cracking sounds when drawing my bow

[bushboy]

I agree with mike that the belly may be failing.shine up the belly with some fine sand paper and add some shiny finish like poly or vegetable oil,hold it to a light source at different angles they will stand out.they will look like little scratches or appear to be cracks in a a glossy finish.hold the bow on a horizontal and fretts will be on the vertical plane

[Marc St Louis]

Brace the bow then try the cotton ball

[JackCrafty]

Put it on the tillering tree and exercise it A LOT.  Hopefully you have a tree with a pully so you can stand far away.  In my opinion, you should try to find out exactly what the problem is and that requires you to pull the bow and exercise it... until you can see something wrong like excessive set, hinging, cracking, de-laminating, or splintering.  Once you've found the problem (cracking noises always indicate some sort of problem) you can correct it on the next bow.

[paoliguy]

I had a board bow making some scary noises a while back. It turned out to be the string. I replaced the one I made with a store bought string the noises improved a LOT. I worked the nocks a bit more, made a new string and so far it's not broken and the noise is gone. May not be the same issue with yours though, just my 2 cents.

Be careful though, I'd rather build a second bow than pick pieces of my first one out of my body!

Mark

[adb]

I had a bamboo backed ipe bow do that once. Turned out the bamboo was failing and lifting splinters. I couldn't tell, cuz the bow was backed with SSs. It didn't do it every time it was drawn either, but it eventually failed.

[gutpile]

I agree probably glue joint...I also agree with Mark..brace it rub the cotton ball up and down...better chance its coming from back than belly..gut

[emd023]

i will be home to work on it in a few hours. but i do have some crappy string on it. It some old twine that is fraying pretty badly. will update soon.

also i appreciate all of the helpful replies.

[4dog]

old twine..like bailing twine???   sisal???   you are one brave builder ...and twine or sisal will creak with stress....lol...wow  more guts than .....

[emd023]

so i took the string off and could still hear some cracking. still no sign of any splinters or anything. but i did notice this on the handle.

you can see where the handle and the bow are perfectly flush then it begins to get dark. not sure what this is. i cant feel anything really when i run me fingers over it.

[DarkSoul]

That, my friend, is bad news. The handle is trying to pop off! In fact, it will, rather sooner than later. That means that the bow is bending in the handle. The oak is not thick enough in the handle to completely resist bending without the maple handle addition. It can be considered a design error. You should have left the oak thicker in the handle, before gluing the maple to it.

Remedy:
Remove the maple handle. Glue on many thin pieces of wood to create a new handle, many layers of less than 1/8" thick. Make the handle a bit longer and with longer fades.

[emd023]

That, my friend, is bad news. The handle is trying to pop off! In fact, it will, rather sooner than later. That means that the bow is bending in the handle. The oak is not thick enough in the handle to completely resist bending without the maple handle addition. It can be considered a design error. You should have left the oak thicker in the handle, before gluing the maple to it.

Remedy:
Remove the maple handle. Glue on many thin pieces of wood to create a new handle, many layers of less than 1/8" thick. Make the handle a bit longer and with longer fades.

the oak is a bit thicker in the handle. it rises up a bit to where the handle sits so i can take the handle off without cutting into the oak. should i just use a bandsaw to remove the handle?

[WillS]

You could always try turning it into an English longbow, rather than an American longbow which it is at the moment.  Take the separate handle off, and get the bow bending in the middle like a true ELB and you'll avoid any issues such as handle pop-off plus it'll look and feel far more like a longbow!

[Gordon]

It sounds like the handle is the culprit. But if you suspect the back, rub the limbs down with mineral spirits. That will reveal any flaws in the surface of the wood until mineral spirits evaporates.