Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: bushboy on June 13, 2013, 06:08:51 pm
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Had a couple of days off so I set out to find out what a maple board with fairly bad run off could take.62"ttt,2-3/16 @ the fades,pyramid style. The limbs both had 3/4 of set after tillering.not so bad cuz the board had a bit of natural deflex to start.sanded out my edges really good and was quite heavy @ bout mid to high 60's and shot fast and flat for about 60 arrows.I unbraced to check for the set and both limbs where at 1-1/32(never heat treated the belly).I went to brace it. Using the step thru method and hear a tunk! Sounded like the string slipping to the nock not a tick as norm.I now queation my self if the bow my have survived if I used a stringer or the push/pull method ?I personally think I t was doomed to fail because it was so heavy,maybe 45/50# would have held up?the brace and tiller looked really good to my eyes ,but that don't mean much!I stopped preaching bout eye safety cuz MOST of us are adults here,and that not coolaid on the bow!lol! Your thoughts.thanks bobbyjoe!
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Meant to mention the bow failed catostrophiclly at full draw!
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Meant to mention the bow failed catostrophiclly at full draw!
At least it didn't explode :o
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At slinger,yeah it did !lol!
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At slinger,yeah it did !lol!
I mean KA-BOOM and put splinters into the ceiling, knock you out with a part of the bow, and punch a hole in the wall in front of you with the other part. Never happened to me... yet. I wonder if its ever happened to anyone on here?
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At slinger,yeah it did !lol!
I mean KA-BOOM and put splinters into the ceiling, knock you out with a part of the bow, and punch a hole in the wall in front of you with the other part. Never happened to me... yet. I wonder if its ever happened to anyone on here?
I had one explode on the tillering tree. The string kept ahold of the top six inches of the limb and boomeranged it back at me. Hit me in the head hard enough to make it hurt for a few days after. I have a cable/pulley system now.
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Bottom limb snapping mid-way, tip end whipping out and rebounding like the loose end of a nun-chuck and whacking a guy between the legs, driving him to his knees while the upper limb goes grenade and leaves the ceiling tiles in the basement looking like they had an encounter with a yew porcupine? Yeah, it happened...but not to ME. Hehehe, not saying who it happened to, either.
Tough break, bobbyjoe. Keep on keeping on, brother.
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I live for the wood spring experiment,this one smacked me in the face and drew blood!it's all good!thx's boobby joe ! It's all good !
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Looks like an edge grain run off.
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Looks like an edge grain run off.
+1
I also have fun making a quick cruddy sapling bow out of scrap locust limbs and then having fun shooting it... once they dry out they break. once I broke one... I found it was very fun.
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Sorry about the break, last picture looks like it blew at the fad cut in,is that correct ? If so they will almost always break there if the bend into the fad /handle area. TSS I have broken a lot of bows and I can honestly say I have never found it very fun. :-\
Pappy
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Yay pappy, I try to keep the bend out of the fade area,I thought it started at the little grain wiggle on the outer limb than ran all the way to the fade,but it happens pretty fast and I've been wrong before:-).
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Sorry about the break, last picture looks like it blew at the fad cut in,is that correct ? If so they will almost always break there if the bend into the fad /handle area. TSS I have broken a lot of bows and I can honestly say I have never found it very fun. :-\
Pappy
I mean quicky low weight bows... they just fold.
It gets amusing.
And addicting.
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Any bow,not amusing to me and sure not addicting. Each their own,you have fun. ;) ;)
Pappy
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I once, just once, tried to make a bow with ornamental arborvitae... that tall shrub that folks grow in their yards. Hey, it smelled like cedar, what did I know? I had it fully tillered, it was 45# @ 28". I left it in the drying box for a few days and then strung it to go to the bales to begin shooting it in. It felt light as a feather. I drew it once in the shop after I strung it and BANG at full draw. It sounded like a shotgun going off. All that was left was about 14" of the handle section in my bow hand, the string was laying over my shoulder with a small piece of the limb tip hanging behind my back by the upper string loop,, and the rest was scattered like shrapnel across my shop. I never did find all the pieces. I was not injured.
I also once overdried the most beautiful yew bow I'd ever made, and the bottom limb expoded as I tried to string it with the push pull method. Again, no injuries. That one bothered me.... still does. To this day, was one of my best. Valuable lessons learned the hard way.
The only other bow I had break was a character osage bow with a knothole in the top limb. It was shot in, done. A buddy drew it fast one early winter morning in single digit temperature, and she said 'tick'... firewood. Cracked at the knot.
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At slinger,yeah it did !lol!
I mean KA-BOOM and put splinters into the ceiling, knock you out with a part of the bow, and punch a hole in the wall in front of you with the other part. Never happened to me... yet. I wonder if its ever happened to anyone on here?
I had one explode on the tillering tree. The string kept ahold of the top six inches of the limb and boomeranged it back at me. Hit me in the head hard enough to make it hurt for a few days after. I have a cable/pulley system now.
I was pulling one bow on my tiller tree, the kind with the notches cut into it. It is pretty big, like a giant tillering stick. It is made of 2 x 4s pretty much. There is a 2 x 4 sticking out at the bottom, maybe 3 feet long on the base. Well I was pulling a bow on it by hand, pulling down pretty hard cuz it was probably about 110 or 115 @ 32" heavy. I only weight about 150, with my boots on, so I had all my weight on it as much I could, and the string popped off or something and my chin went directly down on the edge of the 2 x 4. That hurt pretty bad, if I had my tongue out I would of bitten it pretty bad. I have a big mirror I use to tiller bows in a room upstairs in the house we rent, I am still surprised I have not destroyed that thing yet. I have been exploding at least one bow a week lately, :). Hopefully that will cease soon, haha.
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I have made a lot of bows out of hickory boards and a few out of mahogany. some were too dry and exploded at full draw, I have scars on my head to tell the story. I quit putting board bows in my drying box, some have a bit more string follow than I would like but the worst of them still get 2 inches of penetration in a foam standing bear target at 50 yards { a 50# 6 foot hickory}. most ,if not all of my tragedies are from the wood being too dry.
Next month I am going to cut a hickory sapling and a persimmon sapling and try again. bowmaking is an addiction, I have made over 50 hickory bows and probably 15 of other kinds of wood. My first hickory bow from a tree has enough hand shock to shake my fillings loose,,,,