Tension failure on belly?

[upstatenybowyer]

This happened as I was heating some natural deflex out of a wonky part of the working limb (about midway). The wood is HHB. It's a pretty shallow crack but I'm wondering how deadly this could be to the bow and whether there are any viable fixes to consider.

Thanks

[Pat B]

Fill it with thin super glue and continue on. If it is a tension crack it shouldn't be too much of as problem. As you continue tillering you may even remove it.

[bushboy]

they run deeper than you may think from my experiences.i have a couple with the same and don't seem to affect anything.but I don't sho0t a bow very long before starting another.i found reflexing with localized steam and after it's well cooled hitting it with dry heat will in most cases eliminate tention fractures.for the record I hate them!

[PEARL DRUMS]

They shouldn't tear like that unless the angle you were trying to bend was too short and/or too acute.

[BowEd]

If that wonky you were trying to take out is pretty short it's best to take it easy on shorter bends and live with them.That one might work out for ya yet like Pat said through super glue and tillering.

[upstatenybowyer]

Thanks guys. I'll most likely proceed as Pat suggested and hope for the best. I hate um too bushboy. This isn't the first. PD and Bead, my gut was saying, "just leave it alone" but my brain kept saying, "if you get rid of it, it will look better."

[Pat B]

If this is a fret there is no fixing!

[Dances with squirrels]

If you want them to look perfect, make glass bows 

[Jim Davis]

If this is a fret there is no fixing!

Well, that's what we always say, but there are creative ways to actually FIX it. In this case, you could set things up so you could  use a router to make a nice clean dado across the belly that removes the bad wood. Then make a block (with the grain running across the block in the same direction as in the limb) that will only fit in the slot if you slightly reflex the limb. Glue the block in, let the glue cure and work the excess wood down until the block just matches the rest of the belly. It will be fine. Bows are made with lengths of bone just butting up to each other on the belly.

Here is a partial one I did that way.

[upstatenybowyer]

Luckily, it's not a fret. Thus the title of the thread. It's a tension crack from using dry heat to remove (or reduce) natural deflex. 

I remember you explaining that fix a few months ago though Jim. Very cool.

[upstatenybowyer]

If you want them to look perfect, make glass bows 

lol. I don't!

[bjrogg]

Upstate if I'm understanding you right, it's tension on belly from trying to remove deflex? I've had them on HHB lots of times in static tips no problems. Not so sure about working limb. Seems like HHB just doesn't like to do that so I usually just don't fight it and tiller around it. It's tricker but I don't let the looks bother me. In fact I kinda like it.
Bjrogg

[upstatenybowyer]

bj, it's hard to explain what I was trying to do. It's a snakey stave that runs straight out of the handle, then swoops into some deflex, then back into straight again. For some reason those swoops really mess with my eye during tillering so I was trying to flatten it out a bit. You handled a similar thing on one of the bows you recently posted beautifully. You must have just kinda look past it at the overall bend, something I obviously need to work on! Your right about HHB not liking those types of adjustments. Osage doesn't seem to mind at all.

[bjrogg]

Upstate, for better or worse almost all of my bows are HHB. It just doesn't seem like it likes to have its deflex removed for me and if in do get it out it just seems to come back when I start bending it. I can keep it in static tips but always seems to pull out in working limb on me. It could just be me and I don't really know about other woods.
Bjrogg

[Springbuck]

In my experience, if you have to ask,....  as in, if it doesn't look like much of an issue, but you want to be sure, that kind of tiny crack will work out as you scrape and finish the bow.  If not, then examine how deep it goes.  On reflexed or recurved tips, I can usually save the bow by grinding them down and adding thin belly overlays to build it back up..  But sometimes not.

I recently got back to a wild, snaky BL stave that had a deflexed kink at the handle,a snake bend, and lateral roller-coasters all in the middle 30% of the bow.  I cracked that thick handle section up in three places, and in wild ways that corresponded to all the weird grain.  I ended up sawing strangely angled kerfs into the splits to widen and square them, and inserting thin splints of ipe to fix it..  The handle looks weird.