ERC Selfbow question

[Tharpold]

Hey All!

Really glad I found this site, so packed full of information! I did a search and could not find quite what I was looking for.


So I have done some reading about ERC self bows and needing to back the bow with another wood/fiberglass/rawhide.

Does anyone have any experience with these?

I have one I have finished out and tillered. But I am worried it will snap and I want to avoid if I can.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Personally? I have no uSe for ERC as bow wood. Unless its a glass sandwich bow. If your bow is tillered and being shot, then keep on keeping on with it. If you decide to build another ERC bow I would use rawhide to ease the pain when it does blow up. Hickory also works nice, but requires a dead nutz perfect design and tiller to keep from compressing the ERC. Often the hickory backed bow wont explode, but fold over and compress the belly slowly.

[LittleBen]

Pictures would help. Are there any signs of failure of the bow?

I had one ERC selfbow that was unbacked. It eventually lifted a splinter, but the back wasn't clean, there was a large knot.

I've sinew backed a couple and that seems to work well.

I've heard of people using hickory backing but never tried it. I would probably trap the hickory backing to help prevent the hickory from overpowering the ERC.

The biggest problem I think people get into with ERC is underestimating how light ERC really is. I've had good success with ERC by using the mass principle.

For example an ERC selfbow of 66" long and 2" wide is probably only going to safely make 45# or so at 28"

I built one ERC recurve, sinew backed 2" wide limbs and 58" long. Draws about 45# @25" and I don't think she would survive much more draw weight or draw length.

To even think seriously about an ERC self bow you need a really clean stave which is almost impossible to find, and you need to get the bark off without any damage to the back. Then you need to really be careful seasoning it, I get a lot of trouble with checking in ERC.

[PEARL DRUMS]

It's too bad eh' Benny? If that stuff was even mediocre, like say white ash or elm, I would use a lot of it. Its gorgeous to look at. But if I cant trust a bow I cant shoot that same bow.

[LittleBen]

Originally posted by PEARL DRUMS:
It's too bad eh' Benny? If that stuff was even mediocre, like say white ash or elm, I would use a lot of it. Its gorgeous to look at. But if I cant trust a bow I cant shoot that same bow.

Agreed 100%. I've never had the guts to take one hunting ... Stakes are too high. I hunt with only old reliable bows. ill probably keep building ERC .... but sometimes I wonder why ....

[mwosborn]

Here is one that is sinew backed and I am not afraid to take hunting.  ERC will make a "lighter weight" hunting bow, but I would sinew back it.  This one somewhere around 45# @ 27.  Good luck with it - they make beautiful bows.

Mitch

 

[PEARL DRUMS]

Looks like a limb bow, Mitch. Id say that's the best chance at keeping one together enough to trust it. I have used a good bit of trunk wood and it was worthless. Wayyyyy too soft and mushy.

[mwosborn]

Chris, your close - it was a sapling growing in a think stand of cedars.  I have tried others made out of a larger truck with no success!  Definitely not my favorite bow wood, but it sure is pretty.

Tharpold - there are some good build-alongs on here and other sites showing how to sinew if you have not done that before.  Good Luck.

[Tharpold]

Thanks everyone!

I cut this tree as part of cleaning up my homestead, it was about 4" diameter and had tight growth rings and no marks on the back of the bow. Which is why I wanted to try.

I have kept this bow thick to hopefully help with keeping the weight up. Handle is just shy of 2" deep and tips are about 7/8". Width is about 2".


mwosborn- I have done rawhide but I will have to check out the sinew build along.


Has anyone tried using sisal as a plant based backing? Sinew might be hard to get ahold of until deer season kicks off. Luckily my county has Urban Archery season so it's only a month and a half away!


I will try and grab some pictures to post  later today.

[Pat B]

I saw and shot an ERC all sapwood ELB a few years ago that shot very well. It pulled about 45#.

[Tharpold]

Update:

Thought the limbs were a tad too thick and tried to thin them out. Started to re tiller after thinning them out and there is a hitch in the top limb. So instead of bending properly it begins to fold about 5 inches from the handle.

Could not be more ticked off. Back to the drawing board.

[Tharpold]

Update:

Thought the limbs were a tad too thick and tried to thin them out. Started to re tiller after thinning them out and there is a hitch in the top limb. So instead of bending properly it begins to fold about 5 inches from the handle.

Could not be more ticked off. Back to the drawing board.

[LittleBen]

Sounds like an error in tillering and not in the wood itself. I don't mean to be sounding like a turd, but have you built a bow before or is this your first?

Tiller slowly, take a couple scrapes, check the tiller, and repeat. The quickest way to ruin a bow is to rush. First get the technique down, hen you will get faster as you get more experienced.

What are you using to tiller? My recommendation is not to use power tools until you've got a few under your belt. I prefer to use a draw knife, farriers rasp, half round rasp, half round file, chainsaw file (for nock grooves), scraper, and sandpaper. A lot of guys also like a spokeshave. You could probably get by with less, at minimum a rasp, a file, a knife, and sandpaper.

Also if you post pictures and ask questions along the way of building, thee are lots of people happy to help you out; good advice can be the thing that saves a bow.

Lastly, anytime yu have a bow that starts to bend too much in one spot, you need to fix that before you go any farther or it will just get worse and worse. A hinged limb is almost always fatal to a bow.

[Pat B]

If your limbs are too thick you have to tiller it out so they bend well as you reduce the thickness. Thickness doesn't matter, proper tillering does.