of the Columbia river
Clatskanie, Oregon

Offline Taxus brevifolia

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Re: Ok to splice green wood?
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2018, 03:00:17 pm »
I'm in Jackson County, South of Medford on the edge of the Klamath National Forest