String Groove Mis-Alignment 1959 Kodiak

[Wade Phillips]

Doc - As you can see the string groove on the upper limb of this 1959 Kodiak was cut off to the right side at the factory. It is not surprising that the upper limb was twisted to the right, the narrowest side of the string groove.

The string groove is pretty shallow and is not cut all the way through the glass like some 1959 Kodiaks.

Would you widen the string groove and straighten the bow? Or is there a better approach? As always, thanks for your professional advise. I apologize if you have already covered this in another thread, a search for "string groove alignment" yielded no results...

 

[d. ward]

straighten the bow if at all possible.Removing any stock would have to be the same upper and lower limbs.You would have to retiller the bow.What a pain in the butt that can be on an old bow.Go for straightening if you can.bd

[FBB]

Gentlemen,

  I have a 59 Kodiak that is cut all the way through the glass into the wood like Wade said some are. Have you seen more failures when it is cut like this?

[Wade Phillips]

FFB - I'd have to guess that many old Kodiaks were broken from someone storing the string on the bow backwards, then someone else pulling the bow back and splitting the limb in the string groove. With this type of mis-use, bows with the string groove through the glass would likely fail before those with the string groove cut shallow in the glass.

During the 1950s and 1960s we though nothing of unstringing a recurve, then storing the string on the the bow like it was strung backwards. It was a common practice for bowmen back then.

[Bjorn]

I think the backwards stringing and car doors fried a lot of bows over the years.
On the straightening.....what happened to having one side of the string groove lower/higher at the edge of the tip?

[Wade Phillips]

Doc - I took your advise and straightened that upper limb first. Well, actually have it just a little past center the opposite way (a bit of over correction). It now draws with the center of the string only slightly off to the left on the upper limb.

The lower limb is straight and the string groove was cut in the center of the lower limb.

Checked the tiller and it looks pretty darn good out to 28".

Rather than just widen the string groove, my latest enlightenment of inexperience is to first fill in the string groove on the upper limb, possibly  with smooth on, and then re-cut the string groove.

A new or widened string groove seems like a lot less work then narrowing the limbs to get the string groove in the center, then re-tillering the bow, which could reduce the weight.

Do you think Smooth On would hold in a space as narrow as just half the width of the string groove?

Signed,

Your problem student with crazy ideas

[d. ward]

on yeah smootie will work.You may want to sand the groove clean with some 100 grit to help the smooth on bound better.A 50-75 watt light will also help speed up the process and also helps to cure the smooth on.bd