Belly tension cracks ?

[Stick Bender]

Hi Fellas  I was reflexing & heat treating  the short hickory bow I'm working on  & made the green pea mistake by trying to reflex it to much at once & ended up with tension cracks on the belly I sanded some on the limb they seemed a little better but still there not to sure how far they go ,do you guys think they could tiller out or throw it to the fire wood pile ?

[DuBois]

Is it at floor tiller or near finished weight? Knowing myself, I would soak with super glue until full and then get the ragged ends together and clamped, let it dry completely and then continue in hopes it would work out. If your close to finish though it looks pretty bad. IMO

[Stick Bender]

No it's still has wood left to scrape but still have more reflexing to go I stopped when I saw it , don't know if I want to waste my sinew stock on a questionable bow at this point  figured I would get you guys opinions.

[bushboy]

Yes they go quite deep from my mistakes so far.the bow will shoot many arrows, I have one. 5oo. Arrows in and still holds a mighty fine reflex!i find localized steam on reflexing and dry heat for tempering will help with Tention fractures in the future.

[Dances with squirrels]

A sinew job is a lot of work. I probably wouldn't go to the trouble on that one. It looks pretty bad. I might try to totally scrape that fracture out of there and see how much wood was left afterwards. If it would still make target weight, I'd continue, if not, I'd burn it.

[DC]

Where are the cracks?

[Stick Bender]

Lower mid limb .

[DC]

I'm with DWS

[SLIMBOB]

If it is in a static section I would do an underlay.

[osage outlaw]

If that was my bow I would fill them with thin superglue a few times and continue tillering the bow.  If it holds up, then that's great.  If it doesn't, toss it in the burn pile and start a new one. 

[Weylin]

If that was my bow I would fill them with thin superglue a few times and continue tillering the bow.  If it holds up, then that's great.  If it doesn't, toss it in the burn pile and start a new one.

Me too

[penderbender]

I agree with outlaw too. At least you can say you tried, and then you'll know for next time! Cheers- Brendan

[mikekeswick]

As Bushboy says these look bad but have little to no effect on the finished bow. I had it happen on a black locust r/d recurve that I tried to push everything to the max on....it has had 1000's of shots since.
Sinewing doesn't take long and it sure as heck won't fail in tension Continuing with bows like this is great for the learning curve and I think you'll see it will work out.

[Del the cat]

It doesn't matter!
The belly will be in compression in use.
I had that happen on an 70# ELB, it went almost half way through
I put it straight on the tiller pulled it back to 70# no problem, (on the principal of it will either explode or survive!)... of course any slight flex the other way and it would explode.
So, I rasped out a scoop and put a belly patch on it (I heat treated the patch before fitting it)
Just found the posst on my blog:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/wobbly-stave-and-ugly-tiller.html
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/experimenting-with-cracked-bow.html

Note: This bow lasted for several years as a 32" draw bow , it was even on TV... eventually exploded, but not at that crack!
Del

[Stick Bender]

Ok thanks fellas I think I will give it a go hell if that crack on Dels bow shot maybe this one to & Mike I know you have a lot of exsperience with butting compretion  horn joints  & all other comments Thanks
Not much to lose at this point ,  I'm also learning these shorter bows being under more stress  are  harder to make then longer ones !