Not your usual handle pop off[fix & pics added][finish & pics added]

[BowEd]

Ok fellas this one's got me scratching my head yet,but right now I'm writing it off as a bad ring in the wood.This 63"BL was to finish tiller for me 53@ 28" bending nice and smooth.Working where it should.I've made a dozen of these designs out of osage,hickory,KCT,elm,and even balck cherry.
As I was pulling it to full draw for the 6th or 7th time a small but sharp pop rang out and this is what happened.Limbs are in great shape.Thing was this bow was coming in at about 13.2 ounce mass weight.Sure would of liked to gotten to shoot this one.
I maybe could salvage a bendy handle bow out of it but there is a crack on the back now either side of the fade that goes about an inch.I'd have to sinew wrap it heavily there to get it to even possibly work I'm afraid.

[BowEd]

The piece set back on bow.

[BowEd]

The bow is strung yet on the first picture and if you look closely at the right fade you can see the crack.My camera ai'nt that great I guess.

[dbb]

I had a birchbow do something like that last year,it "delaminated" 3 or 4 rings in from the back with a bang that made me check my underwear 
The surfaces was abolutely perfect,it was really weird.

[BowEd]

Birch...huh.I'd like to think it was a bad ring but maybe it's something else.I guess this tree is telling me....Only make bendy handle bows out of me.

[Marc St Louis]

I had something much the same happen to me with a Elm recurve about 10 years ago and everybody knows how tough Elm is.

[BowEd]

Well it must be because of a bad ring.I've got three more staves from the tree that are pretty good.All chased to the same ring just down below the sapwood.Goes to show there's a lot of pressure at that handle at full draw.Especially if you got the bow working into the fades as this one was with a stiff handle.Maybe the next one I'll have it working up to the fades with a little more limb working above the fades.

[BowEd]

Oh did any of you guys try another stave from that tree?

[JonW]

Ed that has never happened to me personally, but I know a bowyer that had that same problem multiple times with Locust. I can't say for sure but the bows of his I looked at seemed to me to be attributed to the early/late wood ratio of the ring that separated. Just a shot in the dark.

[Joec123able]

I've heard of it happening if your fades are to abrupt but yours don't look to be

[Badger]

  I had that happen on a yew bow recently, locust is so stiff it might be a good idea to make the fade a tad longer.

[wood_bandit99]

I bet that was from getting it bending too close to the fades. I think that is the most likely just in front of a bad ring.

[mikekeswick]

Interesting one.
If you want to save this bow i'd at least have a try at gluing it and then do some wrapping. After all you've got perfect mating surfaces!

[Del the cat]

V interesting.
Classic case of the difference between theory and practice when using real materials.
I don't expect the CAD simulation would have predicted that
Del

[dbb]

In my case i blame the tree,out of 6 staves from it i tried 4 times and all of them failed in strange ways.last 2 Went straight to the fire.