Yew recurve-Postmortem please

[PatM]

Apparently not for guys pushing their limits. The last two post-mortems on here have been yew recurves. Pope and Young, Massey and several more have also called it fickle.

[Dances with squirrels]

I guessed the exact same spot Del.

I wouldn't hand a bow over to someone that wasn't drawn over a hundred times to their draw length, the way they draw it... preferably shot that way too, but at least drawn on the tree, set up to mimic their particulars as closely as possible, and limbs sync'd relevant to them. I can pull a MUCH heavier bow on the tree than I can by hand.

[DC]

I pulled it 3 or 400 times to full draw length on the tree. I was especially concerned because I couldn't pull a 50# bow. I have a 2:1 on my tree so it's easy to pull it there. I posted the question here
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,54416.msg739281.html#msg739281
didn't get a big response but they seemed to think there wasn't a better way. I asked a kid at the range to do it but he didn't want to be a guinea pig.

I guess I was pushing my limits but every time you try something different you're pushing your limits. That's how we improve. I could have used different wood but sooner or later I would have made a 50# yew recurve. Such is life. I can't wait to see the remains.

[Hamish]

Shame about the bow. Hard to tell from the photo's but the edges of your bow limbs look very straight, which is fine if it is knot free, but makes me think you might not have compensated for the knots where they occurred, by leaving a swelling on the sides like water flowing around a rock in the river. Leaving extra wood  as warts can be okay too, but I think the swelling on the sides is a better solution especially against tension breaks.

I have noticed many guys are cavalier about this either by ignorance or by design/experience, and to their credit most of these bows don't break or chrysal at these potential problem areas. If something does happen and there is no other obvious reason like overdrawing, the problem can usually be traced back to these areas. Hindsight is 20/20,  it only takes one broken bow to realise it may seem like more work in the first place to do the compensations properly, but is much quicker than having to make  another bow to replace the first.
Nevertheless you have my sincere condolences.

[PatM]

I pulled it 3 or 400 times to full draw length on the tree. I was especially concerned because I couldn't pull a 50# bow. I have a 2:1 on my tree so it's easy to pull it there. I posted the question here
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,54416.msg739281.html#msg739281
didn't get a big response but they seemed to think there wasn't a better way. I asked a kid at the range to do it but he didn't want to be a guinea pig.

I guess I was pushing my limits but every time you try something different you're pushing your limits. That's how we improve. I could have used different wood but sooner or later I would have made a 50# yew recurve. Such is life. I can't wait to see the remains.

Yes, but you  want to push your limits first. Then you can push the limits of a wood.

[DC]

We don't have Osage here, if that's what you're hinting

[PatM]

    Of course not.

[ravenbeak]

Hey

What about an overdraw?  If it is to who I think it went to,  he is a pretty big guy.  Did you measure the draw length?  64 inches is on the lower end of the length spectrum to be safe,  especially with big recurves.   When it doubt,  leave it long and back it. 

sorry to hear,  breaks suck

[DC]

His draw length is the same as mine 27.5 and I asked what he was doing. He was showing a friend where his anchor point was so I think overdraw is out. I'm starting to think that Hamish may be on to something, I might have cut to close to a knot. I'm waiting for more pictures. In a way I would rather it was something I did because I've got the sister stave leaning against my bench and I'd hate to think it was useless.

[LittleBen]

One way maybe to ensure a bow is properly escercise and that it's safe is to shoot it at the intended draw length and with a slightly higher brace height than the maximum you mark on the bow.just a thought.

I had one recently for the TG swap and I shot that thing a couple hundred times at the reported draw length but when the recipient got it, the handle popped off within the first day, presumably just due to shooting a lighter arrow ....

It happens whatcha gonna do

[smoke]

Dang, that was a lovely bow.

[DC]

I got the bow back. I feel a bit better now that I see it. With my experience I don't think I should have seen this coming, probably even with a lot more experience. I feel vindicated. There was no indication of anything wrong. I looked with a 10x loope and the pin stops 2 years down from where I stopped removing sapwood. There is another about 6" toward the handle. I'm not sure which went first but this is the worst knot.