Bug holed Osage

[JW_Halverson]

I just wanna ask if anyone has had good experience filling in bug holes in an osage stave. 

I am thinking two part epoxy slightly thinned with acetone, to improve absorption into the wood fibers. 

This stave has some really deep holes, no way I can get down below them, so I will build the bow anyway and good sense be danged! 

[woodstick]

i got some bows i made with bug damage and i thought i could not find a good back but i kept with and worked past it, took i time but i did it. i also made ont that was a good back except 2 spots so i left it the way it was and put rawhide and rattler over it, still shooting today and you cant see the damage.

[El Destructo]

I have made them with the Bug Damage still intact....not tunnels goingwith the Limb...but through them....and I never filled them up....I guess that they are still shooting....I gave them all away to relatives...

[Pappy]

We fill them wit super glue and sawdust.If they are 2 bad I back them with rawhide. The trouble
with a worm hole unlike a knot,the Ring has been violated and if it is in the hard working part of the limb it will pop up on the top and bottom end of the hole.You can drill and plug with a small dowel.
It might hold without anything but for me it ant worth the chance.An ounce of prevention can
save a lot of pain. 
   Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

 Last week I helped a student make a hickory bow that had a few powder post beetle holes in the limbs. I filled them with super glue and sawdust but the bow blew anyway. Turns out the holes didn't run straight into the limb but turned every which way deep into the limb. The bow broke on one of these wandering beetle holes.

You can see the bug trail (serrated sawdust sections) in the broken end of the limb.

[JW_Halverson]

I found some extremely thin CA/superglue that comes in 4 oz bottles.  I have now modified the plan a bit since I have taken the belly down to the floor tillering stage and found that most holes do not just go IN, but they go in and then go parallel to the surface (even found some live larvae in a hole or three). 

The plan is to run a big ol' squirt of the super thin stuff down each hole and swish it around until it soaks into the wood, thus sealing each of these open "cells".  Then I will fill them with the epoxy mixture and let it set up. 

The goal of this bow is not to make that one bow I will always carry and will always shoot., but to see just what I can do with this piece of wood.  If she blows, big whoopty-doo!  After all, I ain't happy if I ain't making shavings!

By the way, I am taking pictures as I go now so that I can post the results.  Pity it wouldn't survive with all the holes in the limbs, would have saved a lot of weight in the woods carrying a bow made outa wooden lace!  But then the whistling of all those holes when releasing an arrow might spook the deer pretty bad.