How long till a new bow is considered stable?

[Hickoryswitch]

 You finish a new design or a particularly snarly piece. When do you consider it out of danger of developing frets, chrysals or splinters? I've heard of them developing them quite a bit later on but don't they usually develope fairly early? I think someone once said if it don't happen in the first 200 shots it more than likely won't. Thanks.


Wayne.

[koan]

When it breaks , or you give it away ...sorry, not the answer your lookin for .....Brian

[Hickoryswitch]

Not exactly but funny none the less. I'd just hate for someone else to get hit in the head with a bow limb. Had that happen once ain't been right since. It made me wanna start building wooden bows.

[koan]

Haha..been lucky so far, only broke one bow on the tiller tree..but it was ok cuz it was Mullets ...Brian

[Pat B]

A wood bow is just a wood bow. Generally after 100 shots a bow would be considered stable, but that's not always the case. On the osage recurve(cherry bark backing) I built to hunt with this year I just noticed a few weeks ago it has a hinge just above the handle and it has developed a few frets  there. I've put hundreds of arrows through it this summer and fall and never noticed anything until just recently. Fortunately I caught it before too much damage was done. I will retiller it, relieving the compression stresses in that spot. Unfortunately it will loose weight but...wood bows are just wood bows!      Pat

[Gordon]

Before I put a finish on a new bow I leave the bow braced for several hours at a time, pull it to full draw on a tree about 1000 times and shoot about 100 arrows through it - I do this over the course of a week. If it doesn't develop frets, lift a splinter or change tiller, I consider it good to go. If a bow is going to develop a problem this regime will generally catch it. But I've had a couple fail even after passing this test. Unfortunately you just can't be certain with wood.

[cracker]

A wood bow is just a wood bow. Generally after 100 shots a bow would be considered stable, but that's not always the case. On the osage recurve(cherry bark backing) I built to hunt with this year I just noticed a few weeks ago it has a hinge just above the handle and it has developed a few frets  there. I've put hundreds of arrows through it this summer and fall and never noticed anything until just recently. Fortunately I caught it before too much damage was done. I will retiller it, relieving the compression stresses in that spot. Unfortunately it will loose weight but...wood bows are just wood bows!      Pat

That is the fun of wood bows. You see now Pat you have a legitimate excuse to build a new bow.Ron

[Badger]

   The relative humidity changes we deal with have a lot to do with how stable our wood bows can be. Other than that pretty much as Gordon says. Some bows are stable right off the tiller tree and others never seem to stableize totaly. I seldom ever shoot the same bow enough times to wear it out. Steve