Please help with damaged bow repair!

[LittleBen]

Hi everyone,

I just finished a 67"ttt bamboo backed ipe with bocote tip and  riser accents. Handle is 8", so each limb is ~30". I love the look of it but unfortunaly I am brash and stupid.

On glue up I tried to introduce some reflex to the tips and apparently introduced a crack into the ipe. I thought it wasnt too bad so I did what I always do when theres a problem ... add TBIII until I cant see it anymore.

Anyway, that worked for exactly as long as it took to tiller the bow, string it, and take 3 shots. Then I had a hinge where the belly crack is. I dont have pictures yet but it is not a compression fracture. It is a tension failure from being bent into reflex, i.e. its jagged and nasty, and it's about 6-7" in from the tip.

Option 1: cut 6-7" of both tips, retiller and hope I have something more than a kids bow @ 54-56" long ttt, and a limb length of only 23-24"(my draw length is like 25").

Option 2: Grind down the bell in the damaged area and add an underlay of thin ipe feathered out at the edges. Make the last 8-9" or so at the tips stiff. I could do this to both limbs to make it even but the tips are pretty stiff already. It'd basically end up like a flight bow tiller. Now that I think about it ... I could get the tips pretty thin on both limbs , and adda recurve when I do the underlays. This is sounding good.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Maybe the best thing is to try Option 2, and if it fails go to option 1? theres always option 3 which is bonfire.

[fujimo]

i have seen a write up in the primitive archer of torges repairing the belly on a bow, where a hollow is cut out and a fitting piece is glued in.
 here , did a search check out this link
 http://www.bowyersedge.com/patch.html

[Pat B]

You can grind the crack out of the tip and add an underlay and retiller it. It shouldn't be any different than the original tip but it will be straight. When I add reflex during a glue up I like to pretiller the belly so I get a nice even bend to the reflex. This would prevent the belly from cracking. If you want a more drastic recurve you will have to kerf the belly at the tips to get it to bend more.
  Super glue would have been a better choice to repair the crack if it wasn't too severe.

[LittleBen]

Wayne, Thanks for the link. I think I saw this once too.

Pat, Thansk for the input. I think I will try this. Mainly because I think it will be easier to grind both pieces flat and mate them than make the rounded piece to fit the hollow. Good call on teh superglue, it was a pretty nasty crack, I'll try and get a picture up but it'll just be embarassing. I've been thinking of trying the saw kerf trick in the future to get a nice recurve but I dont have a band saw or table saw so I'm debating if it can be done with care using a handsaw, like maybe a mitre saw and a jog to keep the cut straight.

[Tom Leemans]

I did just such a (patch) repair on a limb where a pin knot caused me problems on my daughter's bow. Turned out fine. I checked the rules and I don't think this link is in violation. I'll understand if it is. Anyway here's the bow.  skittles