Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: medicinewheel on May 15, 2009, 08:04:56 am
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Within a period of a few month, my friend Chris who's double curve bamboo back and belly won Bow of the Year in 2007 had bamboo failure on some 4 or 5 bows! Chris is an experienced bowyer, he works with bamboo since years and has made lots of bamboo backed bows.
Some of the bows were new, others had already been shot for two years.
None of the bows were highly stressed, some reflex/deflex (bbo, bb ipé) others dbl.curves (bamboo back & belly); one bamboo backed ipé 68" ntn failed when a guy with a short draw pulled it.
The bamboo used was from various sources but all high quality with no problems visible, Madake and Moso (I guess).
The backing stripes were mildly tempered.
All failure happened in the nodes, the nodes were not worked down, just sanded.
Two of these bows were permanetly stored in rooms with no Winter heating at all.
As far as known, all bows broke during the pulling, not after release.
All bows were shot with 16 strand fast flight flemish strings.
Does anyone have any idea of what the problem could be??
Thanks for all replies!
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Sounds like bad luck Frank. My brother had a whole batch of boo from franks supply in California go to crap on him a couple years ago. Was like you said, some of the bows where shot for thousands of shots before they splintered others did it right away and there was no visible reason for it.... :-\
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Ouch.
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I've had some bad luck with bamboo also. All broke on the upper limb/stalk. Do you have any idea of where his broke? Just like my bows that break, which I build as they stand in the tree, they almost always break upper limb. I don't think this is a coincidence. Natural materials just seems to be more resilient on the trunk end. Next boo backed bow I make I'm going to use two trunk ends and splice 'em the handle.
ART B
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I have been switching over to hickory for just the reasons mentioned above. Seems like eventually the boo ends up lifting a splinter, Really discouraging when you have one you are extremely happy with. Steve
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Steve, I just replaced a boo backing on my favorite recurve for the SECOND time with a once pristine back off of a hickory bow. If I can't get a pristine backing off of a stave/old bow or cut the hickory myself I won't use the wood for backing anymore. Unless you know how hickory was handled after being cut it's just as bad as some of this boo we're using. Matter of fact, I think that's the problem with both hickory and boo backing, improper drying and handling that is.
ART B
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Great! I just got some bamboo from Bingham's. I've never tried boo before, just glass and hickory. I hope I don't regret this.