Author Topic: board,bow,boom!  (Read 3603 times)

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Offline toomanyknots

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Re: board,bow,boom!
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2013, 08:31:11 pm »
At slinger,yeah it did !lol!
I mean KA-BOOM and put splinters into the ceiling, knock you out with a part of the bow, and punch a hole in the wall in front of you with the other part. Never happened to me... yet. I wonder if its ever happened to anyone on here?

I had one explode on the tillering tree. The string kept ahold of the top six inches of the limb and boomeranged it back at me. Hit me in the head hard enough to make it hurt for a few days after. I have a cable/pulley system now.

I was pulling one bow on my tiller tree, the kind with the notches cut into it. It is pretty big, like a giant tillering stick. It is made of 2 x 4s pretty much. There is a 2 x 4 sticking out at the bottom, maybe 3 feet long on the base. Well I was pulling a bow on it by hand, pulling down pretty hard cuz it was probably about 110 or 115 @ 32" heavy. I only weight about 150, with my boots on, so I had all my weight on it as much I could, and the string popped off or something and my chin went directly down on the edge of the 2 x 4. That hurt pretty bad, if I had my tongue out I would of bitten it pretty bad. I have a big mirror I use to tiller bows in a room upstairs in the house we rent, I am still surprised I have not destroyed that thing yet. I have been exploding at least one bow a week lately, :). Hopefully that will cease soon, haha.
"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

Offline bluejay

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  • Posts: 4
Re: board,bow,boom!
« Reply #16 on: June 15, 2013, 08:39:14 am »
I have made a lot of bows out of hickory boards and a few out of mahogany. some were too dry and exploded at full draw, I have scars on my head  to tell the story. I quit putting board bows in my drying box, some have a bit more string follow than I would like but the worst of them still get 2 inches of penetration in a foam standing bear target at 50 yards { a 50# 6 foot hickory}. most ,if not all of my tragedies are from the wood being too dry.
Next month I am going to cut a hickory sapling and a persimmon sapling and try again. bowmaking is an addiction, I have made over 50 hickory bows and probably 15 of other kinds of wood. My first hickory bow from a tree has enough hand shock to shake my fillings loose,,,,
Do unto others,, then run,really fast