Author Topic: Just broke ole Betsy  (Read 1439 times)

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Offline Gsulfridge

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Just broke ole Betsy
« on: November 24, 2012, 05:56:43 pm »
 :(  Man! I just broke my only bow. It was a hickory board bow in flatbow style. I couldn't leave well enough alone and tried steam bending to flip the tips a little. I heated for 40 minutes over a pot with foil around it and got it into the jig quickly. Just started to clamp it when ccraaack!  Now I'm bowless :-[  Time to start the next one. As the saying goes " if you ain't breaking, you ain't making". I think I'm done with hickory for a while.  Black Locust seems to work better for me. One stave of that left.  I guess everyone has to pay their dues. That's two failures out of three attempts.
Greg Sulfridge, Lafollette, TN

Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: Just broke ole Betsy
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2012, 05:07:50 pm »
I feel your pain.  The only people in here that don't have never so much as picked up a tool yet!

And they will learn soon enough!

Better luck, brother mine, better luck!
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline kevinsmith5

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Re: Just broke ole Betsy
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2012, 05:27:35 pm »
My first bow was red oak, a wide pyramid (3 1/2" at the fades) and only pulled about 30 lbs at 28". I linen backed it. That seems to be a very forgiving design.

Offline scp

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Re: Just broke ole Betsy
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2012, 10:19:41 pm »
If it's just a tip that is broken, I would v-splice a siyah in its place.