Best patch for a Chrysal in Osage

[artcher1]

There's any number of reasons for patching limbs. Like frets, cracks and knots. Knowing how to fix or repairs these problems should be an integral part of bow-making IMO. 

[Tom Leemans]

Prairie - We're going shooting tomorrow and she'll be shooting it! The patch is plenty strong. Like Dean says though, leave the patch just a wee proud of the limb surface, as it has not been compressed yet. Shoot it in and recheck tiller.

[dmenzies1950]

I had a 61# osage bow that developed a serious chrysal. I didn't know about the Torgus patch at the time so I decided to grind it out. By the time I got to the bottom of the chrysal and retillered my beautiful osage bow was 20#. Try the patch or turn it into a kids bow!              Dale 

[Prarie Bowyer]

A chrysal in Osage you say ? Never heard of such nonsense

Made bow from standing ded wood.

[Dances with squirrels]

If you do the Torges-style patch, scrape both pieces with a toothing plane blade so there's no way you can starve the joint of glue... and use Unibond. I've done a couple of these at suspect knots and other flaws and have never had one come loose. If you match the wood grain, you can hardly see it.

[Hamish]

Torges patch even with urac is not always perfect. I have had some lift at the edges a bit, after retraining, the main part stays glued. I prefer a longer shallower hand rasped patch, where thin flexible wood bends to conform to the shape. It gives more gluing surface, and less abrupt transitions where a lift can start. The icecream scoop patch is a little short and deep for my liking.
Whatever you do I wish you success.

[Eric Krewson]

A friend had serious back surgery right after he started the finish work on a Bamboo backed English longbow. The bow had a pencil eraser sized punky knot at mid limb thats failure cause a chrysal around it. Bottom line, the bow was toast, so I took it home and patched it.



 I haven't shot it yet as I am adding tip overlays, one of which popped off when I took the clamps off this morning. I have not had good luck with the Gorilla brand super glue gel. I will redo the overlays with urac and see how the patch holds up. This bow is very narrow, just over an inch wide.

I have done one of these patches in the past, it held up for 3 years of hard shooting then started cracking loose.

[Dances with squirrels]

Here's the affected area of a bamboo backed recurve I patched a few years ago. It's holding up very well.

[Dances with squirrels]

Original name, aye? 

[mikekeswick]

Original name, aye? 

Cool!

[Prarie Bowyer]

Eric,

I have good luck in general with the gorilla super glue BUT some woods it dosen't like to stick to or you need to get a well matched surface and clamp them together really well.

Oily Resinous woods not so much.

[Eric Krewson]

I was out of my normal Loc-tite super glue which makes a bullet broof bond every time.

[adb]

I used to try to fix them, but now when one of my bows develops a chrysal I accept that something was wrong with my design or execution and I chuck it. It's not worth the effort in my opinion.

+1.

[Jim Davis]

Just another example.

As for those who toss a bow that chrysals, I guess you have access  to a lot more Osage than some of us. Want to share?

[Gordon]

As for those who toss a bow that chrysals, I guess you have access  to a lot more Osage than some of us. Want to share?

There is a difference between fixing a flaw in the wood and trying to fix a flaw in design and/or execution (i.e. a chrysal). I'm all for fixing wood flaws - I do that frequently. But if you are trying to patch a problem that is due to poor design or execution (i.e. poor tiller, inappropriate limb design, etc.), the bow will likely fail eventually in spite of your efforts. The only sure way to fix a design/execution problem is to avoid such problems in the first place.