Salt water curing

[OzaawaaMigiziNini]

If anyone else is a reader of Primitive Archer and hasn't picked up their december issue.. I suggest you do so today! Richard Longbow wrote an interesting article on the subject of curing your bow staves in a salt water tidal pool for about 6 months.

I found his discovery (or maybe just experiment), incredible and am interested whether it would work for other wooden objects that are green/fresh when being shaped.

Any theories?
:Thinkingo

 

[Toddy]

It used to be a common sight, logs lying damned along river sides. I was told it was part of the seasoning process, something about soaking out the sap before drying the timber. I hadn't heard about doing it with bows though.
Interesting subject

cheers,
Toddy

 

[bambodoggy]

I don't see why it wouldn't work for other wooden items, I'm fairly sure a similar salt water method is used to cure Kuksas and stop them splitting by the Saami people.

If you try it then do let us all know how you got on

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[xylaria]

What type of bow was he making?

First Nation northern canadians used laminated recurves which resemble modern bows, is salt curing the secret of how you bend wood when you lack the fuel to steam it?

I have never heard of salt curing been used in english longbow manifacture. What does it do to the wood? Soaking dried whithys is standard practice to get bendyness back, but thats not really what you are asking about. Laminated recurves that can fell a walrus don't really fit the european idea of primitive bows.

 

[bambodoggy]

If I've followed this thread right (and that's not garenteed, see my post on the Jon Pickett birthday thread lol ) then the reason wood is cured this way is to help wash out the sap from the wood in order to help it dry without cracking or splitting.

Soaking wood to bend it is, I guess, the same thing but for a different purpose and you would be fine using fresh water for that, whereas removing the sap is helped by the salt in salt water.

Hope that makes a bit more sence and that I've got it right! lol

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[xylaria]

Thank you bam. So the process prevents shakes and other drying faults. I really fasinated to what else it does to the wood. The cured wood is bound to different to air dried, in the way kiln dried timber differs from properly seasoned.

 

[Ketchup]

I'll ad my 5p.: salt might get the sap out but salt should normally prevent the wood from drying! (it attracts water)

 

[torjusg]

Extremely interesting!

The inuits did the same thing with willow bark. Probably of the same reason. Only there would probably be some retting involved there because of the length of time it lay there.

 

[bambodoggy]

I'll ad my 5p.: salt might get the sap out but salt should normally prevent the wood from drying! (it attracts water)

Yes, I think you're quite correct. The salt not only helps to wash out the sap but also holds water in the wood longer so that when you remove it from the tidal pool it drys differently (slower?) to none salted and prevents the cracking. I think the long and short is that the wood when removed from the tidal pool would "dry" slower than if it had been soaked in fresh water but the proccess of "seasoning" would, over all, be much faster than air drying from the start with the added bonus of less cracking and splitting as the salt slows the water drying proccess.

Have I discribed that so that it makes sence?

The proof is in the pudding if you wonder along any beach and find drift would that has been in the sea a while it's usually very very dry wood.

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[WhichDoctor]

Yes, someone recommended the same process for making kuksas. In that case it was suggested that you ruffed out the bowl while the wood was still green, then boiled it in salt water and left it for a couple of weeks before finishing it off. It is supposed to prevent cracking as you said.

 

[OzaawaaMigiziNini]

From what it states in the article, Henry VIII's Warship the Mary Rose had foundered off the coast of Portsmouth and had deposited all of the weaponry on the ocean floor. This included 139 bows and 2,500 arrows. The shocking part is 400 years later, the bows were uncovered, and were still able to be shot perfectly well.

According to Richard, his theory is that the salt crystals bond with the wood fibres in a way that preserves the wood, and prevents damage at a much higher rate. I suppose this means it strengthens the wood.

He experimented with ash staves soaked in a tidal pool for 6 months, apparently their texture changed and were much easier to shape. As well, they became much tougher, not being able to break as easily as before.