Ok Fellers for those of you interested in what caused this bow to break here are a few pics. You can see this dark line at the sap wood/heartwood interface that I think was part of the problem. The surfaces that came apart are punky for sure. The second pic shows the limb tip and the evil dark band. In retrospect, I think the fact that the bow was 25 ounces and only drawing 50 lbs was a clue something was wrong. With the design I would have expected closer to 20 or 21 ounces based on past experience with this type of wood. I think Badger's mass method can be a useful guide making character bows even. This tiny sapling spent 100-odd years fending off nature. Must have taken some hits along the way.
Oldbow, I am certainly not heart broken. My bow making is still at the stage where I think it's a miracle when it works! I have a second piece of wood on the tillering board right now. This one is much lower ring count than the last, but cleaner wood. I know now I better put a lot of arrows through it before I give it to my wife, based on this last one! Dave
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