Ozbow

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

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

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

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