Mid-limb splicing...

[WillS]

Has anybody tried this?  I just spent the whole morning shooting with an engineer who's spliced two broken bows together, smack in the middle of the upper limb.  Its quite something to behold.

Both bows were longbows, one from Richard Head which was hickory, ipe and hickory, and one from Pip Bickerstaffe which was hickory backed snakewood.  He used a swallow-tail splice and Cascamite, and the finished bow is 50#@28".  Really impressive to shoot and watch, although slightly frightening!

Made me look at my pile of offcuts and "not sure" pieces and wonder how many bows I can get out of them!

[mikekeswick]

I haven't tried it with two broken wooden bows but have a look at the bend on a turkish/korean etc hornbows - they have v-spliced tips handles etc in the core.
When splices are done properly they are as good as one piece of wood.
I would like to see this bow!

[WillS]

I'll try and grab a picture of it, next time I see him.  It's beautiful, looks like a footed arrow shaft.

I think he harbours a secret obsession with splicing, as a couple of his arrows were made from splicing together 4 or 5 broken ones.  They still shot perfectly, so he must know what he's doing!

[Prarie Bowyer]

Interesting that it was spliced in the working portion of the limb.

the asian bows have those splices but they are reinforced.  I do alot of center of bow splices but not in working handles.  "V" plice is my favorite for simplicity and strength.

Poor folks bows has a tutorial on a fiberglass bow that is spliced mid limb but it was covered with fiberglass.

[bubby]

I did a light weight bow v splice mid limb, gstoneberg made a osage with mesquite spliced mid limb to

[WillS]

Did you use a straight V-splice or slightly swoop the sides? Nigel was telling me that due to conflicting stresses in odd areas a swooped v is more effective.  It makes me pretty confident to try something I've been avoiding, which is put a splice into a working d-bow handle.

[bubby]

not quite sure what you mean by "slightly swooped", I used a straight cut, George's bow was a lot heavier draw than mine but I think his were straight as well

[WillS]

Its hard to explain so apologies for any misunderstanding! Looking at his splice instead of the V having straight sides, they were more like this )( although of course less exaggerated.  I suppose if anything it increases the surface area for the glue which is no bad thing.

[mikekeswick]

Don't worry about splicing the handle on a 'working handle' d-bow i've done it quite a few times with longbows and it's no problem.
The same with arrow shafts I can't believe how many people just throw away broken shafts....they are so easy to fix....you don't need to splice them just use a rubber band and some superglue.

[WillS]

Cheers Mike, thanks for the tips! And to Bubby for the info as well.   I find it impossible to get hold of useable yew where I am (Dorset) so I find it morally impossible to scrap the bits I do come across.  Being able to make the bows I'm most passionate about by splicing them together opens a whole new lot of doors!

[mikekeswick]

No problem, you should head up north....there is plenty of yew around here if you are willing to search! 

[WillS]

Arghh, don't say that!  I'd sell my grandmother for a piece of clean straight yew.  I seem to spend my life holding a heat gun haha!

[Marks]

If this is the case could you make an osage bow and splice a lighter wood toward the end of the limb to make lighter, faster tips or would it have to be similar woods.

[WillS]

Don't see why not.  Nigel used two completely different woods for his, one being a tri-laminate, the other just having two woods.  Totally different belly woods, but the same backing.