Osage Longbow Limb Repair....**UPDATE**

[SEMO_HUNTER]

You all remember the crack I had around a knot on my first Osage Longbow, and the great advice that some of you offered for repairing it.
Well, I just got all the supplies I needed for the repair and here she is.

Combed Flax and Duco cement. I love this Duco cement, it dries quick but not too quick. I like the fact that it won't bond my fingers together like super glue, and the Flax wasn't as much of a pain to work with as I thought it would be. It was actually kinda pleasant to use. I've got a whole box full of it that a friend of mine sent me, so I may try backing a bow with it sometime soon?

 **Pics**
 
 
 

[Osagetree]

Well let's hope she holds! keep us posted when its all dry and shoot'n!

[Pat B]

I know the flax is strong but I have doubts about the Duco. As a sealer it will be fine though. The flax wrap should hold just fine. Do keep us Posted!

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I'm going to let it reach the full cure time of 16hrs. before I even think about stringing it. It seems pretty darn tough at the moment. Almost like an epoxy over the flax? If the Duco doesn't appear to be holding, I could always put a coat of epoxy or something else over it, but it stuck down nice and tight, smoothed it out, and it dried fairly quick. I was surprized how fast the Duco dries, and was actually very easy to work with.
I think it will be fine, I can only hope and pray that it holds because I want to hunt with this bow in the worst way.

[Andrew Wesley]

my wifes first self bow got a crack across the back and we used a bundle of flax and TB3. little 56" maple bow, 40#@24" and shoots great.
flax is TOUGH stuff!

if the duco starts to come undone just try to peal it off and re-due the flax with titebond 3. tb3 won't come undone.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by Andrew Wesley:
my wifes first self bow got a crack across the back and we used a bundle of flax and TB3. little 56" maple bow, 40#@24" and shoots great.
flax is TOUGH stuff!

if the duco starts to come undone just try to peal it off and re-due the flax with titebond 3. tb3 won't come undone.

I think I need to seal over it with something else anyway. It's not coming off, but I don't think the Duco cement will take the working pressures of the longbow?
Would 5min. Epoxy work ok for a light coat over everything I wrapped with the Flax?
Or would that be too hard?

Thanks

[Andrew Wesley]

i honestly don't know. never used 5 min epoxy on a bow before. i've read a lot of posts where guys use thinned down 2 ton epoxy as a finish.
maybe some of the guys that have used this method will chime in. or you could try doing a search for it.

[red hill]

SEMO, hope it works. I tried to make an osage bow from billets this summer. The first time I applied pressure, just the slightes, it snapped across cleanly.  I've been contemplating trying to salvage the bow. I glued the two pieces back together with epoxy but Haven't tried anything else...Yet.
Good luck,
Stan

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Luckily mine didn't go all the way through. It was just starting to splinter around the knot that I left on the edge of the limb, so hopefully it won't go any further.
I shot it today and it seems fine, the poundage went up, but the limb seems fine. I've got fletching contact problems now and trying to work that out, but it is shootable.
The limb isn't going to do much bending right there at the spot where the flax is wrapped around the limb so I think I'm going to overlay some epoxy on that area to ensure that it never comes loose. I mean really, what have I got to lose?

I'm just hoping to get by with this one for now and build me a real nice one this winter.

[red hill]

Chris, I feel the same about the broken bow I have. Nothin' to lose, experience to gain. If the osage fails I'll use it on other bows as accents or whatever.
One of my freshmen science students volunteered to take me to her uncle's place in southwest Ark for some osage.
I was showing my hickory bow to my classes last week and commented about looking for osage. The next thing I know here comes a possible source!
She called her uncle and told him what I wanted it for and we'll see.
Stan

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Ok so the Duco didn't work and the Epoxy overlay didn't work, they both peeled off.
So I took the advice of the veterans around here and stripped off all the Flax and redid the limb repair, this time using Tite Bond II wood glue. The results are very promising.

I shot about 30 arrows today and no visible signs of peeling, cracking, or any failure what so ever. So, it's all looking good at this point.

It just so happened that there was a knot on both limbs about the same spacing apart from the riser/handle area and only one was giving me problems, but I went ahead and wrapped the other one for good measure before I had any problems with it. It looks just about even like I intended for it to look that way, so all is well....I hope.