Inducing deflex/All reflexing/broke

[SLIMBOB]

Good luck with it Ed.  I been following this one and I'm curious what you end up with.  Sweet lookin thus far!

 

[BowEd]

brad....... I think an R/D bow slams home softer or sweeter with less hand shock than an all reflexed bow.Darn good design.With less noise too without silencers.You built them before?
I just did'nt want to go through all of the heating/chance of cracking etc. to get there on this bow,and really 6" of reflex is not pushing it to the outer limits either so I just went with an all reflexed reverse braced type profile.I'm sure you got your deer hunting bow picked out already.

[bradsmith2010]

well I'll be watching to see how she does,, I do have a deer bow and a backup,, so no worries if you don't send it this way,,

[BowEd]

brad...I'm always hoping to keep a bow I build for myself if it's intended to be.I'm sure you are the same way but before a person pulls the over stressed poor bow into set prone oblivion on it's way onto the shelf of shame my experiment is'nt finished yet.Pulling it from 26 to 28 is going to take more set.Just a fact.How much to affect profile like said I'll see.If I did my job right it'll be ok.I just got a feeling it will be.Some things are still out of a person's control though with homogenous material.Making these bows is like christmas the night before no matter how long a person has been making them.......lol.

[BowEd]

Well christmas came with a bang for me here.....lol.After waiting a bit for rehydration etc. from heat treating and forming I bent this bow on the tree.Things went fine.In tiller as the draw got longer.I had noticed a little bit of a check crack about 10" down from the tip on one limb earlier but it did'nt run off the edge even though it was at the top view taper so I was'nt concerned about it but should have been.It appeared after heat treating the steamed in  flipped tips.Well as I got to 26" and things were good.Even smooth progression of draw weight.About 44#'s @ 26"....perfect!!!Pulled it to 28" and kapow!!!Surprised me all to heck.At least it happened on the tree.I can't remember ever breaking an osage bow in my life but this one did.Took pics of the scene and seems to me that crack was the problem.The break started there.
The bow was holding a substantial amount of the heated in reflex though and I think would of had close to 4" of resting reflex if it held up.So live and learn and that'll teach me to study my piece of wood and heed things a little better next time.Here's some pics of what I see.Comments are welcome.
Back of bow

[Stick Bender]

Wow that's crazy had high hopes on that one Ed I know you did too but your right better on the tree though not that's any constellation , I guess you never know with natural products sorry that had to happen to you

[SLIMBOB]

Bummer. I was looking forward to seeing this one done.

[BowEd]

Thanks fellas.I was looking forward to it too.Longitudal grain run off and a check was the culprit that got me I think.
On the upside yesterday at a 3D shoot with my FG buddies this club has a chronograph set up before you go on the course.Kinda nice.I carried that hick/horn/sinew bow with me and shot a 600 grain arrow through at 27.5"@ 51#'s and it read 175.Don't know what that translates to shooting a 510 grain arrow though.I imagine pretty decent.
It was densely foggy that morning and was misting to boot.The composite held up great.After 3 hours it still had 7" of reflex starting with 8.25".
Well I'll try again sometime after a little break here on a piece of plain old osage to get closer to those numbers without composites.

[bubby]

That's too bad Ed, with a high stressed bow i like to err on the safe side and glue and throw a wrap on a check like that just in case

[BowEd]

Yep that could of definitely helped.In my mind though of what I want and what the bow NEEDS are 2 different things and the bow always wins out....lol.

[BowEd]

Thing about this break is that either design R/D or reflex would of killed it.

[SLIMBOB]

Looks like a good clean break....I have no idea what that means, but I hope it helps.   

[bradsmith2010]

well I wish you had shot it through the chrono at 26,, I bet is was shooting good,, sorry bout the loss,, and best to you on the next one,,
maybe rawhide back it if it is really pushing the design,, I know you will get it on the next one,,
also I think if you had let it sweat braced maybe a day ,, before trying to go to 28,, it might not have been so sensitive,, cause when it broke, it was really not used to being pulled to much,,some people don't like to do that,, but I think it helps on a bow that is holding alot of reflex to break it in real slow,, gives it a chance to settle in a bit,

[BowEd]

Yes I see your point Brad.I've never been in a habit of letting it sweat that much.Usually my floor tillering gets it within 5 to 10 pounds of my finished draw weight.Most times an hour at the most I let it brace a while before tillering then.I think some people let it sweat on bows more that start out at 75 pounds or so at brace wanting a 50 pound bow in the end.I'm afraid rawhide more than likely would not have saved this one either.A wrap in that area would of worked I think.I know you can't see it from there but those are my thoughts.
One other thing too.I stored this bow in a 45% humidity area after heating it.Seemed to me this osage was very dry too which can lead to a tension break.

[Badger]

   It looks like it might have gotten off the grain when you roughed it out.If the crack is following the grain as I would expect it does appear to run off.