Hickory stave injury - updated with tiller check

[Kidder]

So I’m working on a hickory stave bow. My only experience with hickory has been in board form. The stave looked great but as I’ve thinned the limb down the back of a knot has been exposed with dead wood as has what appears an old injury. There is a little streaming with the grain in both directions. It almost looks like old bug damage that the tree grew around. The back is pristine but I doubt I can get through it on the belly when final tillered. How much of a problem will this pose?

[Jim Davis]

Where I am, it's easy to get hickory. I'd use that for smoking meat. At my age, I'd rather waste my time some other way.

[Kidder]

Where I am, it's easy to get hickory. I'd use that for smoking meat. At my age, I'd rather waste my time some other way.

Hickory is 1000 miles plus for me…

[Morgan]

Where is it at on the limb ( fade, mid limb, etc) ? How long is the bow going to be?

[WhistlingBadger]

Where I am, it's easy to get hickory. I'd use that for smoking meat. At my age, I'd rather waste my time some other way.

Hickory is 1000 miles plus for me…

Yeah, same problem here.  You must be in my neighborhood.  Where on the limb is the damage going to lie?  In my vast experience (I've done six bows, and only two of them broke!), well, I'll leave the opinions for someone who actually knows what they're talking about     Good luck.

[Kidder]

Great question guys - it’s about 5 inches from the fade and fortunately in the widest part of the bow. Low stress design 68 on TTT pulling 26 inches on a stiff handle. I got to thinking about bows with holes in the limb and realized this may not be a whole lot different. So I dug out any soft spots and filled with sawdust and CA. I’ll leave it stiff there and see what I can make of it. FYI I’m in Spokane WA so I doubt there is a hickory tree to be had within a days drive…

[Morgan]

Kidder, do you have that bending yet? Looks thin enough to be bending in the pic but it is hard to tell. I imagine that a lot of that is going to go away while tillering. What I am going to say may or may not be popular, but I would leave the damaged areas stiffer than the rest as it does not appear that you have enough meat on either side of the wound to compensate and get it bending evenly. Not completely unbending, but less of a bending radius than the rest of the limb. Hickory is double tough stuff and I think you can work around it. Tiller wouldn’t be perfect but hickory forgives mistakes like a loving mother. I don’t know how much if any the ca/ dust is going to help it to hold up right there. Tough place to have a flaw, but I bet you can get a bow from it.

[Kidder]

It’s just barely bending. I wouldn’t call it floor tillered yet. I agree with you and intend to leave that area a little stiffer.

[gutpile]

that looks pretty bad to me... gut

[Happy Grandpa]

I had a hickory board bow with a smaller but similar appearing fault in it. I babied the thing into a 45 lb bow and it promptly failed in that area. I'm a firm believer in giving it a try, though.

[Pappy]

Just clean out the crud as it seems you have done and leave that area a little stiff, it should be fine, you not going to get the prefect tiller like a glass bow that it seems everyone is looking for, but I have done many like that and they will shoot just fine. Good luck. 
 Pappy

[Don W]

I agree with Morgan. You've got nothing to loose but some time. I also agree a lot of the bad may disappear. Post your progress and maybe we'll all learn a little.

[Hawkdancer]

Kidder, WB,
I plan to make it back to MoJam this summer, you might be able to sweet talk me into trying to score some hickory staves,  and relay them out west!  I am about a hard day's drive from WB, and he is about the same from Spokane, well, maybe 2 days!
Hawkdancer

[WhistlingBadger]

Kidder, WB,
I plan to make it back to MoJam this summer, you might be able to sweet talk me into trying to score some hickory staves,  and relay them out west!  I am about a hard day's drive from WB, and he is about the same from Spokane, well, maybe 2 days!
Hawkdancer

Yeah, I'm a good ways from Spokane, and it looks like this summer's road trip will be taking us the other direction.  I'm kind of psyching up to try out some chokecherry and/or juniper for my next project, so maybe I won't be needing those imported hickory staves anymore!  Sure is fun to work with though.

[Kidder]

Kidder, WB,
I plan to make it back to MoJam this summer, you might be able to sweet talk me into trying to score some hickory staves,  and relay them out west!  I am about a hard day's drive from WB, and he is about the same from Spokane, well, maybe 2 days!
Hawkdancer

Yeah, I'm a good ways from Spokane, and it looks like this summer's road trip will be taking us the other direction.  I'm kind of psyching up to try out some chokecherry and/or juniper for my next project, so maybe I won't be needing those imported hickory staves anymore!  Sure is fun to work with though.

I’d be all for a relay race of staves west, a road trip, or whatever else seems reasonable in the dead of winter and ridiculous by the time the hour rolls around!

And I will certainly be carrying on with it. Some of the nicest bows started as failures and finished with success.