What is this crack?

[Vgo750]

Hey all again. So I never noticed this spot until after I put several coats of tung oil on.  I can barely feel the crack with my fingernail.  I honestly don’t know if it was there all along and I just noticed it with the tung oil or if it developed during tillering or shooting.  Since I noticed the spot I measured it very closely and I have shot the bow probably 200 times and it has not expanded a single bit. Is this anything to be worried about?

[leonwood]

If this is on the belly, wrap it with sinew or wrap it with some cord and superglue and you wil probably be fine. If it is on the back expect an explosion in the near future

[Vgo750]

I guess that is the other thing I should have mentioned it is neither on the back nor on the beltway it is along the side of the bow following a growth ring

[mullet]

It looks like damage from "wind shake". You could wrap it with sinew like said but being on the side I don't think it will live long.

[Dances with squirrels]

Yep, looks like wind shake. Wind shake is due to a bacterial infection that weakens the wood and causes it to separate parallel to the growth rings.

[Eric Krewson]

Side cracks= failure, at least for me, 100% of the time, I throw staves with visible side checks in my scrap pile.

[FilipT]

OP, my suggestion is to throw this away. Yes a bit radical but hear me out. This past few months I ruined about 5 bows because wood had some defect or I persisted in making a bow from something which doesn't really want to become a bow. I invested hours and hours and was just mad at the end because bow would crack at 20" of draw on tiller or something else. What a waste of time!

I learned a lesson since. Always inspect wood before you even draw a layout on it and if it seems a bit "off", don't bother with it and take something else.

[rps3]

Those types of splits usually end up dictating limb width for me. They occur a lot in the osage I have used, and I look hard for them before serious wood removal from the belly. A little late for you now. I will say I have an osage with a split like that filled with good, thin ca glue that has shot more arrows than I can count, but the bow is only 40 #. If it were mine, I would see if it took some thin ca glue in, and then wrap with sinew and shoot it.

[Vgo750]

I guess what I will try to do then is sand down the area to remove the crack.  It really does not look deep at all so hopefully I won’t have to affect tiller very much to get it outta there.

[Dances with squirrels]

Don't be surprised if it goes a ways into the limb. If it's wind shake, the result can be almost like the growth rings are delaminating.

[Badger]

   I just finished one up that has a crack running about 3/4 of the limb on one side close to the belly, I was hoping it was going to come out during tillering but it did not. So far shooting great but it does worry me. I plan on shooting it in the broadhead event at Mojam in the straight self bow class.

[osage outlaw]

Since you already have the bow finished I would maybe add a sinew or thread wrap and keep shooting it.  It may hold or it may blow up. 

[Springbuck]

+1.

Try to get too fancy messing with it and you'll be sorry.  Since we cant see any weird weakness in the tiller, or it doesn't gap or click, and you can't feel it,  Leave it and just wrap it tightly with thread and glue.