HELP!!! My custom made selfbow is dying

[jojo]

I ordered a custom longbow several years back from Jeremiah Retherford with Gila Longbow Co. out of New Mexico. He made me a beautiful hickory selfbow with elk antler nocks, 66" ntn and 65# @ 26". I pulled it out today and started shooting in my backyard. The bow is a dream...no sound, no shock, hard-hitting, and more accurate than I am.

Heres the problem. I looked at the belly on the lower mid limb and saw a number of fractures. They looked superficial and I thought it may be the finish cracking over time. The limb seemed to twist a little to the right, starting about where the small fractures were. It wasn't like that when it was first made. I had my wife take a picture of me at full draw and after reviewing the picture I saw a large hinge in the lower limb. The hinge is a new development and I'm afraid it may be the bow's undoing.

Unfortunately, I heard Jeremiah passed away some time ago otherwise I would have spoke with him for a remedy. I am turning to you guys for help. Can I re-tiller this bow down to say 45-50 pounds and save the bow, or do I have a gorgeous piece of wall art on my hands? I've learned a lot from making bows by studying this one. Any help would be greatly accepted. This bow really needs to be in the woods feeding my family instead of hanging on the wall.

I'll try to get some pics up so you can see the damage.

[jojo]

Here is the hinge in the lower limb.

[lostarrow]

Hard to tell because you aren't square to the camera .What is your draw length ? It looks like a lot of bend  for a bow with stiff tips. The damage is likely too deep to fix at this point

[jojo]

Fractures.

[Joec123able]

Wall hanger now in my opinion since you've already drawn it multiple times with the hinge the damage is done and it probably already has a lot of set that would cause it to be very sluggish Even if you fixed the tiller

[jojo]

Here are some more pics.

[lostarrow]

 It looks like there is only about 20-22" of working limb . 66- 6"or  8" stiff tips- 10"  non bending handle=not enough working wood for a 26" draw.  could just be the picture though. What does it look like at brace? The Fractures are called fretts on a bow. Think of a straw when you bend it, how it crumples at one point. Now imagine the wood is just a bunch of straws.

[lostarrow]

Oh yeah , it's done! . Unstring it and don't string it again. It could blow at any time. It might just crumple, but if it's really dry where you are it could blow into several pieces. I'mm surprised you haven't heard any cracking noises.

[lostarrow]

Looks like you'll be making a new one

[jojo]

Here is a pic from some time ago at brace height. Not sure if it had fretts at that time. The limb did take some set in the limb today. I only shot it a few time but something seemed wrong so I to those photos are full draw. After I saw what was going on I quickly un braced it. Any ideas as to what may have caused this issue?

I never used a bow stringer with it but instead used the floor to brace it by putting the handle on my knee and leaning into it. I was recommended that method by someone but it never really felt right. I may have over stressed that lower limb.

[Bryce]

The best fix that I know of, is to laminate on a horn belly patch. The proceed to re-tiller the bottom limb.


-Pinecone

[Holten101]

Look at the bright side...you have some text book pictures of crysals. The bow is dead, sorry:-(.

To be perfectly honest, it looks like its tillering/dimensioning gone wrong, but that is just my opinion.

Cheers

[lostarrow]

Once again, what is your draw length? You look like a pretty big guy. By that I mean large , not pretty , and big............. .  I'm on pain killers........ any way....... The bow  looked to be pushing the limits of design. for a 26" draw IMHO. You look like you might have a bit longer draw than that, even.  If the bow was stored in a real crappy place, like a shed or something ,it might  bugger it. but most likely , it's been drawn too far .

[lostarrow]

The best fix that I know of, is to laminate on a horn belly patch. The proceed to re-tiller the bottom limb.


-Pinecone

 Now Bryce, I have the utmost respect for your skills as a bowyer ......................... but you did see the picture of the edge of the bow , didn't you? It looks like those nasty buggers go half way through the limb. Kind of putting a band-aid on a dead man ,isn't it?  If you think it would work ,I'll take your word for it.

[jojo]

I pull 26" at full draw. Everytime I check its always 26-26.5" using several different methods. The camera adds a few lbs. I'm only 5'10 175. I live in AZ and its dry out here but I've always kept it indoors in a safe place.