Argh!
I just finished tillering (so I thought), a hard hitting Vine Maple Bow. It bent slightly through the handle and had just a small amount of handshock. Since I could not see anything on the tree, I had my wife take a picture so I could maybe find an imperfection causing the handshock. And there it was, mocking me and spitting right back into my face.

In fact it was so obvious even in the tiny screen on the camera that I immediately looked at the limb and found the 3" section that had some suspicious grain changes.
Unfortunately since I had shot it ~35 times, the hinge was weakend beyond the point of repair. I took it back to my bench and worked all around the hinge, would only made it worse and created a completely different hinge right below the lower handle.
So for now, after 20+ hours, it's dead and left for scrap.

So now...I call one and all who have been down this road bafore and say, Let's Unite!
Joe
[attachment deleted by admin]