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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: kodiakkid on March 12, 2009, 03:51:00 PM
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I have a piece of persimmon that I cut myself. I sorta forgot it until today. Its about 2 mos. old. It has been up in the rafters of my old horse barn. It stayed dry but was exposed to the outside environment. I forgot to take the bark of of it when I split it into staves. Only wound up with 1 stave that I think I can split again. When I went to take the bark off it today I noticed it was brown underneath. I wanted to use the ring right under the bark if at all possible. It doesn't seem to be anything wrong except for the brown color. Do you think this is a problem. Haven't seen any kind of critters under the bark or no evidence of any. By the way I broke my second bow attempt Tuesday but I have finally came up with a hickory self bow on my third attempt. It has a little propeller twist in one limb that I need to work on. Any advice on how to correct the twist would be appreciated. It is pulling 49# @ 27" which is my draw length. I'm gonna try and get my wife to help me post a couple pics. Thanks, Paul<><
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You're going to have some color with persimmon. Brownish, grayish, cream colored to jet black is common.
Just rough your bow out and take in the house for 6-8 weeks. Store horizonally if possible. And buy a digital humidity gauge (about 6 bucks at Wal-mart). Try to keep the R/H around 45% if possible.
To take the twist out of your hickory bow just heat your limb good and put in a padded vise and twist the oppisite direction. Twist further then needed and bring back to straight. No need to clamp in place (until it cools) if you do it like this. If your other limb is straight then you still want to apply to same amount of heat to it as you did the one you straightened. This is important because heating can often raise the compression strength and you certainly want both limbs to have the same strength. Good luck.
ART B