Why do I bother...updated... again

[Sidewinder]

Kegan,
not trying to hijack the thread but could you repost your Osage ELB or show me where you posted it. That sounds interesting. I thought osage was too dense for a proper ELB?

[Kegan]

Sidewinder- It's under the title "FireStick", and was on last months BOM I believe, maybe the month before. I don't have a light wood ELB to compare it to, but it definately shoots, and the tips are pretty heavy. I used the dimensions from Pope's ELB in Hunting with the Bow and Arrow, only I went with 1/2" wide tips. Osage makes a great ELB, and with that desity, makes it more accurate, at least that's how it feels. At first I thought the bow was a slug, and should have been used for a short flatbow, but a subsequent hickory test showed that it wasn't the wood, but the design, that kept it just short of "perfect" as far as a hunting bow goes. I wouldn't hesitate to use it for another ELB, and would probabaly make it longer. Art Young used Osage for his ELB's too.

[Sidewinder]

Hmmmm. My wheels are turning.   Danny

[Kegan]

At first I thought the bow was a slug, and should have been used for a short flatbow, but a subsequent hickory test showed that it wasn't the wood, but the design, that kept it just short of "perfect" as far as a hunting bow goes.

Whoops, I forgot to clarify. I left the bow a little wider than it needed to be (1 1/4" at the handle and 1/2" wide at the tips). Osage is very strong, and could be narrower than that, helping with the arrow pass and speed.

[tommy6]

Update  delamination: After leaving the board aside for several days, I picked it up for a closer look. The delam appeared to be not as bad as it could be. I flexed the limb over my knee and there was no worsening of the delam gap. I put it in a vise flexed it slightly with a light behind it and could see no light coming through the crack.
I took some thin super glue and with the bow laying on its side filled the crack, let it dry, filled the other side, let it dry etc. the glue never went from one side to the other through the delam. I repeated this about 4 times for each side till the delam would accept no mor glue. I set the bow aside for 2 days to "cure" (Iknow super glue takes a few minutes to cure).
 i flexed the limb over my knee a few times, floor flexed itand finally put a long tillering string on it and exercized the limbs many times.
Other than the delamed limb now having a little set all looked well. I low braced it till the string was just barely taking all the limb tension put her on the tillering tree and pulled her to 18 inches. she looked pretty good and symetrical.
Took her out to shoot her and man what a spunky bow! Cast was good with some mild handshock. I only drew her to about 24" but she was zipping them along. The delaminated area held fine.
I was so happy! I saved my bow I worked so hard on! She was very consistant with shot placement. I shot maybe 20 arrows with her.
You know what happened next? Pulled her back, heard a tick, let her down. I expected the delam to be coming apart. Nope it looked good. I searched every square inch of that limb and found nothing. Looking at the other limb showed a small crack on the backing right by a little knot. I carefully took the string off and put her away...
This bow is turning into one heck of a frustrating you know wha...but also an important teacher.

[JackCrafty]

!

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[tommy6]

I have been working on this bow a little bit at a time. I have tried to mend the crack in one of the limbs several times, but it eventually cracks thru the repair when stressed. I have tried the following in general order:
1. CA glue
2. More CA glue
3. epoxy
4 epoxy with modern sinew (Not artificial sinew)
5. More epoxy and modern sinew and CA glue
6. Epoxy and microballons, this has yet to be stressed.

I havent tried natural sinew yet, this may be next. The tiller is starting to change a bit at the crack, with a bit of a mild hinge.
Other than that the bow shoots great, pulls 53# at 26 inches and the crack does not appear any wider or deeper after about 50 arrows thru it.
Any ideas of how to proceed from here?

[YewArcher]

Modern sinew? huh.......    what the heck is that? I have never heard of it.

[JackCrafty]

Hmmmm...yeah I wonder too...might be code for fiberg!@$$...?

[YewArcher]

Yar, maybe so Jack, maybe so. Think I may have saw a "modern sinew" product somewhere and even then i went HUH?

Steve

[tommy6]

Yup you got me, strands of fibreglass. I feel dirty...
Well, I stressed the epoxy and microballoon patch and yup it cracked. wierd.
Time to start pounding sinew I reckon.
The other option is to cut out the piece of  back that is cracking and glue in another piece of hickory, but frankly this scares the
S&!+ out of me.

[Pappy]

Not trying to be a smart a##@ but I would think it is about time to start a new bow,shoot that one till it blows and start another.There is only so much a man can do to save one.Take a deep breath
and get another piece of wood.
      Pappy

[tommy6]

I hear ya Pappy! That would be the sane thing to do. I am working on 2 other bows right now, an Ash (at least I think its ash) selfbow and a bamboo backed ipe. Oh yeah than there is the osage board that Im whittling down to one ring to make a take down bow. And than there is that twisted walnut stave that is just about dry enough to startmaking a character bow. Something keeps drawing me back to this red oak board bow. I know it would be the easy thing to do to just give up, but as my wife will attest I never do things the easy way. I think we will all agree that alot of the satisfaction in using traditional equipment is making your own gear. I definately spend more time making bows than shooting them. Its a learning experience.

[michbowguy]

ill get you a nice starter stave, just pm me...
jamie

[tommy6]

Oh and to get the record straight, I would never buy anything called modern sinew, I just have alot of CENSORED around from making surfboards (wood ones at that).