Knot in fade

[DC]

This is Douglas Maple, very much like Vine Maple. I have this knot right in the middle of the fade. Unfortunately I cut the other fade first or I could have moved the handle a bit. Anyway I have left enough extra width but it's kinda unsightly having extra width right at the handle. There is 5/8" solid wood from the back to the bottom of the hole. I've cleaned out the knothole and will fill it with epoxy and sawdust probably. At the moment the hole is also 5/8" deep but that will get reduced as I tiller. I think the limb will be just over 1/2" thick so I don't expect to remove all the knot but it will be close. The grain goes out and around the knot so I would be cutting through the grain. Do you think I could get away with almost ignoring the knot?

[Hamish]

 If it was my stave, I would clean out the hole of any loose bark, and carve out a dowel from scrap and plug it all up with a good slow settting epoxy.

[osage outlaw]

I would leave it hollow and pretty much ignore it or leave a little swell around it.  You shouldn't get much if any bend there if that was my bow.  But I'm used to osage.

[upstatenybowyer]

I've done the dowel thing on the side of a Yew bow and it worked great. Not sure about belly side but since it's on the fade I'm sure it would be fine.

[Hrothgar]

A dowel would be a little extra insurance, but that far into the fade/handle I wouldn't expect a problem. Keep us posted.

[DC]

By the time you guys suggested a dowel I had already filled it with epoxy/sawdust mix. I've always been a little suspicious of a dowel in that situation. The grain of the belly is running lengthwise and if you put a dowel in the hole the dowel grain is 90 degrees to the belly grain. I've always been afraid that it would crush but in this location it probably would have been fine. What I am mostly wondering about is how much can I reduce the width. OO said leave a little swell around it. Right now the swell is the width of the limb plus the width of the knot. Do you think it would be safe to reduce that.

[osage outlaw]

Here is one I did a while back.  The knot is a little bigger than yours and a little farther out of the fade.  I followed the grain around it and made it the bottom fade.  I try to add extra width around a knot instead of thickness.  I let the grain lines determine how much extra width is needed.  I've never filled or plugged a knot hole.  I like the natural look of them. 




There was a smaller knot in the upper fade that didn't go all the way through.  I just ignored that one since it wasn't bending. 

[DC]

Nice bow!  If my knot had gone all the way through I wouldn't have asked the question

[George Tsoukalas]

It should be fine as that area generally does not bend, DC, unless you tiller it to bend. Jawge