Existing bow rebuild questions

[Woody roberts]

I have an Ash pyramid selfbow 64” T-T I built sometime back. It’s 50 lb @ 26”. The stave was gull winged and I steamed in 2-1/2” of reflex in the tips.

The bow has took a lot of set. The reflex has all pulled out.
I’m thinking about thinning the limbs, shortening the handle, heat it back straight and tiller it to 30/35 lb.

Is this a waste of time?

[gutpile]

my question is WHY?.. 64" for a 26 draw is long..you could easily pike it and heat treat and retill .. could easily retain poundage.. 60" is plenty for 26 draw. whack 2 inch off each end would certainly up weight, heat treating ash works good.. could reflex it and or flip tips too..unless you just want a lighter bow.. gut

[Pat B]

If you are gaining knowledge while redoing your bow it's not a waste of time. Like Gut said you have other options.

[Woody roberts]

I am looking for a lighter bow. I have bows from 56” to 69”. 64” is my favorite length. I anchor with my thumb behind my jaw and the string in the center of my eyebrow. A shorter bow does not hit my eyebrow and I don’t hit as consistent with them.
Since this bow has been heat treated and flip tipped I didn’t know if I could redo it. I am going to do it because I hate this bow as is. My 64”. 50 lb hickory bow shoots much faster, smother and more accurate. I will never use this bow hence if I ruin it then no big loss.

[gutpile]

only problem I see is, the wood has been stressed.. Im sure you could heat treat it and reshape it but will it hold the reflex? maybe.. at the lighter poundage, possible.. so to answer your question.. is it a waste of time?.. NO certainly not unless you kill it LOL.... good luck with it... gut

[Woody roberts]

Gutpile
My thoughts exactly

[Woody roberts]

I should also point out my thoughts on why this bow failed. It was a dead Ash tree about 3-1/2” in diameter. The bark had already started to slip and I believe decay had also started. I roughed it in and let it dry a few days.
A dead tree is not dry wood and I believe I started working this piece way too soon.

At the time I had no dry staves and was anxious to build a bow.

[bownarra]

I think you have nailed it
Damp wood won't help at all. By gullwing do you mean reflexed off the handle? If so reflexed handles make the limbs bend further, increase string angle (thus storing less energy) and therefore strain mid/outer limbs more than necessary. A straight limbed bow can easily outshoot this design.
Ash is also much stronger in tension than it is in compression. A trapped back will help a lot with the set. I've experimented and reduced back width to 60% of belly width with fraxinus excelcior and it really improves it. Trapping is an underused technique in my eyes for these tension strong/compression so so woods that take 'excessive' set.
I would leave it at 64". A stacking bow isn't much fun and is less effecient (in general terms).

[bassman211]

I don't about ash ,but when that happens to a Elm a good heat treat will make it bounce back some what.

[Jim Davis]

I've done a lot of reading about lab testing of woods and have "trapped" a lot of bows, ash in particular. It seems that wood stretches only about 1% of it's length before breaking without yielding first. The only clear gain from "trapping" the back is in the reduction of mass in the limbs.

That is a gain, I admit.

As for ash being stronger in tension, every wood is, though some are worse about giving no warning  before a catastrophe. In fact most woods are 3 to 4 times as strong in tension as in compression.

My most durable ash bows were about 2-1/2" wide at the fade and 1/2" or a little thicker throughout the length of the limb. For a 28" draw, I always start with 66" ntn.

[Woody roberts]

Update
I thinned the limbs, shortened the handle giving me a longer working limb. Heated it back straight. Got a pretty decent tiller at 30 lb @ 26”
I did not reflip the tips. I was going to but it was shooting very smooth and accurate so I called it good.
Some of the set came back as I expected it would.
This bow was a slow shooter when first done. It still is.

I consider this experiment a success. It was an unusable bow that turned into a pleasant target bow. The neighbor lady was here and shot it very well. It now lives with her.