Repair or leave?

[Eric Krewson]

I got my info from back when Dean posted on the Stickbow site a good bit before the keyboard warriors drove him off. Pretty sure his initial post on his website said the same thing, this would have been about 20 years ago. I concede that my info is incorrect and not up to date, thanks for the heads up, it could help a lot of people.

I did this type of repair about 15 years ago, I had such poor luck with it I only tried it one more time several years ago, that one failed as well but I was trying to patch a place on a friends bamboo backed ELB that encompassed way to much of the limb and I didn't expect it to work but had to give it a try.

 

[Dances with squirrels]

For sure each bow brings it's own set of circumstances and chances of successful fixin, or not. All we can do is try to raise the odds. It won't work on all of them.

Here's one I did in 2011. This is it today thousands of shots later. It's a 62# bamboo backed recurve.

[Eric Krewson]

Now that looks really well done.

[BowEd]

Osage can handle a pile of pin knots on it's limbs.Here's an old 60" TTT slightly bendish handled bow but still 3/4" thick at the handle I made years ago with thousands of shots through it.A total of 18 pin knots on the belly not counting under the handle wrap.Around 1 and 3/8" wide.Pulls 65 #'s @ 28".
Back...slightly rounded

Belly...slightly rounded

Side view

[PaSteve]

Dws that repair job looks very precise. Nicely done.

[PatM]

Here's  Deans article.  http://www.bowyersedge.com/patch.html    It's easy to see how the process can be misunderstood when it comes to the fit of the joint.  Dean had a tortured prose that often seemed to contradict what he was trying to say.

  FWIW it didn't seem to be keyboard warriors that drove Dean away,  it  largely seemed to be ego clashing with Tim and Jim.

 Sort of like what we're seeing here.

[Kidder]

I have looked at the pic of your bow since you first posted it looking for the fret.  I have never had one on an Osage bow, pins or no pins, though I have had them on white woods.  Granted, yours is a lam bow and that changes things I suppose.  None-the-less, I have noticed in blowing up the pic and scrutinizing it, that the bow appears to get marginally more narrow at that spot.  It could be just an optical illusion in the pic.  Have you checked it with a set of calipers?  If I am wrong, just disregard, but if it is more narrow right there it could influence which way you should go with it.

Slimbob - it’s not actually any narrower width there but the boo is very slightly narrower there and then combined with the angle to show the edge it looks that way. I probably did contribute to it though by making the Osage thinner there trying to work on limb twist, but it isn’t actually narrower.
Thanks for the input guys - hopefully no one gets hit with any popcorn!

[Eric Krewson]

That is a lot of pins, I have never had a problem with them even pins right on the edge I of a limb edge, all bows for the most part have pins on one edge or another. 

I just finished this fix of a fix today, I shot the bow cautiously, nothing creaked, popped or tinked so I horsed it back and let an arrow fly, the dang thing shot very well, a little better than before the fix. The picture lighting is a little wonky, the nock looks like it doesn't go across the back but it does.

[Eric Krewson]

Dean posted on the Stickbow that I was an "insult to the true art of bow making", of course I took offence but didn't answer him back. Looking back at the way I did things back then (twenty years ago) he wasn't far off the mark. I was trying all kinds of stuff to see if worked back then, much like I do now but but I didn't have enough experience to see the error in my ways with something ridiculous I was trying.

I do remember Stickbow posters ganging up on Dean and telling him he was an idiot on a regular basis. He was outspoken but he knew his stuff. I ordered a Boyers edge from him and we talked for a long time, he was very pleasant.

[George Tsoukalas]

One can learn from mistakes so as not to repeat them. I was taught that knotted areas should not bend as much as the rest of the limb but appear slightly stiffer. I once violated that principle and the bow actually broke.

I know this a lam bow but it is obviously bending too much in that area when the opposite should be true.

Jawge

[BowEd]

One thing I should mention is that I don't like to have a pin knot on the edge of a limb on the corner or where it is faceted or rounded.Especially in the working section of a limb.

[Kidder]

So I lightly sanded off the finish, dumped on some ca and then lightly sanded that smooth before refinishing it. Put another 50 or so arrows through it today. Hopefully in a few years I’ll revisit this post and let everyone know that it’s held up! If not, I might be back sooner! But either way I’ll take the lessons pointed out to heart for the next one.