Most beautiful failure

[IdahoMatt]

As the title implies.  Finished shaping the tips.  Working up the handle with leather.  Tiller looks great even still.  When looking over the bow for final sanding in noticed chrysals all along the top limb.  It was aBL bow 59" ntn.  Pulling about 52# 26".  Total bummer it was the one I posted for tiller checks.  I lightly toasted the belly.  This would have been my first stiff handled bow from a stave  .  So close yet back to the drawing board. 

Matt

[Del the cat]

Dude, I feel for you...
I hate chrysals with a passion
A good explosion is fair enough, the wood it saying 'man I've had enough I'm gonna try to blow your head off'
But chrysals they are just wimpy sorry suckers that make you sick to your stomach.
Del

[huisme]

Are they all over the limb from tip to tip? I've had lots of BL develop chrysals to a certain point and then stabilize, especially on the near side of propeller twist. One especially heavy bow didn't take much set but had chrysals up and down both limbs, shot just fine until I tore an overlay off and the limb delaminated.

Better to be safe, though, especially if the bow is going to someone else.

[dwardo]

Nothing worse than the Chrysal of death. 

[blackhawk]

How wide are the limbs matt? Front profile pic? 50+ pounds at 26" is sure asking a lot and for possible trouble with a 59" long stiff handled locust bow....its basically locusts way of saying...."dude,I'm so stressed out".... so make the limbs wider or longer,or both.

[adb]

Chrysals or frets are a sign of over stressed wood. 99% of the time, they are the fault of the maker... either improper wood/design or a mistake in tillering. If you can determine why they happened, it's valuable information to add to your tillering bank of knowledge.

[dwardo]

I have a corner of shame full of bows that the chrysal killed. Most are design issues , too short, too heavy, not wide enough or too little working limb in the equasion. But some I think were just not destined to be bows, atleast not bows of any decent draw weight. The wood just had little or no compressive capabilities.

[IdahoMatt]

Are they all over the limb from tip to tip? I've had lots of BL develop chrysals to a certain point and then stabilize, especially on the near side of propeller twist. One especially heavy bow didn't take much set but had chrysals up and down both limbs, shot just fine until I tore an overlay off and the limb delaminated.

Better to be safe, though, especially if the bow is going to someone else.

This bow was for me.  It's been a long time sense I've made one for myself.  But they are just on the top limb in the bending portion of the limb.  The strange thing is the bottom limb is fine.  I pulled it back a ton last night and they didn't seem to get any worse but knowing they are there sucks .

How wide are the limbs matt? Front profile pic? 50+ pounds at 26" is sure asking a lot and for possible trouble with a 59" long stiff handled locust bow....its basically locusts way of saying...."dude,I'm so stressed out".... so make the limbs wider or longer,or both.

The limbs are 1 5/8 at fades tapering to 1/2 nocks.  I knew if was asking a lot out of locust in this design but was feeling frisky .  I thought I had it .  I'll get some pick up as if it were done. 

[George Tsoukalas]

It is either too short or bending too much in one area. Sounds like it is bending too much in that area since  they are localized.

With design flaws they are spread out over entire limbs and with tillering flaws they are localize.

Hard to tell without photos.

You can retiller leaving that area alone and tiller the bottom limb to match. You can also glue on a patch of rawhide. Some like Torges remove the affected area and glue on another piece. Too much work for me.

Hard to tell without pics.

Did I mention photos would be nice? LOL.

Anyway the end result of chrysals is that the bow will fold in on itself.

Yes, I made a bow for my brother, Lord rest him, and it chrysalled and folded up like a book. Poor guy blamed himself when it was my fault. That was 20 years ago. Goodness.

Jawge

[IdahoMatt]

This is the bow.  The top limb is the one.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,44924.msg607353.html#msg607353

I'll post some more pic in a bit

[George Tsoukalas]

The tiller on the top limb is great. Bottom limb is weaker but I don't see tiller as the cause.

Let's look design. Seems short for BL.

Jawge

[IdahoMatt]

I agree it's too bad.  It pretty much just needed a finish.  The tips on this one were the nicest I've done yet.  And the handle was very snoozy.

[blackhawk]

Don't fret Matt... ....I think you learned an important lesson in design here,and there's plenty more wood out there,and you can take what ya learned here and make an even better bow because of it

[IdahoMatt]

Thanks Chris.  Well put.

[DuBois]

Bummer Matt.
On to the next one