Help!!! me save this wood and turn it into a bow

[Fred Arnold]

I received this 51 1/2" stave from a friend as a gift and am determined to finish it into a bow and am requesting advice on not whether but how to proceed. Limbs are 1 3/4" at the fades and taper 1/16" before the levers and barely bending at this point. I decided not to proceed with floor tiller until trying to fill the void.

There wasn't a lot of wood to work with as far a depth and my original intentions were to make a pyramid non working handle style bow. All along I knew there was insect damage on one end but thought I could work my way through it. The further I progressed made me realize that the tips would have to be non working and this is where I'm at.

The pics don't show it but the bore holes have been cleaned out and actually run completely through the 2nd and part of the 3rd ring from the back.

1st question, is this possible?  2nd, can any of you recommend how to fill the void? I was leaning toward urac 185 or smooth on because of expansion but also thought about osage dust and Loctite or possibly 2 part epoxy.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Fill them with good CA Glue and continue Fred. I would anyway.

[Fred Arnold]

PD, appreciate your input. Would you use anything in conjunction with the CA?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Nope. But Im jsut one opinion Fred. That part of the limb wont bend so I dont see why it wont work.....most of the time!

[blackhawk]

Can't you narrow it and change your design into a bend in the handle bow to get rid of em altogether,and get a longer draw bow too that way.

[gstoneberg]

Fred,

I agree with both of  them.  I have borer holes in my working limbs all the time and haven't lost a bow to the big ones yet.  The little powder post holes on the other hand, they get me.  In the non-bending levers I would mix up some slow dry epoxy, add a little osage dust for looks and let it run into the holes.  The hard part is keeping air bubbles out.  CA and osage dust works great too, but I only do a little at a time and as much as you have that'll take awhile.  I probably have some pictures around of how that type of repair looks if you want to see them.

I would not have put stiff levers on such a short bow.  I would've flipped the tips and tried to make as much of that limb work as possible - bug holes or not.  I've been making all my bows bend in the handle lately and really like the way they feel when I shoot.  I doubt I'll make another stiff handled bow for me.  So, I really like BH's suggestion too.

George

[Fred Arnold]

blackhawk, I thought I could narrow the limbs towards the tips and eliminate the bore holes but as I kept working them down they got worse and then I found while cleaning them out that they went all the way through. That's when I decided to try to make non bending levers for the tips. I'd already thinned too much to maintain the pyramid design.

George, I can still reduce the levers  to get a few more inches of working limb and decided to try the working handle that blackhawk and you both recommend. That should give me a little more draw length.

Thanks for your input guys. I still haven't made a decision on which adhesive to use for filling the gaps.