Help! Bow almost finished but a splinter has raised.

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sylakone
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 1:10 pm

Help! Bow almost finished but a splinter has raised.

#1 Post by sylakone » Tue May 26, 2015 6:38 pm

Hi Guys

Ok so I have been making a tradtional handled longbow the last few weeks on and off.
It is an Hickory Backed White Oak bow with Jarrah handle and Tips.

Now on the weekend I almost finished the tiller was looking ok and I was happy but after I did the finish sanding the handle popped of :(
Anyway I re-glued the handle and after it dried today I started to Rasp into the Limb near the handles to reduce the popping chance.
Obviously after working on reducing the limbs at the handle the limbs need re tillering so I started the tillering process it was looking good at loose string so I went on to half brace.
It had a couple of stiff points so I got to work reducing those areas.
Now I finally got it back to where it was looking good to go so I put it back on the tillering tree to exercise it and see how it looked.
I ws able to get the half braced string to full drawer then the dreaded cracking soudn asailed my ears I started to get worried looking everywhere for the problem the first thought was it is the handle popping again unfortunately I was wrong.

After close examination I discovered a splinter had raised on the back about midway between mid limb and tip.

See below photo.

Help! is it save able?

Cheers

Sylakone
Attachments
The crack
The crack
cracked back.jpg (270.22 KiB) Viewed 1657 times
Cheers

Sy

hunterguy1991
Posts: 859
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:18 am
Location: Woodford Queensland

Re: Help! Bow almost finished but a splinter has raised.

#2 Post by hunterguy1991 » Tue May 26, 2015 6:46 pm

Hi Sylakone,

That's a bit of a shame!! I've made some stupid heavy bows with hickory backings and not had that happen yet. You do have a couple of options tho, one would be plane that piece of hickory off and put a new one on... another would be to put some linen, rawhide or sinew over the back.

You post raises some questions tho, main one for me is what glue are you using to put the handle block on? Another couple, what was the draw weight when it failed and what weight are you aiming for?

Can you post a large photo of the whole bow so we can see exactly what its looking like?

Colin

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perry
Posts: 1925
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:59 pm
Location: morayfield qld australia

Re: Help! Bow almost finished but a splinter has raised.

#3 Post by perry » Tue May 26, 2015 8:20 pm

Assuming tiller is spot on and as it's a very wide Splinter I be looking at a Silk or Rawhide Backing. You could try wrapping that Splinter just as you would bind a Runner on a Fishing Rod as it appears to run down the side some which again leads me to a Backing. For symmetry you could bind in the same place on the other Limb. Another alternative is a Rawhide Bandage/ Wrap. As for Gluing the Handle on the Belly side, it will Pop off again, nothing surer. In my experience you need to sandwich the Riser Piece between Belly or Back Lamination's.

regards Jacko
"To my deep morticication my father once said to me, 'You care for nothing but shooting, dogs and rat catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.' "

- Charles Darwin

sylakone
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 1:10 pm

Re: Help! Bow almost finished but a splinter has raised.

#4 Post by sylakone » Tue May 26, 2015 8:23 pm

Thanks for the response the current weight is 45lb @ 28" although I can handle loosing 5lb.

Here is the photo of the full bow.

I used Poly Eurethane Glue for all of it I have another Tri Lam bow which I glued with the same glue and it has been shooting well for about 2 months with no delaminations.

I do have another piece of hickory I can use for the back although that was for another bow I was planning.

Cheers

Sy
Attachments
Top of bow
Top of bow
Bow top.jpg (80.31 KiB) Viewed 1647 times
Bow Side
Bow Side
bow side.jpg (76.74 KiB) Viewed 1647 times
Bow Bottom
Bow Bottom
bow bottom.jpg (83.41 KiB) Viewed 1647 times
Cheers

Sy

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