creaky limbs

[Dave Dawg]

Does anyone know anything about why the limbs on a bow would be creaky? I was tillering a 66" 55#@28" red oak stickbow and when i gave it a brace and started tillering it, it began to creak quite loudly. Any suggestions on what i can do?
Dave    

[bigcountry]

Could be your nocks you cut in.  If the string has no room to move as you draw, the loops will make noise.  

Thats best case scenerio.  Well worst, case, you can guess.  If its not coming from your string loop area, I would plan on backing it with something.

Does the sound come from the nocks

[Dave Dawg]

not sure.. worth a shot though since the nocks are just roughed out. Do you think the nocks are too large?

[Dave Dawg]

Oh and i might add, when floor tillering it without a string, i don't hear the creaking sound. Any suggestions on what i can do to fix the nocks?

[Dave Dawg]

scratch that.. just floor tillered it again and creak.. creak.. creak..

what should i do?

[walkabout]

i open the belly side of my nocks to about 90 degrees to help keep them from slipping upward. also the nocks should be roughly as deep as the diameter of your string. sometimes ive found wood will creak till its good and used to bending, so be sure youre excercising the limbs while tillering.

[bigcountry]

Man, I don't know.  Floor tillering creaking means she wants to blow.  In my novice experience.

A few things possible.  Back with a strip of hickory or soemthing.  Sinew.  If its creaking, I don't think that silk would keep it from lifting a splinter unless you identify the problem and fix it there.


Good luck.

[Dave Dawg]

Well it is already backed with linen so im not sure what else there is to do..

[walkabout]

i agree it may be wanting to  blow, although if you go slowly and make sure you get the stiff spots worked out you might be ok. i had my last bow develop a crack during tillering, and with saturating the crack with superglue and wrapping 1/4" around it the bow made it to finish, drawing 50#@27". all i can say is to go slow, watch it carefully and be sure to check the limbs as you go for cracks and signs of excess stress.

[Dave Dawg]

It's odd because id start to tiller it and it wouldn't creak.. Then id let the string up and do it again to exercise the limbs and wouldn't ya know it... creaaakk...

[bigcountry]

I wonder if you used too much glue with the linen?  That would do it too.

[Dave Dawg]

that could be a possibility. what happens if i did / how to fix that?

The limbs seen pretty sound IMO..

[Dave Dawg]

everything seems perfect.. but then i draw it and creeeeak..

i don't know what to do. help?

[bigcountry]

I have a sinewed bow that I left too much glue on and it creaks every shot.  Definately increases the pucker factor.  

All you can do is heat up the linen and remove it and do it again.  But don't do that until some of the experts chime in.

Did you sqeeze out the glue with the backing?

[Dave Dawg]

i basically applied glue to the back, then pressed the linen strips onto the back, glue came out the edges which i wiped up.. dried to a nice smooth surface.

I tillered this bow today to about 60# @ 30" and around 57# @ 28"

still creaks a little but the limbs are still sound and the tiller looks really good. Didn't break. Maybe ill post some pictures of it so a pro can maybe tell me what's going on?

[Dublin Joe]

I'm tillering a red oak board bow after getting it to full brace height and while exercising the limbs it let out the smallest, quickest little creak.  I nearly hurt myself getting out of the way but nothing happened.  It's been doing it all day, sometimes when I'm drawing, sometimes when I'm letting it back down, and always just a really quick single sound.  It's not backed and the nocks aren't refined yet so I'm thinking it's either related to the string groove catching/releasing the string or it's just learning to bend.  It cannot be that it is going to break, it simply cannot be that.

[bigcountry]

surprised none of the others are offereing help or experiences.  You figure it out?

[walkabout]

all i can say is to check the limbs carefully for cracks. ive had them creak and turn out fine. its scary but if you are careful you should be ok.i found that burlap backing creaked a bit even glued with tbIII, maybe just the bonds flexing.

[Dan Landis]

I had a mulberry self bow that creaked or clicked almost everytime I drew it, somewhere around 350 arrows through her, she blew.  I checked it for splinters and compression fractures afer every shot, never found anything.  It appears to have been a tension break that caused it to blow. Got a pretty good whack on the head from that one, so be careful!