Sometimes they go BOOM

[George Tsoukalas]

Marc, this is good the newcomers think the guys that have been mkaing bows for years don't break them. Last year I had 4 breaks that I can remember. One of them was a result of my stupidity. I strung Nicky' bow backwards. It cracked. That was from a board I found in Dad's shop. He had a stash of perfect red oak boards. I think there is one left. May be 2 with a splice. How's that for a guy who has made between 2-300 bows? I string the kid's bow backwards! I am the king of breaks. If you ain't breakin' you an't makin'! How's that, HatchA? Jawge

[HickoryBill]

Man, I hate when that happens. But it is part of the game, as much as it sucks!!

[Dvshunter]

Very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Gordon]

If you ain't breakin' you an't makin'!

Truer words could not be spoken.

[gstoneberg]

I hate it when they blow up, but those are very cool sets of pictures.  I always go in the house and sit down with an iced tea and mourn the loss for an hour or so.  Then I can go back to the shop and get busy again.

George

[Holten101]

Even when watching your "failures" I still feel inspired with new ideas....so something good was acchived after all:-)

Btw...I blew a boo/boo/massa trilam yesterday...the belly succumbed where the speed lam (another massa lam) faded out. It was the peak of a bad evening were a chronograph revealed that none of my current selfbows yeild more than 150 fps....I gave up after the breakage:-(

Cheers

[Keenan]

Bummer Mark, That looked like it would have been a very nice combination. I haven't blown one recently and starting to get nervous, I know it happens.  I remember Joel working meticulously on a beauty of a yew stave and for know apparent reason it went boom  His first nice stave to work. Never felt so bad for some one

[Lombard]

Great post Marc. Your work has been an inspiration to many of us, and it is encouraging to know that they blow no matter how well tillered, not necessarily that one did something wrong in building it. If the wood don't want to be a bow, it will let you know. Jawge's bow garden its testimony to that also.

[wvarcher]

 Good to see you were not injured Marc.   

[Marc St Louis]

Yes I was lucky I guess to not have been hit by shrapnel. 

Just out of curiosity, how many people here have had a bow blow both limbs at once?

[Barrage]

Scary stuff to happen while drawing  .

I've been lucky so far and only had one go that explosively, but only 1 limb, not 2.

[Lombard]

Marc, recently had an ERC that blew at 24 inches. Never did find all the pieces.

[Timo]

Just out of curiosity, how many people here have had a bow blow both limbs at once?

That tells me that your limb timing was on the money Marc.

 I blew a bloodwood/bamboo one day on the tree,both limbs went, but not in the same locals. I have a ridgid insulated ceiling and one piece stuck in it. It's still there to this day. I have not worked with that stuff since.

[HatchA]

If you ain't breakin' you an't makin'! How's that, HatchA? Jawge

That's the stuff of Legend, Jawge

[Marc St Louis]

I've had 2 Bamboo backed Bloodwood bows blow on me Tim.  The last one was caught on film with the pieces suspended in midair.  I have another glued up but it's been sitting on a rack for at least 5 years and I still don't have the urge to try tillering it out. 

I had a Rock Maple recurve blow at full draw a number of years ago that put a hole in  my ceiling, the hole is still there.  There were pieces of that bow strewn all over the place