Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: richardzane on May 09, 2011, 10:44:16 pm
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the last message i tried here vanished ,I'll try again.
appreciate anyones suggestions.
made a 62 inch hickory long bow ,shot a hundred arrows probably,
and heard a crack (see pic.) coming from a tiny know hole.
was about 40# but it feels less now, and theres noticeable more hinging in the weakened area.
The hickory was cut on a low side of a west facing bluff,damper area, since it
misses morning sun,probably the rings are bigger.
should i be cutting hickory from higher and drier on the hills?
is it junk? or repairable? its always good to know how to make a repair.
is there any kind of epoxy and clamp fix i could try? or sinew?
don't have any back sinew just some leg tendon.
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Sinew could hold it together but I wouldn't bother. Best to just move on and make another.
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The size of the hole has nothing to do with that kind of crack. I'd make another bow.
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Sorry and I am sure you don't want to hear it,but I would make fire wood out of it and start another.
I have never noticed and difference on where Hickory was cut. :)
Pappy
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Looks like a good reason to build another bow. I would be afraid to string or pull that one back. It could be bad if it lets go at full draw.
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well, it was my first
always need more kindling...and making more bows is a given,
got lots of choice material on our property ( NE Okl.)
I know cutting staves and arrow wood is for winter,
just hoping i could limp by so as not to be bowless for a year.
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Well I would make a nice dinner over that one and start again. And you don't have to wait till winter to get a bow going. I almost always cut a tree, split it and take one of the staves to near bow size and get it dry fast. In fact right now would be a great time to cut hickory because the bark will just slip right off.
I just cut down four Osage trees a month ago and though I'm letting most of the staves dry under my shed I already have one floor tillered and close to being dry enough to finish tillering. White woods like hickory are even better at drying quickly than Osage.
I say go cut some more and get her done!
Mark
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I concur with the others, make another bow!
Did you cut this tree your self? How was it cared for after cutting? I have only rarely seen hickory crack across the grain and it was wood that had been infected with fungi.
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Also I might add ,I would rather cut my Hickory in the spring or early summer,the bark will peel right off that time of year,then you can split it down to bow size and it will dry pretty quick. :)
Pappy
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I second what Pappy said. If you wait till winter the hickory bark can be a booger to get off.
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well you guys made my day,
i'm going to cut some hickory ..how about "the other white woods" hackberry? white oak?
about caring for this hickory for the bow that cracked ...
I cut an 8" dia in December, quartered it by splitting,
roughed out 3 useable staves, glued the ends, drawknifed the rough bark off, left the fine inner bark attached( the innerbark mesh-like see pic.)
also cut off the core off the wedges. Only one was really nice and free of most knots.
put em in in a closet for some months till they begin to arch back and felt dry. ..dry enough for sandpaper. no checking whatsoever.
scraped that inner bark off with cabinet scraper.
I'm kind of puzzled, really thought hickory was the most forgiving.
it was a common bow wood of my Wyandot ancestors.
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There are a couple of other options that could save that bow without too much work. One is a sinew patch, like patching an inner tube, I've used them several times and they work. You have to prepare the surface very well and put down at least 2 courses extending past the crack by at least a couple of inches. The other is a linen backing, not a material patch but linen thread laid down the whole bow. I've done that before also using TB for a glue with good results. Again surface prep is important
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That picture of you removing the bark will be a 1 minute job if you cut the hickory now and split it intyo staves. Like the other said the entire bark area will come off in one piece and expose the bows back.
Ron
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guess i had been led to believe that winter was bow cutting season.
is there any wood that NEEDS to be cut in winter?
yep, hickory bark comes off great this time of year,
its when we traditionally make bark objects. heres a good use for leftover hickory bark.
i just finished this old style traditional Wyandot hickory bark rattle,
some say these pre-dated the turtle shell rattle.
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oops ..dang it...i just read the rule book and the rattle maybe shouldn't be here,
sorry...y'all can chop it off if you want to since its not bow-related.
Marc you mentioned a patch using sinew
and "preparing the surface very well"... what would that preparation entail? burnishing it with a stone? or roughing it up a little?
My lengths of sinew i have are about 8 to 10 inches. would i lay sinew first down on the limb, and then wrap more accross?
I'm seeing the patch as just another challenge in the whole learnin process...( and well yeah, the bow did shoot really nice)
but I'm already staking out the next hickories, and eyeing some VERY nice straight Kentucky Coffee Trees.
Anyone here mess with those? how about persimmon? got some real straight tall persimmons..messes of plum, hackberry...
I guess i'll have to try em all.
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Hackberry is good. It's supposed to be the easiest wood to recurve.
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That is a surprising failure for hickory. I had two hickory bows fail in compression this year, both of which did fine in central Alaska and the Mojave Desert, but didn't do as well in the upstate NY sogginess. One was just a couple weeks back, when I strung my 80# bow for the first time since mid-winter, and it just felt mushy. Then I saw the frets in the lower limb, which had also taken another inch of string follow. Had it in my garage for the winter, and didn't take it in when the rainy weather started. For hickory to fail in tension, it seems like there had to be a rot issue of some sort. Generally, you want the back crowned and the belly flat to avoid compression failure, and nobody worries about tension failure, even with major grain violation. Odd.
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thanks Jude,for the thoughts
we're pretty humid here too.
when i made the bow, i had no bow to compare it with, but just memories of old hickory bows we shot as a kid,
but it felt right to leave the back crowned from the trees own curve, just fine sanding and slicking it with a polishing stone
and it also seemed right to flatten the belly. but there was no hint of rot in the whole stave.
I did most of the interior shaping with cabinet scraper so as to keep everything being reduced evenly.
oh well, looking forward to the next attempt!
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Prepping the back is making sure there's no finish on the wood, wiped with a solvent to make sure there's no oils and then roughing the wood up a bit with sandpaper. You only want to do this to the area where you will be applying the sinew. I never bothered wrapping around with sinew jut lay it down along the limb. The few times I did such a patch I didn't even have to re-tiller the bow. Make sure you soak the crack with hot glue before applying the patch and apply backwards pressure to the bow so that the crack is pressed tightly together.
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tizhameh(thanks) Marc,
I'll give that a try. its just another challenge of problem solving.
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Start another. I'd be cringing every time I drew it if I fixed it. I think leaving a little extra wood around that knot may have kept it together. When tillering knotted areas I tend to leave them a little stiffer than the rest of the limb. Jawge
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thanks George,
i've already eyed out some "prospectives" to cut on the property.
and one thing i've learned for sure...cut and cure a BUNCH of staves. being bowless is the pits.
I'm just returning to archery after some left arm nerve damage ,
that 40# hickory was JUST the thing for getting me back in the flow.
having long arms, the 62" felt perfect (well...so I thought).