BOW BREAK HELP!!! PICS

[Tyler Langston]

This is a red oak board bow it is 60"ntn. 2" wide and narrows down to 3/8" at tips. I am new to bow building so any help is appreciated. What do i need to do to make this better?
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[Tom Leemans]

Hard to tell everything just looking at the pics but it looks like your board was quarter sawn, yes? That is a very beefy looking riser. I suspect the limb was just doing too much work, and the wood just couldn't handle it. Not all boards will make a bow. Some are too dry. Some just don't have the cellular structure required.

Did you ever pull it past it's intended draw weight during tillering?

I'd have gone longer NTN with a red oak board bow myself. Maybe 64-66". Make a longer one next time. As you get better, you'll make shorter ones if you'd like. Maybe start your limb taper closer to the mid limb area.

Everyone breaks bows, but you learn from each one and build better bows as you go.

[SSGN_Doc]

What type of wood?

How hard was it drawing?

How far did you draw it?

Was it already close to tillered?

The back of the bow appears rough in the pictures, did you do any wood removal from the back of the bow?

Did you round the edges of the belly before trying to bend it beyond initial floor tillering?

[Tyler Langston]

It was red oak.  It was 45#-20. i drawed it to about 18 when it broke.

[Innocente]

what kind of backing you got on it?
keep at it bro, and i feel your pain.
just completed #8, and it's my first full size bow that HASN'T done that!

i like the creativity you put into that riser.

[Broke another one]

Did you round the edges off?
Sometimes if you dont round the limbs off a small splinter at the edge can cause a fault line in the limb then it breaks...at least that is what I have heard. The only red oak board bow I made I rounded the limbs before ever tillering it.


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If I'm wrong let me know it.

[sulphur]

tyler you just overworked the wood.  grain looks okay, but it was too short.  make the next one at least 66". also make sure your fades are more smooth in transition.  they look very abrupt which probably contributed to the break in that part of the limb.
 
after your tillering skills are better then start making them shorter.  Not a bad beginning.  remember if you ain't breakin, you ain't buildin'   Good luck!!

[sulphur]

[Dano]

Just too short I think, it looks like it just gave up at mid limb.

   

     

     

   

[Russell S.]

"remember if you ain't breakin, you ain't buildin'"


I mus be doing something right then.....  cause i am about 50/50!!

[Osagetree]

I agree with Tom. Only taper limbs mid limb to tip. I feel it was the tapering of the entire limb that did this one in so soon.

[rainman]

Personally I would'nt use quartersawn oak.  The cell structure which makes it beautiful for furniture.  Makes it weak on the back of a bow in many places.  If it has figure in the wood it will be extremely difficult to make a bow of hunting weight.

Dan

[Rich Evans]

make the next one longer and put a backing of some sort on it like rawhide or burlap or check out the bow i just posted. I am trying a new backing on the oak board bow. It is a vinyl material that is used for shade screening. I put it on with TBIII.

[4est trekker]

You can taper the entire limb in width so long as the limb is uniform in thickness.  This is the simplest and purest form of the pyramid bow.  In fact, it is this very configuration which gives it its nearly automatic tiller.  You can deviate from a uniform thickness and straight-line width taper, but your tiller would have to change to match the front profile.  Again...when first learning, it's always good to go longer and wider.