Are these Chrysals serious?

[Jomohr84]

Have a pic of chrysals on my 2nd bow, wondering if I should be worried or not. The bow has over 100 shots, Red Oak board bow, limb is about 1 1/2" wide at the point of the chrysalling. I will keep an eye on them, but if they don't grow any more, are they just cosmetic?

 

Thanks for any info

[PEARL DRUMS]

Yes, they all are serious. It wont break, it just means your getting weaker and weaker and evetually your bow will look braced when its not. Your tiller must be off mid limb.

[Pat B]

Any chrysal is bad, some worse than others. It is a compression fracture meaning the belly fibers have been compressed so far in that area that the wood fibers broke. Like Pearlie said it probably won't break but will start showing more set.

[Jomohr84]

Thanks guys, that's what I needed to know. Thy are a few inches outside the fade, so I must have developed a slight hinge there. Is it possible that after shaping the handle, the pressure point when drawing moved, and one limb is now working harder than the other?

[PEARL DRUMS]

It means your mid limb area isnt carrying a proper load and forcing your lower area to work harder.

[PEARL DRUMS]

My advice is leave the oak for furniture and trim carpenters and try your best to locate some hickory or pecan boards rather, even maple is better in my opinion. Staves being an even better plan.

[Jomohr84]

Think I saw in some older posts that you're not a huge oak advocate Pearl    which makes sense as there are so many better woods for bows. I recently found a local hardwood supplier and saw a walnut sapwood board with perfect grain, think I may try it if they still have it when I get paid.

Read somewhere that white oak is good, similar to hickory in tension, but takes a lot of set. Also read that oak is good backed with maple, may try that someday.

They also have hickory, ipe, cherry, mahogany and of course oak. I really want to use hickory, but the boards they have all have knots and not the best grain. They only have 10-15 boards of each species, and that walnut has perfectly straight grain.

  Think I'll wait until I've made a few more bows before trying a stave, the next bow I am giving to a neighbor kid thats about 12 or 13, so am gonna use a board to keep my costs down. Would love to get an osage or yew stave someday though. I know there is some good yew growing in this area, just don't know exactly where, maybe I need to start making some phone calls.  I believe a professor at the university in Missoula makes bows and cuts his own yew somewhere in that area, about 3 hours from me.

[PEARL DRUMS]

If your going to try a new hobby I personally feel you should give yourself the best shot at success early in the game. I also belive most of these broken bows early in the learning process arent a result of poor bowyering as much as it is poor materials.

[Jomohr84]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I look forward to making more bows and giving a few as gifts, hopefully getting others into archery who maybe couldn't afford a bow.

[George Tsoukalas]

Red oak is a good bow wood. I never blame the bow wood if chrysals happen. I've never had red oak chrysal though I've had plenty of problems with ash. The problem is that area is bending too much for you. You  have to tend to it by removing wood from above or below the chrysals and retiller the other limb accordingly. I have retillered and after glued on some rawhide over it. If you don't act on it the bow will eventually fold up like a book right at that spot. My advice is fix it like I described, enjoy it and then start another. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[7 Lakes]

I agree with George chrysals happens at a point of pressure.  Releave the pressure by removing material above/below and then reduce the opposing limb and you have it made.

The trouble is at this point you have to make the Chrysals spot the strong point in the limb which may make the whole thing a kids bow.  A joy for the neighborhood kids but don't let it discourage you.  Wait until you hand that thing over to a kid and watch his/her smile.  You can't buy that kind of happiness.

[Jeff Smith]

My advice is take all advice with a grain of salt.
 A monkey can make a shooter from hedge and hickory. Nothing wrong with red oak, failures are the bowyers fault and its how you learn. Oaks are cheap and they and locust will teach you a lot. Practice until you understand what its telling you then spend your time/money on staves or something more expensive. Staves aren't cheap to buy and take a long time to cure so you kinda want to know what you're doing.