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Weight drop on bows due to moisture?
darinputman:
If you can find a finish that will do anything besides slow the taking on of moisture let me know as I would like to use it. Best I can do is slow it down. Wouldn't worry at all about having applied another finish, just do as some of these good folks have suggested and should be fine. Good luck and enjoy.
Aksel:
I start to suspect that the staves were well below 9% moisture content in the summer when I made the bows and now they´ve hit equilibrium at around 10% and are weak.
Example: one yew bow dropped from #48 (unknown physical weight) in summer to #35 (434grammes) in winter.
48h in hot box and it´s gone down to 430g physical weight and draw weight is up to #38.
Question:
Is there a formula for how draw weight increases as moisture content decreases?
George Tsoukalas:
I have never seen such a formula.
But I have also had the problem of moisture gain causing loss of draw eight. New Hampshire has dry winters, the time when I try to make bows, and them comes very humid summers resulting in loss of poundage. My bows for the years kept in heat during the winter and AC in the summer but it still happens because moisture is tough to control.
Such are the challenges of wooden bowyers. :)
Jawge
bradsmith2010:
osage is resistant,, your variation seems pretty extreme,, maybe the scale is part of the difference,,maybe you measured differently in the summer?
superdav95:
Ya there isn’t any way to seal completely unfortunately. The 2 part epoxy finish might be the best out there for slowing it down from what I hear but even then it still happens. Even wooden bows with fg laminations still lose a bit. 12 pounds does seem quite a lot to lose though. I would keep near a dry heat source for a bit or keep in hot box like you’ve done.
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