Handle crack

[BowEd]

Like this.Yes I know I'm crazy!!!!

[Josh B]

The walnut was 11" counting the fades.  The hackberry was 10".  I was going for long graceful curves on them both.  With shorter arrow passes you can safely do them at 9".  The center of the bow is 1/4" below the shelf.  The arrow pass and fade are the same length from center as the handle and fade.  All symmetrical that way, but it does add a little overall length to the bow.  Josh

[Aaron H]

I'm wondering if the sinew pulled up the splinter while it was curing

[PEARL DRUMS]

I think you may have put those cracks all by yourself That is an already huge amount of pressure pulling the opposite way, then couple that with drying sinew and oh boy!

[bjrogg]

I've always wondered how they don't break doing that. I'm sure mine would. I usually don't have that much bend pulling full draw the right direction
Bjrogg

[BowEd]

I see your point,and a good one.One thing too on the tillering tree I pulled this bow to 28" a hundred times or more.While shooting many times not that far.It cracked while I was testing it through a chronograph pulling it close to 28".
One fellow bow maker here said Ed its that prying tension accross the back lengthwise that may have done that on the draw more so then on the release.
I've made longer fades,and plan to leave more meat in the handle for this stress.More gradual taper to arrow pass then too.

[bradsmith2010]

I am calling that the" know ,, unknown,,,,"
that piece of wood may just has a flaw or not as strong as the others you made,, but is showing you there is some stress in that part of the bow, that is more than you thought,, I like the ideas above of making it a bit stronger there, just in case :N

[BowEd]

One reason why maybe horn bows have the handle on the back side of bow covered with sinew.Might be a design flaw on my part.Whatever.I'm willing to accept the truth for it happening though.Others in the past have held up in that area I know that.

[bubby]

I am calling that the" know ,, unknown,,,,"
that piece of wood may just has a flaw or not as strong as the others you made,, but is showing you there is some stress in that part of the bow, that is more than you thought,, I like the ideas above of making it a bit stronger there, just in case :N

Still could have happened at that point Ed, reverse string, sinew, then keep it tight, may be just an internal defect made worse by that and u are just seeing the problem manifest before it fails

[bradsmith2010]

when a bow blows up, it might not always be a design flaw, ,just that piece of wood was not quite the same as other successuful attempts,,

[DC]

I'm no expert but it looks to me like the the area in red has very little support(nothing to hold it down) and the closer to centershot you get the worse the problem gets

[bjrogg]

Ed it's hard for me to tell for sure on my phone. Does crack start at limb and progress towards handle? Does it go all the way to back? I might be seeing it wrong but I thought it looked like it started at limb, went into handle and ended before back. That's why I  was thinking from a backwards bend. At any rate I'm still really impressed you can bend one backwards that far putting sinew on. I'd be terrified the whole six months or 3 years or however long you had it curing like that. Pretty cool to see you guys push the limits like you do.
Bjrogg

[bradsmith2010]

yes I am terrified, when I see it now,,,,but I know Ed can tame that thing,,

[PatM]

I bet the reflexing started the weakening and the shrinking sinew kept working on it. I'm sure you can repair it though.

[DC]

Yup, a quarter inch hole and a carriage bolt will fix that sucker right up. Don't go cheap and use a square nut though, that's Mickey Mouse