Yes, it sucks to see that bow broken. It would of been sweet! I think it is hard to tell why it broke without a tiller photo. It might of been bending too much in the handle. But it might of been rotted hickory, have you had more bows break with this hickory you got? I got some bad hickory, it was worthless as a backing. Most of been dry rotted or something. But normally with hickory it should be dang good at staying together, even with less than straight grain, and your grain is just fine. I always suspect erc when I hear a bow broke that has had anything to do with erc,
. All the erc bows, and one bow with a erc core,
exploded on me. I thought people were exaggerating about erc blowing up, but it definitely has done that with me. If a pine selfbow made from a 2x4 blew up, and it had erc overlays, I would blame the erc. lol ( Ok I will stop blaspheming erc before someone brings up marc st.louis's erc warbow,
). I would go with the walnut on the belly next time too, erc seems pretty easy to crush the belly fibers of, especially backed with hickory.
