Failure #1

[Scrub_buck]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I used copious amounts of Titebond III the length of the fracture and clamped it tight for several hours. The clamps are now off and I am going to wait till tomorrow to see if it will hold for at least a few shots.


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[RyanY]

Holy cow! I don't know how that can happen. Good luck man. I hope your fix works. 

[Josh]

...I'd wrap it too with some linen thread set in super glue too just to give it a little bit of added protection...  you can always cover your wrapping with a leather handle wrap.  If you used tite bond glue let it set a few days, since titebond is a water based glue I always give it a few extra days. I didn't know they could come apart like that...  Good luck on your fix man!      -josh

[zenmonkeyman]

I'd like to see a front-on shot of that.  Do you have a theory on why it happened?

[Pat B]

I use hemp cord from Wally World for a handle wraps and set it in Massey finish(2ton epoxy thinned with acetone). Makes a very strong wrap and a good all weather, positive grip wrap.
  I don't think I've seen a selfbow handle split like that before.

[oneeye]

you think maybe the fades were to abrupt ?

[El Destructo]

I sure would have liked to seen what the Bow looked like at whatever it was Tillered to...before it Blew...just to see what it might have been to cause this to happen...I am like Pat...never seen the likes of this from a Selfbow....had to be trying really hard to bend through the Handle to cause this....JMO

[Jude]

I had that happen to an old bow with a casien-glued riser.  I glued it back with TB2, then did a rawhide handle wrap, set in TB2 for good measure.  I would definitely wrap it.  Looks like it may have just been a weak growth ring running out at the fade, $#!^ luck

[Del the cat]

It certainly is a weird failure mode.
I can only guess that there wasn't enough work being shared by the outer limbs.
A thread and glue repair should hold it, but I'd be tempted to re-tiller it with more bend in the outer 2/3 of the limb, or even go fairly whip ended.
Del

[zenmonkeyman]

Without actually seeing pictures from the front, I can only guess at the problem... But I'm pretty confident that there was a hinge inside the fades.  The side shot shows a bend at my arrow there, and the connected threads in that area show that the handle moved down and left, causing a lateral shearing force along the grain of the wood.  I doubt there's much point in regluing the handle unless something is done to strengthen the area where the hinge occurred.  Hope this helps!

[radius]

you might also drill 2 or 3 holes straight through the handle, front to back, and dowel the handle together.  I don't think there could have been a hinge there...that handle was just too thick to bend:  no bend, no hinge...can we see pics of the entire bow, as in:  the limbs? 

[El Destructo]

                                                                  Dowels..........

[Scrub_buck]

It is no more.  I did get a chance to shoot it a dozen times before the stress got to it.  I re-glued it and am going to cut the handle off at the fades to use as a reference for my next bows.  That handle with the shelf was outstanding and fit my hand like a glove.  The pic is it at full draw today just before it blew. 

The 'sour grapes' thought is that it wasn't the best piece of osage.  It had some twist in the top limb and the bottom limb had a pretty good bend to it, as well as having several pin knots ...two of which were side by side 1/2 of an inch apart right out from the bottom fade.  I couldn't get it to bend like I wanted it there.  The top limb was still a little stiff past mid-limb, but wasn't bad and that was what I was working on when the handle cracked yesterday.

BTW:  I was wanting to see if everyone could guess what happened to make that failure.  The short story was that I dry fired it (accidentally of course).  The string I was using for tillering was a take-off of another bow I had.  The strand and serving combination gripped the carbon arrows I had loose, but OK, however I grabbed a D. Fir shaft in my haste going out the door to shoot it.  The wider nock slipped the string when I was drawing it and it stayed on the string, but slid down the string while shooting it.  The arrow ended up flying nearly straight up and landed about 10 feet from me while I stood there gripping the shattered handle.  At least that is what I think happened.  (LOL!!!).     

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[Scrub_buck]

Radius ... I thought seriously about putting 3 or 4 oak dowels through the riser like you mentioned late last night.  That might have helped it.  If it was a premium piece of osage, I might would have gone through the trouble to have attempted that.

I knew it wasn't going to hold.  When warming it up before I shot it, I could see the glue line flexing slightly, it was just a matter of time.  BTW, it didn't just split down the original crack, this time it followed the exact spring growth wood from the top fade to the bottom.... so the glue did hold from mid handle to the bottom fade.  Kind-of ironic I guess. 

[Ryano]

I did the exact same thing once to a sinew backed mulbery bow. Dry fired it on the tillering rack when the wooden handle on my tillering pulley string let loose....bumer.