Bow split longways

[sleek]

Anyone ever have their bow start to split in half long ways? Im doing extreme bend radius experiments and the bows are wanting to unzip up the middle of the limb.

[Jjpso]

Happened to me once. I was in the midlle of tillering a fairly heavy recurve black locust HLD bow, and around 20” or so of draw, it just exploded and i was left with two half bows. It split in the middle. I think its because i didnt had the thickness right from middle of the bow to the edges! The hedges where thinner than the midlle.

[Mad Max]

Could round or flat belly have anything to do with it ?

[mmattockx]

Anyone ever have their bow start to split in half long ways? Im doing extreme bend radius experiments and the bows are wanting to unzip up the middle of the limb.

What is the limb cross section? Wide, flat sections want to cup when bent into a tight radius and that may be splitting the limb if the wood you are using is prone to splitting along the grain.


Mark

[Selfbowman]

Kevin I’ve had that happen during the straighten process. Especially when you have a high crown that you are trying to flatten a bit. It happens on the belly side of the limbs usually. It never has gone all the way thru on me before. I fill the crack with super glue and clamp mine. Don’t know if this is what happened in your case.

[Badger]

  Drying the wood too fast can cause this; it may not be noticeable until you start to bend it.

[Jim Davis]

By way of illustration, think of a half pipe shape where the back of the bow is concave and the belly convex. Bending that bow tends to widen the C section. The same thing happens, to a lesser degree, if the back of the bow is flat and the belly convex.

Millions of bows have been made and used that have that cross-section. But if the wood is easy to split and the physical limits are exceeded, the chance of your result becomes less unlikely.