Hickory Backing

[Si]

I have been making all types of bows for some time but for whatever reason, I had not backed a bow with hickory until recently and had a surprise. I backed an Ipe stave with a nice clean,well seasoned, edge-grained piece of hickory milled to 1.5 X 3/16. I thought it might be wise to taper each limb like I do with bamboo. At the point where i left floor tillering to string the bow, the hickory lam broke on the edge of the limb. So my questions are:
1. Was this a rare fluke?
2. Would I have been better off to reduce the thickness to 1/16-1/8" over all and not tapered?
 Anyway,I removed the hickory and applied bamboo to finish the bow but still embarrassed about the incident. Any thoughts for the Old Timer?

[Pat B]

Do you have pics of the backing that broke?  I have built quite a few hickory backed bows over the years and the only back failure I ever had was from a backing strip that was infected with fungi. Even the backing strips with bad run offs never failed.
I would saw backing strips to about 3/16 then dress them down to 1/8". I never tapered backing strips but that shouldn't matter that much.

[Inuumarue]

Did you round the corners off?  I've never made a bow without a hickory backing (I know, I need to branch out a bit) and I've only had one fail and one raise a splinter.  The failure happened when I didn't round off the corners and split at a pin knot.  The splinter happened when I did round the corner but left a tool mark by mistake.

Hickory in my experience is almost bomb proof. I run my backings 1/8th -3/16th.

[takefive]

I think it was just a fluke as well, Si.  I love hickory as a backing and have only had one raise a splinter.  It was on a thin ringed bias sawn heartwood board.  I make mine 1/8"  and flatten the edges a bit with a rasp before rounding them with sandpaper.  I've only tapered one on a tri-lam recurve, taking it down to 1/16" at the tips.

[Si]

Thanks guys,
I thought about those edges too and should have rounded them sooner.
Si

[Pat B]

As I work a bow I keep all edges rounded, back and belly. Its only a few extra scrapes but is worth a bow. d;^)