I'm loving working in the elm. Unfortunately I've yet to make a working bow without some issue BUT the wood I harvested was sawn from a banana shaped log.
I'm using it as practice to get a sense of working with steam bending and raw hide backing. Loving the possibilities. Steam bends like a dream.
So I straightened out a board and spliced it. Then sawed out a straighter blank for a recurve project. One side was just in from a side I tried to split when it was a log. No split but bent my steel wedge. Hoped it was slight side damage and lifted fibers.
When I sawed the belly thickness I found a pair of belly cracks that had been hidden. I went ahead and tried to put in a Pearl Drums style bend and dang it it came out awesome! Almost 5/8" bent around a quart paint can radius for 90* bend.
So I went full on denial and tb3 glued the cracks and clamped them.
Is there some scenario where a belly crack is not necessarily fatal? Can this be fixed or patched to get a shooter? Possibly leave it thick and give it a rawhide collar wrap? Or sinew? I'm not as keen on the Torge's patches. But it might work in this wood.
?
My crack runs 1/2 way across the belly at a diagonal.
