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Elm
superdav95:
Awesome info Ed. Yes it can and I’ve done it successfully on elm. Also have done hickory of various types, hhb, hard maple and white oak. Varied results with heat treating over coals clamped to forms. Hickory (shagbark) and iron wood were my favourite. Elm was like the hhb/ ironwood in many ways. Little heavier then hickory at least the shagbark. Little tougher to get a bow drawknifed out with elm and had to resort to lots of rasp work. I had edge run out on a few places on that bow and still shot fine and very snappy. I heat treated all the same length of time over the coals about 2-3 hours between 250-300 degrees. Just hot enough that I could stand to hold my hand over the coals at the same height of the bow form about 2 seconds. This allows the deep slow cook. It changes the properties of the wood. I would integrate flipped tips or recurve into the forms to bake them in over the coals. Just make sure you are below 10%mc before cook. I’ve had splits happen otherwise. I usually clamp my greenish semi floor tillered bow to the form and let it dry in the sun for a few days or a week depending on mc. Some longer depending on humidity. Once heat treated they hold the reflex and flipped tips profile of the form. I then tiller as normal.
As for my elm logs that I got I too feel very lucky to find them around here. The bow I made last year was less then perfect to say the least and still turned out a shooter. Impressive wood elm is. These logs should be much better. Will let them dry a year like you say just be make sure. I’ll snap some pics and post here tomorrow. Yes mine have some heartwood too.
You prefer shallack over poly brush on for sealer? I may switch. Have you used poly or a varethane product before?
TimmyDeNorCal:
Your elm haul looks really good.
I tried some red elm last year. They were to this day the straightest staves I have ever come across. It almost felt like cheating. They required no heat-corrections whatsoever. But both staves were absolutely garbage. I kept the bow profile wide enough for a low SG wood, didn’t over-tax the design...and they still came out with excessive set. Well, to be as accurate as I can, the bow that I used heartwood only on had excessive cast-robbing set. The mild R-D bow that had a ring or two of sapwood as its back was a smooth-shooting bow with solid cast...but then it splintered on the back and was ruined soon enough. Both staves reminded me of some balsa-like hobby wood dowels from a hobby store.
Your logs look waaaaay better, though. I foresee some shooters coming out of ‘em.
bjrogg:
Nice find Ed. Look forward to seeing some of your extreme profile bows being made from them in the future.
Bjrogg
BowEd:
You've done quite an extensive adventure baking these woods.Info on that is going to help many a bowyer.Once set up for it I can see it's advantages.
The red elm here is not very good here either.Heat treating did not help it much in the end.
I still just use the old heat gun.A slow process but worth it.I believe it's the excessive air flow from the gun that wants to char the back.Not like your baking method.On the handy tips section I showed an aluminum tape I use on the back to stop that completely.
Hickory is the hardest of my whitewoods here..70 or above.When I see a light pink hue in the sawdust working it I know I've got a good piece.The ironwood took the longest to turn color heat treating.I run the temperatures up slowly over 400 F. for a good 4 to 5 minutes or so and move along barely an inch at a time to get a good even baking.
I prefer shellack.It's getting more and more expensive though.It dries relatively fast.Just about anything will stick to it too.
As far as differences in this harder elm.I did an elm 10 years ago from a stave bought at Twin oaks.Fella was from South Carolina.I assume it came from his state.That stuff was just as hard as my hickory.It had very light colored heartwood.
This Arkansas elm is not as hard but still way better than red elm.Chasing a ring on it is'nt that hard either.
When doing these more extreme designs it takes the cleanest wood a person has.
superdav95:
Ed. It’s a great option for white wood for sure. It’s a game changer I think. I’ve used a heat gun set up similar to marks set up he uses. He has a vid online as a tutorial. In the winter months I’ve used this method and it works but it’s time consuming. I personally like the pit method I learned from Keith Shannon. It’s more complete of a bake I think. The nice thing too is that m ya pit is set up that I can do 4 bows on forms at once. Anyway don’t want to hijack this thread I can send you some pics of my set up and pit.
Here’s a couple pics of my elm harvest. I think it’s slippery elm if not mistaken. The grain is wavy on the outer layer under bark. Nice a straight though. The bigger one is about 8+” diameter and smaller one is about 6” at one end. You can see the kerf cuts I made on each piece.
Cheers.
Cheers.
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