Frets / Crystals ?

[Arrowind]

Speaking of Frets etc....

I have a yellow birch recurve.  I haven't posted it here becuase I've been shooting it quite a bit before finishing it up with a leather grip etc. 
I noticed it had developed some frets.  It still shoots great and is actually my favorite shooter!  I'm bummed because of the frets....

The frets are hard to see unless you hold it at just the right angle to the light but they are definately unmistakable.

I dont' really have a lot of experience with frets because I usually overbuild my bows just to avoid them.   I know yellow birch is not the best candidate for a recurve in fact it sat in my garage for several months before I tillered it.  When I flipped the tips I thought I had some hickory when I discovered it was birch I put it to the side.  Other than the frets it turned out great.

Anyone got an idea of how long it may last?  I don't really want to put more work into it if it is just going turn into a slug in the near future...



 

[Pat B]

There is different degrees of frets, most are eventually fatal but some never go any farther.
  One option you do have is to grind the belly flat and add a compression strong belly lam. I did this with great results on an osage recurve I made a few years ago.
 If you don't want to go that route just shoot it and enjoy it as long as you can. Do keep an eye on the frets to be sure that aren't getting worse.

[mikekeswick]

As for how long it will last if they are evenly spread on both limbs and stay tiny then don't worry about it too much. If they are only in smaller areas and not evenly distributed then you may have problems with them getting worse.

[Arrowind]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll just keep shooting it and see what happens.  Will probably make another yellow birch bow one of these days too. 

[Pat B]

See where the frets happened. Are they concentrated in one area of a limb or evenly distributed along the limb. If concentrated find out why; is it bending too much in that one area?...etc.