Del's English Maple Primitive

[Adam]

That's a great looking bow Del!  I always like you work, and your humor 

[mullet]

  I like the bow and your little cart with Ductape, and you guys call us Rednecks . I'd shoot the bow, chrysals and all till it broke. Personnaly I'm not wrapping anything. To me that's hiding a lesson learned and it looks ugly, and the first thing someone that knows bows will ask is, " is it cracked under there"?

 Make another one from the other half and see if it does it again. Maybe a little wider on the limb?

[Del the cat]

  I like the bow and your little cart with Ductape, and you guys call us Rednecks . I'd shoot the bow, chrysals and all till it broke. Personnaly I'm not wrapping anything. To me that's hiding a lesson learned and it looks ugly, and the first thing someone that knows bows will ask is, " is it cracked under there"?

 Make another one from the other half and see if it does it again. Maybe a little wider on the limb?

1. Ductape! How dare you! 
That's finest quality rubber strapping to tie the log on. It's cut from the finest quality offcuts of EPDM roofing sheet.
2. I fully agree with you and I've alread roughed out the replacement bow from the better half of the log (which will only be giving me 2 bows plus a load of 'useful' off cuts that I'll never get round to using). It will be interesting to compare the tiller and performance of the two bows.
Although, the new one won't have so many swoops dips and tiny knots which may have been contributory to the problem.
E.G If you leave two bunches of knots (or sharp bends) slightly stiff then by deffinition there is a slightly weak point between them.
A wrapping wouldn't be to hide it. It would be to strengthen it, but only if the chrysals were in one small area. Same way as if you break your arm, the Doc puts a cast on, not to stop you seeing it, but to offer support.
I've had a lengthy discussion with someone (hi Mike ) about if an epoxy soaked binding actually does anything and we had to agree to differ (or fight or get drunk whichever was more convenient )
Del

[mikekeswick]

Del - i'd be happy to have a few beers and discuss things in person. I'm sure it would be enjoyable!
If you want to fix that bow then you could always grind the section out and replace with one of those useful offcuts. Have a look on Dean Torges website - there is a page on how to do these properly. It's the only way I would use. You know my thoughts on wrapping.....
On a constructive note I would say that you were maybe a little to fixated on the elliptical thing with this bow? In the full draw pic it looks like the mid limb isn't doing enough bending.
Remember that if a piece of wood chyrsals then it was simply being asked to bend too far.
I get what you are saying about the word elliptical being a little vague compared to circular.
It comes down to the longer the parallel width section is the more elliptical the tiller should be.
The golden rule being that the thinner the limb gets the further it can and should be bending.
I don't thiunk it's a field maple as the bark is wrong.

[Del the cat]

Cheers,
Yeah it would be great to have a beer sometime if we get a close enough.
I'm already working on the mkII as I recognise that mkI isn't up to scratch.
Hopefully I'l have learned a bit more about non circular tillering.
Never tried a belly patch, have to have a go sometime... This particular bow is a bit too undulating in the area in question
Del