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What to do when your backing gets wet......

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Marin:
Okay then, I’ll wait till after I tiller completely to seal it completely.

JW_Halverson:
Beg, borrow, or steal a $20 kitchen scale and set it to weigh in grams.

Weigh the bow.

Wait a few days and weigh again.

Repeat for however long it takes for the bow to stay at a steady weight (no change +/- 1 gram) for two weeks MINIMUM. A month is even better. Sinew and hide glue dry a heck of a lot faster than wood does. Some of the moisture is going to evaporate out into the atmosphere from the back, but some has to migrate out INTO THE WOOD! 

Wood is far slower at giving up the moisture, so you want to give it plenty of time to come to equilibrium.  I did just the same thing. Left a fully sinewed and mostly dry bow in the rain. I just put it up and let happen whatever was going to happen. Ultimately, it turned out fine. I ended up sizing the back with a few more thin coats of hide glue and put a layer of rawhide over it.

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