query about seasoning Ash for bow staves

[Man of Tanith]

One of the Ash trees at my permission has fallen over in the winds we had earlier this year.
next week I've got sometime off so I intend to go up and process it into firewood and other stuff.
theres a portion of the tree which looks to my inexperienced eyes as suitable to make into bows.

my question is......
would I be better leaving it in the whole (just cut the log to size and leave alone) or split it into staves now to allow it to season before I start working on the bow?

I may also make a few other bits out of the tree but the Bow is definitely the main idea bar firewood

 

[Retired Member southey]

Me personally I'd split it down leaving as much as i could at the ends to give a sacrificial bit that may split and store it somewhere out of the direct elements and temperature stable ish.

 

[Man of Tanith]

cool.
to the garage it is then

may have enough for a bench and a shave horse too. shall see.

 

[ateallthepies]

Yes definitely split it and remove the bark. Leaving the ends long is a good idea and sealing them with something like pva glue helps reduce end checks.

I did a bunch of staves a while back and it was surprising that a few were quite twisted on splitting and would be a git to make into a bow, best to find this out before you go storing a whole trunk!

 

[dwardo]

If its not still green/alive I wouldnt bother at all sorry mate.
Ash starts to rot days after its been down. Some woods can handle this but ash is not one of them.

 

[ateallthepies]

Ah didn't read the op properly and didn't know it was already down. Still I learnt something in that Ash rots super quick ta!

 

[Wayne]

I work my ash bows from green to about 12 months old. Always stored outdoors. My logs are between 8-12 inches diameter and 8 ft long.

Made s couple of ash bows recently out of older wood one failed and the other had to have an asymmetric tiller due to a weakness in the wood.