well shucks!

[sadiejane]

got to working again on the trade bow this week. had it chased to the back ring and basic shaping done.
but had been obligated to other projects for the past cupla weeks.
everythings going good and its looking like this is gonna make one sweet bow.
arrived at the studio yesterday am, and the derned thng had split about 6" near one tip. right down the middle.
dribbled some super glue in it and it went all the way thru!
not completely to the tip but it actually grew as i was examining it. what the hay!
this (almost) bow was from a stave that was cut three years ago. so plenty well cured, i'd think.
it's been in the studio about 3 months. not much variance in humidity there..
tho the piece had a distinct twist to it. figured when i got it down enough, could heat straighten.
oh well, back to the shaving bench. fortunately i got another piece of osage to start on...
as fer the split one. its plenty long to cut off n make my granson a little bow.
if, of course, it doesnt split further towards the center anymore...

[straightarrow]

I had osage do the same thing to me....but I was lucky and able to chase another ring. I was working on it in a unheated garage and then brought in the house over night... I think thats what did. I think the next time i work with osage I will do my final sand and put a coat of sealer on it after I chase my ring.

Jon

[Elktracker]

Sorry to hear that, hope the next one works out for ya

Josh

[DEllis]

Bummer.
I have had trouble with osage checking on the back(and belly) of the first two I tried. The third one I sealed as soon as I chased the ring and floor tillered it. Sealed the whole thing and set it aside for a few days, seems to stabalize after a bit, and had no more trouble. Better luck with the next one.
Darcy

[gstoneberg]

My osage trade bow has splits in the center on both limb tips that run in an inch or 2 and are clear through the limb top to bottom.  I clamped and superglued both of them and will cover them with overlays.  My problem stems from using a short stave and having drying checks that couldn't be avoided.  Since there's no bending going on in the tips, as long as the crack is stopped and stabilized, they don't hurt anything.  In your case it sounds like either the cracks were there and not visible and some change in the environment caused them to open, or there were internal stresses in the wood that finally overcame the structure.  Osage is notorious for holding moisture, particularly around knots or weather/wind cracks.  In the end, it seems to have a mind of its own and if it wants to crack, it does.  I doubt your bow is ruined, though it might take some wrapping to save it.  If you posted a picture I cannot see it here, but unless a crack runs out to (or close to) the limb edge it is seldom fatal...just unsightly.   That does assume it can be clamped, glued and perhaps wrapped.  I have 2 or 3 bows with very serious cracks that shoot just fine once finished and/or wrapped.  You can get away with a lot out on the tips.

George

[PeteC]

Sadiejane,how thick was your 3 year old stave? Osage at cures approximately 1"/ year. I take mine to bow dimension,shellac the back,then leave them on a rack near the ceiling of my hay barn for 6 months or more,then start weighing the staves. When they hold a fairly constant weight,the staves are ready to tiller. Last year was one of those exceptions however,because our RH stayed over 80 - 90% and wood,(all kinds),just would'nt dry. Remember,this timeline is not guaranteed,but it works most of the time . Whitewoods will dry and cure much quicker,(a couple of months), when handled similarly. JMHO God Bless

[sadiejane]

george-can ya tell me more about "wrapping" maybe i will try to save this bow. but not gonna use it for bow trade...it hasnt, so far, run all the way off the tip. but close. thanks!

[gstoneberg]

george-can ya tell me more about "wrapping" maybe i will try to save this bow. but not gonna use it for bow trade...it hasnt, so far, run all the way off the tip. but close. thanks!

Sure, but it'll take some pictures.  Again, at the limb tip it will not get bent so if it runs off the side it isn't as bad as it would be down in the working limb.  Here's my latest wrapped bow which is asymmetric.  Sorry, the limbs are reversed in these first 2 pics, not sure why I did that:



It had bad weather checking in the working limb from the back:



to the belly:



I removed the smaller crack, but even so as it was drawn, the wood would deform between the crack and the limb edge.  This is about 3" off the fade in the lower, longer limb.  You can see the dark spot from the removed smaller crack off the fade on the left limb in the second picture.  So, I filled the crack with sawdust and superglue to see if it would hold under stress...it didn't (this is how much it opened up at brace, it was way worse when pulled back):



So, I glued that crack closed best I could, wrapped it with a heavy cotton/polyester thread, and superglued it in place:



Normally, I think it looks better to use a bright colored thread and then wrap a matching section on the opposite limb so it looks like it is a decorative feature and not a fix.  But, there are nice knots on the other limb I didn't want to cover so I tried to match the bow color.  That turned out to be a dumb idea.  But the bow shoots fine even though the big crack is in the working limb.



Sorry this post was so picture heavy.  Hope it helps.

George

[sadiejane]

thanks george!
that helps a lot!

[George Tsoukalas]

George, those looks like wind checks. See how the crack is is a different  color from the rest of the wood? My last osage had those.  I superglued and clamped it. Sees to be fine. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/crookedbow.html

[gstoneberg]

Yes Jawge, It looks like I've been calling wind checks weather checks for a long time.    I think the wind causes them and then moisture and insects get in there and make things worse, discoloring the wood.  I did go check out your example, and I tried clamping and gluing it twice but could not get the glue joint to hold.  I would get the bow about half drawn, then it would go tick and the crack would open.  I probably was doing something procedurally wrong.  Wrapping it did the trick though.

Thanks,
George