A fix of a fix

[Eric Krewson]

I have posted this before before the patch came loose, I shot it for years, I patched it after the string slipped out of one side of the nock and split the limb down about 6".

 I know guys, I am supposed to throw such bows in the burn pile but you learn so much doing an intricate repair. I hear it all the time here, some poster feels the need to chime in with "I wouldn't fool with that trash, I would throw it in the burn pile and make a new bow". I like to fix em', if I can, I got five years of shooting out of the bow after the repair, hopefully Nolan will get at least another 5.

My friend Nolan was going to shoot this bow in the IBO World Championship if they let him shoot. He is disabled with a debilitating neurological disease in his legs and has to ride a Quiet Kat bike from target to target, his walking is severely limited.

He has a longer draw length than I do, the patch was apparently starved for glue where it feathered out, this is where it turned loose. You can see there is no shortage of glue in that area now, the glue is Unibond.

I replaced the entire patch today and added a longer osage burl overlay to beef things up even more. After I check the tiller and shoot the bow a bit I am going to give the feathered out area a superglue serving thread wrap for more safety, I have to keep Nolan shooting.

The old patch after years of use and the new one.

[Badger]

   Looks good, is that a relatively stiff area on the limb? I don't hesitate to make repairs in an out limb, especially if I really like the bow.

[darinputman]

Glad to see you were able to save it, knew you would.

[bownarra]

Yes I agree about trying to fix things sometimes but a fix like that will eventually fail. Hope its good enough for you and him. The wrap will of course help and save anything catastropic but it would've been better to wrap and soak the thread in an epoxy. Superglue is brittle(ish) and doesn't hold up well to moisture (not many people know this!). If water got into an 'edge' the bond would start to fail (superglue bond).

[Del the cat]

I definitely agree, the skills learned investigating breaks and making repairs help avoiding the failures in the first place and allow those special or character bows to keep going.
I find warbows require a fair bit of maintenance as they are prone to develop pinches at knots.
Del

[Eric Krewson]

Not so Bowanarra. I have done superglue thread wraps for my bows an a lot of other peoples bows for many years, none has ever "gotten brittle" and come loose, I have done at least a dozen. I don't just put a wrap on, superglue it and walk away. I put as much finish over the wrap as I put on the bow, this bow probably has tru-oil on it.

Darin who posted above now has this bow, I did the wrap for a popped splinter on the bamboo about 10 years ago. I hunted with the bow and shot tournament in all kinds of weather and the wrap is the same today as when I put it on. This was my #1 bow for a long time and it got a lot of use. Another thing; it has a major repair, another "I wonder if I can fix it.

Here is the bow when it was an osage selfbow, I killed the deer off the ground on a public hunting area.



Then the limbs got weird cracks on the back so I ground off the back and made it into a bamboo backed bow.



Then the bamboo lifted a splinter and I gave it a wrap that has held just fine until today.

[scp]

I read " The percentage of energy stored in the outer 20% of limb length
averaged about 6%." TBB4. Luckily it will not take much to keep the tips stiff.

Glue is supposed to be stronger than wood. I am wondering whether it was the glue-line that failed or it was the wood near the joint that failed.

[Eric Krewson]

When I ground off the old repair there was an obvious place where I used too much clamping pressure and starved the joint. The glue didn't fail, I did with my heavy handed procedure, I was much more careful this time.

[scp]

When I ground off the old repair there was an obvious place where I used too much clamping pressure and starved the joint. The glue didn't fail, I did with my heavy handed procedure, I was much more careful this time.

Thanks. I guess you said it already in the first post. I am often tempted to glue back a broken tip with ragged edges, without grinding the joint flat for gluing. It works sometimes, especially with epoxy. I was wondering what happens if I glue back the joint that failed for starved glue-line, after just sanding the joint lightly.

But you probably sanded the joint to wood and even replaced the whole tip, I gather. It would be just like a new repair, in that case.

[hoosierf]

I’ve heard Nolan mentioned twice today.  Just want to say that Federal law (ADA Act 1990) says the tournament has to make a reasonable accommodation for him, which certainly includes riding an electric vehicle around the course.  PGA lost badly to Casey Martin on essentially the same issue.  Don’t know the man, but wrong is and always will be wrong. 

[Eric Krewson]

I started just past the old joint and sanded at an angle through the tip, there was some of the original belly wood left, essentially I made a long overlay.

Here is the finished fix;



You can replace a complete tip, it was real tricky on this one that I posted before because it is a static recurve. On a straight limb bow would be real easy to splice in a new tip.

Before;



After;