Bendy handle??

[DC]

Here's the bow I'm working on. Most of the handle is there, I just had to glue on the riser cap. I was waiting til the end of the day to epoxy it on. So I milled the gluing surfaces on my milling machine( with the deflex it won't straddle my belt sander) and  tillered it to full brace. So the handle is 1 1/4" thick and the surfaces are dead flat. I braced it and on a whim I held the cap up to the bow. There was a big gap so I measured it. It's .021". So in a 6" span the handle bends .021". The bow is at 40#@15". When I unbrace it the gap goes away. Now I know why some handles pop off. I'll make the cap as thin as possible.

[mmattockx]

It's .021". So in a 6" span the handle bends .021". The bow is at 40#@15". When I unbrace it the gap goes away. Now I know why some handles pop off. I'll make the cap as thin as possible.

No surprise here. Wood is very flexible as structural materials go and strains in the handle area are not insignificant on most bows. Using software like Super Tiller or David Dewey's spreadsheet show that a small change in handle or fade thickness makes a very noticeable change in draw weight or stresses on the limbs, indicating that even so-called 'stiff handles' are anything but truly rigid.


Mark