This bow is sort of a collaboration between my friend Erik and myself. I cut the tree down, He roughed out the stave, I heat straightened it, and he floor tillered to brace... We shelved the project for awhile until about a month ago after I finished the one I was working on we decided to use dry heat to flip the tips.
The first tip went smooth as butter but the second tip cracked on the belly side. I could tell this really disappointed my friend, so I told him I would try and patch it and see if it would hold.
Since the curve was already pretty much in the bow, I put a C-clamp over the crack so it would still cool into the shape I wanted without lifting anymore or trying to straighten out. After it cooled, I gently applied a little back pressure and filled the crack with super glue till it ran out of both sides of the crack and put it back on the form with a clamp holding the crack closed. While that was drying, I made a patch out of a scrap piece of HHB I bent to the shape of the belly curve. I glued it on with Urac. I have pulled the bow countless times and the crack/patch shows no signs of moving or separating so I guess it will be okay.
This bow is pretty short compared to my last 3. It is 62" NtN and pulls 55lbs at 28" It shows 1/2 inch of follow directly after unstringing and lays flat after a little while. I drew an owl on his top limb because that is his favorite bird and no matter what time of day/where we are at, he can always seem to call them up. I didn't tell Erik the bow was even still among the living and I went to his house last night after work to present him with it. He seemed to like it alot and I hope ya'll do to. Thanks for looking!
