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Beyond Bone Dry!

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Muskyman:
I recall seeing someone saying they help hydrate their bow by rubbing a damp rag over it. Don’t know if or how much that might help but it sounds reasonable.
Hope things work out for you with your next build.

bentstick54:
I bought an inexpensive cold air humidifier from Walmart that I run in my basement work room during the winter when the forced air gas furnace is heating the house. It helps me keep the RH in the appropriate 10 x 30 room in the 35% to 40% range.

Eric Krewson:
My memory may be wrong, my best friend went to the first Mojam, they had a bow speed contest, my friend said That Tim Baker brought a hickory bow that had been dried out to the max and stored in a way to keep it from absorbing moisture, his bow beat all of the other bows as the fastest bow.

The next time my friend went to Mojam he took a sinew backed bow (can't remember what wood) but took a vacation around the southeast on his way to Mojam and really dried out the sinew, his bow was the super performer that year.

I am with Pat on this one, hickory would love the dry environment you live in. Where I live the relative humidity is 12% so hickory is just OK, nothing special and actually a bit sluggish.

bassman211:
Were you live hickory should be very good, but a well tillered  slightly over built sinew backed Osage bow should survive for a life time in any region of the world.

JW_Halverson:
I don't know that you can get hickory too dry. Is it possible to have negative relative humidity in wood. Like an overdraft of relative humidity? A bankruptcy of relative humidity? Because if it is possible, I wanna try it with hickory. If it performs like I anticipate, we'll have to come up with some form of fireproofing feather fletching because the arrows are going to reach such speeds that the friction with the air is going to cause ignition. But wait! This might be the secret to the next world's flight records!!! Think of it....you have fletching for the initial stabilization of the arrow, then they burn off and reduce drag....Kevin Hawkins needs to get in on this conversation. SLEEK! GET YOUR BUTT IN HERE!!!

I maybe went off a tiny, tiny bit with the hyperbole, but the point is pick hickory and run with it. Run like an antelope with it. In fact, build a hickory bow and hunt antelope with it, saving the shavings and end cuts to grill that antelope because it LOVES a little hickory smoke as much as hickory loves a dry climate.

I would hazard to say the same for osage. I am in a climate almost as dry as yours and I definitely see a real kick in performance in the drier season here. In the winter we often see relative humidity in the single digits for weeks on end and my favorite osage self-bow picks up a few lbs of draw weight and favors arrows closer to 11+ grains per pound.

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