What's even worse than breaking your bow?

[WhistlingBadger]

I have a young college-age friend who has been talking for almost a year about a red oak board bow he was building.  Today he's back in town and I asked him how it's going.  He runs inside and brings out a nice-looking pyramid bow, backed with duck cloth.  Looked a little rough, and he said the draw weight was a lot lighter than he planned, but he had been putting some arrows through it and really liked it.  He's a fairly stoic kind of kid, but he was just beaming about it. 

I asked, "Mind if I give it a pull?"  "Sure," he said.  I had it about halfway to full draw and CRACK.  The bottom limb came off just outside the fade.  It didn't hurt me, but it was a pretty violent break, enough to tear through the backing. 

Man, what do you say?  I don't know how many times I apologized.  Just an awful feeling.  He took it well, and after the initial moment of shock wore off, he immediately started laughing and saying, "Well, now I get to build another bow."  We examined the break, which appears to have started with a gouge on the belly, and talked about what happened.  I offered him a hickory stave to start a new one, and soon the conversation moved on to other things.  But wow.  Breaking somebody else's bow is even worse than breaking one of my own.  In the future I don't think I'll be so quick to try out somebody's new bow.

Bleah.   

[Eric Krewson]

There is a sefbow etiquette that most don't know about. It is a guy thing to want to draw someone's bow which is fine for laminated glass bows but not always for selfbows. I will only let someone draw my bows if they have the same or shorter draw length than mine and explain that selfbows are tillered to a specific draw length and drawing them further could crush the wood cells on the belly and cause the bow harm.

The proper way to ask if you can draw a selfbow is to state your draw length and then ask. As in, I have a 26" draw length. Is it OK if I draw your bow"?

I have seen one elm bow explode when a friend with a 29" draw snatched the string back as soon as the owner handed it to him.

[bassman211]

2x.

[Muskyman]

Exactly what I thought of when I read the title. At least he can make a hickory bow now.

[WhistlingBadger]

There is a sefbow etiquette that most don't know about. It is a guy thing to want to draw someone's bow which is fine for laminated glass bows but not always for selfbows. I will only let someone draw my bows if they have the same or shorter draw length than mine and explain that selfbows are tillered to a specific draw length and drawing them further could crush the wood cells on the belly and cause the bow harm.

The proper way to ask if you can draw a selfbow is to state your draw length and then ask. As in, I have a 26" draw length. Is it OK if I draw your bow"?

I have seen one elm bow explode when a friend with a 29" draw snatched the string back as soon as the owner handed it to him.

Yep, yep, yep.  Lesson learned.

[superdav95]

Yes that is definitely worse.  Amen to that.  I’ve had it happen to me in my first year building bows and someone over drew a bow past 29”.  I was pretty upset but then realized it’s my fault really as we sometimes get the idea that people will instinctively know to not do that somehow.  Anyway lesson learned for sure.  That bow was never the same in the end.  I don’t let people pull back my bows anymore unless they can demonstrate where they pull back to without the string while holding the bow and then measure it with a marked arrow.  I put measurements on a blank arrow and have them draw it back without the string.  I find too that people draw less length when actually shooting then just grabbing a bow and yanking the string back.  Also find that new shooters shoot over the hey bail the first shot or two so watch the angle of the arrow from the side and direct then to lower it.  Just a thought to help guys save some arrows:)

[PaSteve]

Man, that really sucks. I totally agree with the above posts.....but, it really sounds like a flawed bow. You stated it happened about half draw so I doubt it was your fault although I'm sure you feel horrible. Lesson learned, Yes but he gets to build another and a hickory stave is  a great stave for a beginner imo. Maybe he'll be a little more careful (slow down and take his time) so he won't gouge the belly. At least he wants to build another bow....so that's a good thing.

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, I didn't over draw it.  This guy is about my size, and I didn't have it to full draw when it blew.  I think the big lesson I learned is don't draw somebody else's bow until they've put several hundred arrows through it and I know it's sound.