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Advice on ash stave suitability?

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meanewood:
I don't think burnishing the back would help the first couple of rings to stretch and return undamaged, which is what is needed!

You would be increasing the surface tension on the fibres, decreasing elasticity.

It may be beneficial to burnish the belly however for the same reasons, but to 'damage' the natural integrity of the wood is probably not a good idea.

Heat treating is less radical and probably just hardens the belly by forcing moisture from the outer rings.

ksnow:
I don't have any experience with 100# plus bows, but plenty with ash. Bug activity, spalting and thin rings for me spells disaster in ash. Others may feel differently.

Hope this works out for you.

Kyle

Ruddy Darter:
Thanks ksnow, seems worthy of a try.... I worked on it some more and I'll post on how it  progresses.

 R.D.

WillS:
For what it's worth, I've made two ash bows with heavy bug damage on the back, going through a number of rings.  One at 120lb and one at 145lb. 

Personally, I wouldn't bother with burnishing, I'd focus instead on a very good heat treat (målming is even better if you have the time and patience) and a perfect tiller.  Ash won't let you get away with hinges, or even traces of hinges, once you're over 100lb. Make sure you heat treat at around 20", and again at full draw.  It's no use heat treating once the bow is taking set, you want to get in there beforehand.

Ruddy Darter:
Thank you WillS,
That's the sort of game plan I had in mind. The stave has cleaned up pretty good and feels solid, just got little remnants of some spalting in the last 5-6" of one outer limb.
Hopefully a little session sometime soon and I'll be ready for tillering.
 R.D.

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