Osage Selfbow - need a little advice

[Juniper]

A friend of mine brought me this osage selfbow, said someone gave it to him a while back as a gift...didn't know much about it  and wondered if it could be shot.  I looked it over and found a couple of small cracks in/around the knots in the wood.  The first pic is a horizontal crack on the back of the bow, top limb about mid-limb...the second pic is a crack around a knot near the fade on the belly of the bottom limb.  Obviously these concern me a little, should I leave them alone....is there anything I can do to these cracks or will these lead to the failure of this bow?  Other than the cracks and it being a little scratched up, it looked pretty good to me.  I'm not sure how old it is, but it was given to my friend approx. 7-10 yrs ago.  Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Bevan R.]

A friend of mine 'fixed' some issues like that with heated epoxy. He mixed up some epoxy, put it on the crack, then applied some heat (held a propane torch close to it if I remember right). The epoxy get supper runny when heated and flowed into the crack and filled/sealed it. Worked for him but I would not 'bet the farm' on it. Home someone that knows something about this can help you.

[George Tsoukalas]

I would add some super glue to the cracks. The runny kind. Then I would wrap them with sinew set in hide glue. Art sinew set in epoxy will work too. b 50 will work too. Jawge

[Pat B]

The first pic scares me. Having that check(drying crack) running across the knot and into the back in the middle of the working portion of the limb looks and sounds like trouble to me.  You can warm the area around the knot on the back and fill the crack with superglue but I think it would need more support. The crack on the belly I would fill with superglue and not worry about it.
  That bow must have been in a closet for that time. I have osage bows a year or two old that are darker than that bow.
  Will you post pics of the bow?

[bcbull]

id a do a bit as pat b says warm  er up a bit with the heat gun dont get it hot ! >:(just warm the use loctite 420 it will flow into those cracks bettern anything ya can get   and for a bit of extra  id wrap the cracks with sinew after ya flow the glue    that should fix it  brock

[Juniper]

Thanks for the input fellas, I appreciate it....Pat here are a couple more pics (not great quality/phone pics) I doubt this bow was ever used/shot or has ever been in the sun.....I was hoping to correct that problem if possible.....Thanks again.