The Beauty of Osage... Buildalong *finishing up tiller*

[wingnut]

Yep, I was afraid of that when I saw the first pic of the cut out.  Less or no cut out is best in a one piece bow.  I have to engineer the riser on mine to allow for it.

Mike

[Haf2hunt]

So sorry to see that.  I feel your pain I've blown all but one of my handle bows and the only reason she didn't blow is I had to back it and drop the weight to 40#.  Keep it up though you are doin great and we love watching you advance.

Hink

[Killdeer]

Sorry Luke. What is your next stave like?
And you ARE miles ahead of me in this game!  

[Pat B]

Sorry to see that after all your work, Luke. I always leave the handle full thickness and width until the bow is ready for final sanding. The handle area is the last part of the process before finishing on self and backed bows. Too many stresses on the handle area during tillering, and it give you a place to clamp the bow while you're working on it without damageing anything.   Pat

[Shakes.602]

I am Sorry to hear about the cracking too.  :(   I have been following this because I want to make a bow Myself. If the Arrow Rest was 1/2 as deep, would it have done the same thing?
This goes out to all the Bowyers, or anyone else that has done this.  

[kkriegg]

Maybe you should try putting some Epoxy in that crack and wrapping it with some strong string. Wouldn't hurt to try, right?

[Ryan O'Sullivan]

luke, that hapend from a combonation of things #1 like pat said never cut in your handle before tillering.#2 the hinge you had was in a very bad spot.(right next to the fade out for your shelf)
next time if you get a thin spot like that make sure you take down the rest of the limb to the same thickness or thiner and you wont have anymore problems. To bad it was looking so nice, but dont give up it hapens to the best of us.

[Jim Spencer]

Every bow you build will teach you lesson's,good and bad,it just makes you a better bowyer.Keep at it...Jim.

[B.O.D.]

sinew that crack up and go to it young fella!
BD( and slow the heck down!!!! )

[Eric Krewson]

Grind the cracked place out and glue in a patch. URAC-185 is necessary. I have salvaged much worse staves before.

   

The same area after the bow was finished.

 

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Thanks everybody. This thing has me pretty down in the dumps right now. Seems like on every bow I make I'm always trying to save it or fix a mistake. Ah well, nothing to do but get back on the horse I guess.

Mike I'll have to take a look at your risers and see how you did it. I really like the looks of a cut in shelf, so I'm looking for a way to do this. I've done it on every board bow I've made, but the poundages on those were a fair amount lighter than this.

Killy my next stave is a bow for Sackett, just waiting to be sinewed. Ash static recurve. After that I have to wait for my new osage to dry, I've got plenty of it, but it's all green.

Pat I normally leave the handle work until after tillering as well, but I was too excited about the new woods to just let this one be. Another lesson learned the hard way.

I'm not sure Shakes, I don't have that much experience with these things.

Ryan I was trying to bring the rest of the limb down just by tillering out the hinge. I've done it too many times where I saw a thin spot and took down the rest of the limb to accomodate it, only to creat a weak area somewhere else.


Do you guys think this bow is salvageable? I would really like to get this bow shooting. What if I filled the crack with glue like kkreig said, maybe filled the arrow rest, glue on a longer, stronger handle and then sinew backed it? The handle would cover the hingy area, and come to the end of the crack. Possibly wrap the crack with... something.  Maybe recurve it to deal with the added stress of a shorter working limb section.

[Luke Vander Vennen]

BD and Eric, we cross posted. Looks like there may be hope.

[Eric Krewson]

If you patch it, thin srips work better to conform to your ground out area, build the patch up in layers. Go above and below the cracked area an inch or so.

[Carbon Caster]

Luke,

You need to be sure to start your SMALLER cut in shelfs below the end of the fades.  I think the problem was you had it cut almost past the fades.  The shelf doesn't have to be very tall.  You can go that deep or almost that deep, but you can not go that tall unless you have a much longer stiff handle section.  The bow I sent you pictures of was seemingly hopeless, but most things are fixable.  Maybe you can become the master of the oops like me!!!!

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Thanks Eric. Does the wood ahve to be osage for the patch or can it be something else, like ash? I don't have any more dry osage, but I have plenty of ash.

Thank Brian, I'll have to try that. I just kind of "did" the shelf on this bow, rather than thought and then did. When the dust cleared, I had a very nice looking arrow rest, but obviously here beauty doesn't mean function.

Ok, I think I'm going to try to save this bow. My mom is an artist and would like to use this bow and one like it in an art piece, and she's offering me a fairly large comission if it sells, but right now, this bow means more to me than just money. If it's possible, I'm going to do my best to make this bow shoot.

[Carbon Caster]

If it is for art.  You can Urac the crack and Wrap with sinew.  Also wrap with sinew on the other side of the grip in the same area.  Then you could Wrap with leather and fur like Too Shorts Buffalo Runner Bows.  If you want it to be a shooter, I would definitely take the rest of the limb down the same thickness as that dip or weak spot, if not thinner.

S L O W L Y!!!!!!!

[Lost Arra]

Are cut in arrow shelves worth it when there are so many good alternatives?

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Probably not  :D  . I just really prefer the looks of them.

[Lost Arra]

I hope that didn't sound critical Luke but when I make a bow I want to reduce or eliminate the things that can cause it to fail. I've got enough trouble with the easy stuff.

[Luke Vander Vennen]

not at all Bob, not at all