Board Bow Repair (Photo's Added)

[razorback]

A friend of mine picked up a HBH board bow from the local sports store. He planned on using it this summer at camp and then taking it home to England. Well I was a little concerned about the design and it played out. The handle started popping off the bow. The bow is a single thickness slat and the handle was glued straight to it. The fade is very short and steep, with the working part of the limb starting right at the joint of the handle and limb. Not a good combination and bound to fail.

I want to fix it, and dress it up for him. My thought was to remove offending handle and to add a couple of laminations longer than the handle area and to put a handle piece on them. Then to retiller into the laminations, spreading the forces over several layers and pieces of wood. Seems like it should work, but wanted some other opinions before I delve into this project.

 

 

 

 

[4est trekker]

Yep, 'bout the only way I know that would allow you to keep the current design and poundage would be to use several laminations.  Start thin and keep the fades gentle.

[razorback]

Thanks 4est. Thats what I was thinking. I know we had a discussion about this when you did your build along and that is what I thought would be the only way. Does species matter much when doing these lams. I was thinking cherry and walnut but was worried they may be too brittle. I may have a small piece of osage I could use too. Want to make it all pretty as current bow is kind of blocky.

[Pat B]

See the thickness of the main body of the bow near the handle? The thickness of the bow at the handle isn't much different from the thickness of the limb at the fades. This is one reason I don't like to start with a known limb thickness. I like to start with the full thickness of the board and reduce that thickness along the limbs from the fades to the tips as the bow is tillered. The fades are the transition between the rigid handle and the flexing limbs. If that flex is allowed to migrate into the non-working portion of the rigid handle the handle riser will pop off very time. A flexible riser will help eliminate this but if you don't address the real problem the risers will continue to pop off. It has nothing to do with the glue used but more to do with bending going on where it shouldn't.
  I like to feel the handle of my bows give at full draw. That way I know that both limbs are working to their max. I also use flexible materials for my risers(as slight as they are) like leather or graduating layers of thin wood. These flexible materials will give enough as to not stress the glue joint in the direction it is the weakest. It will bend along with the rest but only at the very end of the draw.

[Pat B]

...another thought...when you remove the riser to repair it, place your bow on the tiller tree and pull it. You will see the handle area bend as you draw. On a stiff handled bow that area shouldn't bend at all, all the way to full draw. The riser should be only to fill out the belly side of the handle so it is comfortable for your style of shooting and for your comfort only. Quit thinking about how a bow should look and concentrate more of how a bow should work!

[vanillabear?]

[Pat B]

The handle doesn't seem to give it much support as it is anyway but the only way to really fix it is to weaken the limbs so the handle area doesn't bend.
  When I build a wood bow, backed or selfbow I leave the handle area blocky(thick and wide) and the tips blocky too. These areas are not needed otherwise while you tiller the limbs. A blocky handle area is a good place to clamp the stave while working on tiller without effecting the final handle of the bow. Both the handle and the tips can be adjusted later as needed to get the string to track correctly before final shaping.
  It seems to me that most new wood bow builders want to make a well crafted center shot handle right off the bat without any thought to getting the tiller of the bow right. A piece of wood is not a bow without proper tiller...even with a cut out handle. I find a cut out handle the least strong way to make an arrow rest anyway. Smooth graceful, gentle lines going from the limbs into the handle are less likely to break or splinter than an abruptly cut out handle. You can still have the same amount of arrow deflection(paradox) as with a cut out shelf with the risk of breakage....and actually if folks concentrated more of a properly spined arrow for a specific bow any bow style will shoot right where the archer is looking.
  There is a lot more to this simple addiction then most allow for but with a little bit of knowledge of the important aspects and less to what a bow looks like you will be a more successful bowyer and have more fun(the important part) in the long run.

[John Scifres]

I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time on it unless you just want to play.  If it were me, I'd saw that riser off right at the glue line, get a good bonding surface on the 2 pieces and use a good glue to glue it back on.  Then I'd lighten up the rest of the bow so the middle doesn't bend and call it a lesson learned.  Tough to redesign something that far off.

[razorback]

Thanks Guys.

When my friend bought the bow I was concerned about the design and construction. I was pretty sure it would give, and it did. I am just trying to salvage a bow for him. I will probably lighten the limbs a try to move the bending area away from the handle and then build it up to make a comfortable grip and hope to get something that will shoot, out of it.

[Pat B]

Rebuild the handle riser with thin strips of wood that are of graduated lengths. This type of riser has some "give" to it and can take a little bend.

[razorback]

Thanks Pat.
Thats what I was thinking of doing. What sort of "flexible materials" do you use in these type of situations. Should I use soft woods like pine and cedar or traditional bow woods.
Tony

[Jaikarr]

Just have some fun with it and use it for practice, I was only using it for target shooting anyway so any loss of poundage doesn't really matter, especially at the distance we have at camp.

I'll just have to remember that a $90 bow is probably too good to be true.

[Pat B]

On my hunting bow for this year I wanted it to bend through the handle. I used a thin ERC slat on the belly and leather on the back to fill out the handle. I like a small bulbous handle that I can feel bend right at full draw.
 I've used the multi lam method a few different times. Lighter weight woods would probably work best. I have used cherry, black walnut, hickory, red oak and others. If you use 3 or 4 strips of graduating lengths and glue them up in a stack for the riser then shaped it will usually flex a bit but it might not always be successful. The amount of bend will determine that.

[Eric Krewson]

[gordie]

thanks Eric,...a pic is worth a thousand words.

[razorback]

Hey John,
Good to see you on here, welcome. I'm going to have fun with this project and hopefully come out the other side with a better bow.

[Jaikarr]

Meanwhile I'm going to check out the hardware store next door and see if I can find a bow amongst the lumber there. You'll probably see me soon asking what on earth I should be doing  

[razorback]

Check out 4est Trekkers post on "So you want to build a board bow" Very helpful