serviceberry

[hochgaertner]

Hello,
I try to build bows from serviceberry now. But two times the bows broke (exploded) after I had drawn them about 50 times.
The belly was flat and both were nearly 3,5 cm wide in the limbs. The pictures are not good, but maybe they help.
I thought, serviceberry woud be good in tension, but it looks like the have broken from the back.

Thanks
Peter

[Keenan]

Peter, not sure what to say other then sorry for your two losses. I have made several service berry bows and so far they have held up. And I know Gordon has as well. However we did talk about some trouble he had with some that had swirls in the grain, that was very hard to see. It dose look like tension failure to me. Did you remove the bark right after harvesting? or did you let it cure bark on?  I have always removed bark while easy to peal it off. I'm not sure what would happen if the back was scraped at all.

[Pat B]

What specie of serviceberry is that. Where I live we have Amelanchier leavis(Allegheny serviceberry) and I sent some to Old Bow and he built a bow that failed. He lives in Colorado and there A. alnifolia(Saskatoon serviceberry) grows and Don built successful bows with that variety.

[hochgaertner]

Hi, the staves are from a tree I cutted in November. Then the tree was spit. I pulled the bark off, when it was fresh.
What species it is, I donīt know. The tree is from a US Training Area in Bavaria, where I live.
Do you think, that itīs possible, that the wood was too dry now? Both held a week ago about fifty times.
I will try one bow with a bamboobacking. So I will see how good it is in compression.

Thank you
Peter

[Jim Davis]

Several possibilities. First, check the belly side at those fractures. If there are visible chrysals, the belly probably  failed first, causing a greater load on the back, then rupture.

I have made a couple serviceberry bows and both failed in compression after I'd been shooting them a lot--hundreds of shots.

Also, there is no telling what variety of serviceberry yours is.

Doubt the bows were too dry, but it's possible if you had them  stored in a warm dry place.

Jim Davis

[Gordon]

The serviceberry around here is very strong in tension. If the back is not comprimised it is highly unlikely to fail first. But I don't know anything about the type of serviceberry you have in Europe. That said, on the next one you make check for compression fractures on the belly regularily - I'm guessing that a compression failure is what did your bow in.