Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: gstoneberg on August 31, 2011, 12:23:02 am
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Had a great day at work today, but things went downhill when I got home and went in the shop. Took my yew bow off the vise, where I'd bent the handle to get the string aligned. Strung it up, pulled it and kapow, 2 pieces.
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6210/6097862977_bdb898f51e_z.jpg)
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/6097865571_6b688c9fb3_z.jpg)
I've been trying to coax a bow out of this for weeks and have been failing miserably. It had the most reflex I've ever tried to tiller through and by the time I was finally able to string it I'd blown the weight badly. Tried heat treating which helped, then flipped the tips. Have a feeling I overheated that spot, probably got the back too hot as it looks like it got brittle there. Too bad. I'm sorry Tom, I tried. Next time I have a bow with that much reflex, I'm taking some of it out.
George
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How much reflex did it have? I would lean more toward the multiple heating but who knows what the true cause could have been :-\ Did you allow it plenty of time to rehidrate after all the heating? Sorry wish you better luck next time :( just goes to show it can happen to the best of us :)
Josh
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Sorry for your loss. :(
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Ouch! Sorry George. It did break in tension. Any pins in that area? Did you remove the sapwood? A bit of sapwood makes an excellent backing on yew.
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George , i haven't worked with yew so i dont know what it will tolerate . but i saved your pic and blew it up high as i could get it and it looks like a draw knife divot at the point of the break , several more down the limb . but like i said i dont know this wood and its tolerances. looked like it was gonna be a purty bow!
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Hay Chihuahua!!! That's no bueno Georgy:(
Patrick, we need a pic for this.
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thats kind of weird...the sap looks fine and i dont see any pins on the out side or inside...but,the close up photo. some of the wood looks grainy...i dont know really what went wrong...maybe you can make a west coast bow or save it for anther billet...sorry to hear it...john
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This is what it looked like back when it still had draw weight.
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6002/5996332247_da29fecd05_z.jpg)
There was 1 pin knot in this stave, near one of the tips. Unbelievably clear. I did mess up the sapwood though by not taking into account the crown in the stave. I thought I had 3 rings of sapwood but when I followed the ring to the limb edge there was only 1 left. I had to heat the bow near where it broke at least 3 times to get it straight. I must've damaged that single sapwood ring. Could've damaged it with the draw knife too, hard to say.
I do love the yew, but it sure is different than osage. I have another yew stave ready to start.
George
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George, leave 1/4" of sapwood on the back of your next yew stave. You can even have violated rings in the sapwood and it will still make a good bow.
Yew is definately different from osage. It and ERC are the only woods I can use a spoke shave on.
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What a strange braking. Seems that wood is totaly dehidrated. Sorry for that man..
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:'( shhhh! A moment of silence please :'(
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man that blows, sorry George, bub
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Will do Pat. I have a spokeshave somewhere, but haven't seen it since we moved down here. Gonna have to go through my boxes in the shop again. I have an ERC stave ready to go as well. Maybe I should play with that one? Sure tempting to go back to what I'm familiar with. Also have a couple boards and some laminate possibilities I could play with. Now with the trading I have options I never would have in the past. Funny to be a newbie after all these years.
Thanks for the sentiment guys. Breaking is part of the learning process so it should be no surprise. I wasn't bummed for long. Probably was more upset over the 3 flint points I destroyed after the bow. Not smart to knapp then, but therapeutic. ;)
George
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That was looking good,sorry ,but it happend, Looks like you got it to dry to me, The break looks a lot like others wood does when it has dry rot. :)
Pappy
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Looks exactly like a break in a wide elm bow i had recently, completely my fault as i didnt alow long enough to re-hydrate especialy given the hot dry weather at the time. :(
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Dang George! Sorry to read this...been at exactly the same place this week as I have a BL bow blow up on me in tension as well but I had left about a 1/4" of sapwood on it for the back. This bow had already been shooting nicely and had a ton of great character, especially in the sapwood. Such is the life of this beginning Bowyer :-[
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George,
Your a better man than me.....lookin at that reflex shot, I'd have to hand it to ya about a "scoshy-bit" of reflex !!!!! >:D the only thing good about it is that now I know I aint the only one what still breaks some ::) Hell man, know for a fact ya aint scared of no chunk of wood,eh?
rich
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LOL Rich. I sure aint afraid to try, but my odds for succeeding with this much reflex aren't so good. :-[ I couldn't keep the thing from flipping on me when I strung it. I don't know how they do those reflexed horn bows...dang that must be tough. It would have been funny to get a picture of me holding the bow on my scale with one hand, pulling the rope to put some flex on the thing and then trying to get a good enough look at it to do some tillering. ::) If I'd had 2 more hands I maybe could've done it. If I let go of it I'd get about a second of looking before the string flipped and stuff went flying all directions. It was never boring for sure.
Nice job on that character bow by the way. Looks like you're ready for some of my signature crooked staves. >:D
George
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George,
I been talkin to that little yeller fella, he's was kinda stuburn but we come to an understanding, him and me. After he rests up just a bit we gonna get out the cuttin tools, so we'll see if I can manage to screw that up............PS: how da ya get rid of all the yeller dust? :D
rich
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That's natures way of tellin' you to quit with that stave ;D
Just as well you have another in reserve ;)
Del
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....PS: how da ya get rid of all the yeller dust? :D
rich
I got faith in ya for sure Rich. As for the dust, I usually put some on my t-shirt, then bring that in to be washed so that yellow gets over all our clothes. Seems to make Mary extra happy. ;) (It really does stain so be careful with clothes you care about.) Actually, I try to keep a bunch of sawdust on hand so I can fill up borer holes and other problems.
That's natures way of tellin' you to quit with that stave ;D
Just as well you have another in reserve ;)
Del
I agree on both counts. Perhaps I should get right back on that horse. :) That stave is straight so I won't be able to whine about all the heatings. Be better for the wood too. Thanks again.
George
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sorry to see that George. Maybe it was the compression wood ??? Anyway i'll send you another one next week. Which one do you want?