two broken bows make one,vine maple and pecan,,full draw added

[bradsmith2010]

 I blew up a sinew backed pecan sinew backed  bow a few weeks ago,, I say I blew it up cause I stored it and a very dry heated area with no regard to relative humidity,, and bows will usually tell you when they are unhappy
after it blew I measured it with moisture meter and it was at 6%,, I had been shooting the bow for nearly a year,, it made some ticking sounds but sometimes sinew does that, I paid no heed,, pulled it back to measure it on the scale and she blew,, well my friend had a limb left over from a bow failure,, vine maple with sinew,, it was not a match, but he brought it too me and we had good laugh about splicing them together,, I don't think he thought I would try it,, but next day,, I spliced them together,,
one limb was quite a bit longer and reflexed,, the other short and straight,,I had no idea it would work( I tillered the reflexed limb about 5 minutes to get it bend pretty even)
the bow is 54 inches nock to nock
it is pulling 27# at 18 inches( projected weight would be about 47@ 26)
I patched a lifting sinew spot so stopped there until the patch dries
I shot the bow at 18 inches just to see it shoot, and it shot ok for a short draw
I will add the full draw when the sinew patch dries,,(if it holds) I guess I could just make a matching limb if this one blows,,

[ajooter]

That's awesome can't wait to see how it turns out....the unstrung profile is funny compared to the braced.  Looks nice and even at brace...I hope it stays together for you.  Is the vibe maple sinew backed as well?

[Stick Bender]

very interesting project its interesting in that its a composite 2 different woods limb to limb, I haven't seen to many articles on the subject I will be following this one close particularly to see the performance from wood type to type using sinew looking forward to the shooting report.

[Del the cat]

Great, that's just the sort of thing I've been meaning to try.
Cool way to explore "what if" 
Del

[bradsmith2010]

That's awesome can't wait to see how it turns out....the unstrung profile is funny compared to the braced.  Looks nice and even at brace...I hope it stays together for you.  Is the vibe maple sinew backed as well?

,
yes the unbraced profile is a little scary,, the vine maple is sinew backed as well,, that was the limb donated to me by a friend,, and I was very surprised that the braced profile could look that normal,,

[bradsmith2010]

very interesting project its interesting in that its a composite 2 different woods limb to limb, I haven't seen to many articles on the subject I will be following this one close particularly to see the performance from wood type to type using sinew looking forward to the shooting report.

when I get to to draw the bow further I will shoot through a chromo,, just for fun,, I have a feeling the difference in wood is not effecting the performance as much as how the tiller turns out,, and how far I can draw the bow,,

[bradsmith2010]

Great, that's just the sort of thing I've been meaning to try.
Cool way to explore "what if" 
Del

thanks Del, I think a take down version could be made as well,, re purposing past mistakes into functional hunters,,,the limb profile mismatch on this is a little extreme,, so something more normal,, or limbs of same wood and profile put together could be aesthetically pleasing as well,, I see so many post where one limb is hopeless and the whole bow is trashed,,the one good limb is basically a billet someone already did all  the work on,,sometimes if you have nothing to loose, exploring the "what if " is pretty fun,, and I always,,,, always learn something,, just not sure just what on this one,,,

[bradsmith2010]

I got the bow to 24 inches draw today, ,it was about 35# with my hand held scale,,,
I shot through chrono as promised
400 grain arrow  147 fps
350 grain arrow 155 fps
I wasn't expecting anything really but was pleased with the performance of the little bow
the reflex in the top limb did give in a bit at the longer draw,, so the weight did not go up as much as I had expected
any tiller suggestions appreciated,, I don't know if I should  just leave it, or make the bottom limb work a bit more etc etc
I don't mind loosing weight to fine tune the bow,, I am just having fun and seeing what it will do,,was also pleased the splice held,,

[Stick Bender]

Looks like its coming along nice , I'm curious as to what glue you used in the splice ?  Good luck !

[H Rhodes]

Awesome save.  I have thrown out so many failures with one broken limb.  I am going all Frankenstein on my next one.  You have inspired me.

[ajooter]

Is the bow canted in the pic brad?  Seems like that bottom limb needs to come around a little more.  May be an ptocal illusion if the bow is canted though.  I think this is a really neat project.

[bradsmith2010]

Stick bender thank you,, I just used some two part epoxy from the hardware,,one of the limbs had been spliced with epoxy before so I felt wood glue was not going to work with that,, there was alot of glue on the old splice I had to work around,,,I think with a good splice any good glue will work on a lighter bow,,, on something heavy, I would recommend the recorsinol or smooth on,,for a splice,, I have not done a splice in a long time,, so there may be something better now,,

thank you H Rhodes,, I hope your next project works out nicely,, and in a positive way,, with nothing to loose,, its all good,, :)I hope to see some post soon

yes ajooter,, the bow is canted,, but I think you are right, the bottom limb does need to come around a bit more,, I had not looked at the tiller on a tree or anything, I just got the limbs to move even and took the pic,  I will study it closer today and get that limb moving  and see what it does,, I don't have specific weight to hit,, so losing some weight to fine tune will work,,

[Knoll]

You're the epitome of "waste not, want not!"
Congrats!

[bradsmith2010]

thank you Knoll,, I really appreciate that,, I really hate to give up on a bow,, back in the days when I started,, you couldn't just go on ebay and get a stave,, I guess I still carry that scarcity mentality today,, and also I enjoy resolving issues in a creative positive way,, I will give up when there are no more left over limbs to glue on the good limb

[Badly Bent]

 Good to see you made it work. I've seen a few examples of this done before, very resourceful way to salvage a couple broken bows. Probably not easy to pull of at times when you have different wood types with different properties competing within the same bow. Did yours end up with different widths or thickness from limb to limb?  Cool project Brad.