Longitudal crack in the back of an Osage stave

[Et_tu_brute]

Hi all, been working on an Osage stave lately and as I took the back down to one growth ring a crack has appeared along the back. It travels in a wavy line for about 6" before disappearing, there is also a much smaller crack that goes for about an inch before running of the side of the stave. I've took another growth ring off to see if it'd disappear but it's still there, so I was wondering what you'd recommend I do? I've got wood to play with so can take off another couple of growth rings without any worries. I wasn't sure what sort of problems this could cause while tillering, so was thinking of filling it with heated (to make it runny) epoxy.

Cheers,
Dave

[chessieboy]

First pics would help. Second the long crack is less worriesom than the one the goes over the edge. Depending on placement of the crack sinue may help but again pics would help.

Bill

[Et_tu_brute]

Thanks Bill, here's a pic of the cracks

[Pat B]

Apparently your stave wasn't completely dry. Those are checks(drying cracks) and they follow the grain of the wood. When you remove the next ring, immediately seal the back. Shellac or wood glue will work well to seal it. You can put super glue in those checks and that will help.
  The one that runs off the edge is worrisome. If you look closely you will see that it followed the grain of the wood but that stave edge didn't. It looks to me like if that check continued it would remove some of the wide portion of the stave and come back off the edge. That is where the separation split should have been.

[El Destructo]

This is one good reason it is so crucial that you follow the Longitudinal Grain of the Bow when laying it out on the Stave....this runoff can be devastating

[adb]

That edge check is bad news. Where in the limb is it? The others could be filled with super glue, but the one on the edge will more than likely fail when you start to tiller.

[Et_tu_brute]

Thanks for the info guys. adb, the cracks are towards the end of the top limb, if I was to cut the entire section off I'd have 66" left. Is it worth trying to scrape away at the side until the crack that runs off the edge goes away or will it just reappear when I start tillering? Would a strong binding around that area do anything to help?

[Bullitt]

Well, if you can get a 66" out of it that's great! Alot of ways to work this. It seems to be the nature of snakey pieces to have cracks evolve sometimes.I have a bow from a stave that Gary Davis gave to my son. It has a crack on the edge in the working part of the limb. It opened up after some shooting. It's 40 lbs at 27" and has been drawn to 28" several times. Filled with superglue while strung and haven't had a prolem yet.

  I guess what I'm saying is, it might be a problem and may not. If this is one of your first, you might one to step away and try another stave, and look at it in a different light later. Alot of help here to, Good shootin, Steve.

[Et_tu_brute]

Cheers Steve yep I'm lucky the stave is nice and long at 78", I was hoping for an ELB of about 75#@32", but I'll just go with what the wood wants to be and not overstress it. I've only made a few self-bows and about 10 laminates so I'll do as you say and step back from this one for now then come back to it later.