Dogwood warbow 140# 31" (experimental bow)

[dragonman]

nice bow druid, perfect tiller and...respect.... for pulling it.   if you lock your elbow like that though, when shooting a heavy bow of that design you'll likely ruin it before long, only thinking of your elbows...no criticism......

[Buckeye Guy]

Druid
I hurt just to read this!
I as a young man would shoot some heavy bows but not in many years now !
You are a very good Boyer !!
I have a need to share something to you lest you don't understand !
You are a young man ,I am not ,please think about this !
Please be sure to pull weight with both sides(shoot left handed as well as right handed )so your body does not get out of balance! If you don't you run the risk of great damage and lots of pain that may not stop for the rest of your life ! Trust me that a torso that cramps it self into a twist that causes your ribs to slide out of place is not something you will enjoy or want to do the therapy to readjust ! Please be carefull my young friend !
I want you to still be enjoying this great addiction when your grandchildren come to visit !
I do admire your work , keep it up!!
Guy

[druid]

Dragonman, Buckeye Guy, thank you very much for you friendly advices, they are totaly correct. But I am specific kind of man- I can not stop my passion about heavy bows, it is stronger than me. I do not take drugs, gambling or something like that but heavy weights are my passion, simply unstopable. You are right about potential body damages, I know that but....   
Maybe if MR archers could do it all life and die from ages, maybe it is not deadly but could be painfull, for sure, after some years.
One more time- thank you my friends!!!

[criveraville]

(I am doing that with ladies on one other forum  )     

Druid,

You make amazingly simple and beautiful bows, but there is nothing simple about their craftmanship.  You just make it look easy.. I have enjoyed looking at ALL your bows.  And you are a rather funny chap from the quote above..  Keep up the good work

Cipriano

[Ifrit617]

Hell if you don't want to keep it ill take it!!! What a bow! Asolutely incredible druid I envy your skills. Truly a master.

[druid]

Thank you Cipriano and Ifrit.... 
I am far away from master....decades of years and thousands of bows must pass to become skillfull as Marc, Tim, Steve...forgive me for non-mentioning other real master-bowyers....

[Josh B]

All that talent and yet still humble !  I like your style, not only in the bows you craft, but the manner in which you conduct yourself.  Another elegantly simple masterpiece.     Josh

[Matt S.]

I do not take drugs, gambling or something like that but heavy weights are my passion

The first time my wife asked me "how many bows do you need to make?" I basically had this response (just swap out "heavy bows" for simply "bows").

She's been much more encouraging ever since! 

Lovely bow btw. I'm sure there's some stout chap who would love to have your "experiment".

[medicinewheel]

Again love the braced on the pole pic!

[druid]

Experiment is finaly done. Bow is broken, and some things are better visible now. To confirm as I said before: sanguinea is amazing wood, realy strong and tough. But it has one weakness: its knots. As I suspected, wood failed at that spots. What is reason for that? I do not know. This wood is realy hard and strong but its knots are like from some other wood- they are so soft and brittle and not maching with rest of the wood. Drawing further than 32" knots colapsed, one by one and all made one big crysal. Rest of the wood is intact. Bow is broken in one side knot that had core paralel with belly surface but across it.
I have pics of the brakage to discuss about it. On this pics seems that neutral plane is very close to the belly. Maybe some more expirienced members can say more about it, and how this cross section reflected on neutral plane position?

[Keenan]

Incredible bow and great analysis, I always love to see your work Druid and this one is just another amazing example of what a great bowyer you are. I think your assessment of the break is accurate and a great example of the neutral plane. Did you heat treat the belly?  I have found on some of the white woods like Vine Maple and Crepe Myrtle that it will often Chrysal with heavy heat treating.
 Again really loved the look of that bow. Looks like it just came off the battle line of a distant war.

BTW: we have a fair amount of flowering dogwood around here. Going to have to give it a try.

[Dazv]

That sucks i bet that went with a bang.

[Marc St Louis]

Impressive bow.  Too bad it broke. 

[Shaun]

I thought the tiller looked like the arc of a circle, but you thought is was not perfect. Was the break near the mid limb that you said should be working more?

I notice with the sapling bow style that tillering on the belly leaves this area close to flat and the back remains rounded in the original form of the sapling. This would tend to move the neutral plane closer to the belly. A classic war bow from a large tree stave would have the back flat and the belly more rounded. I believe your analysis of the crysals leading to failure is correct. Maybe cross grain fiber orientation rather than softer wood at the knots is a cause for this. There appears to be layer separation between growth rings at the tension side of the break possibly indicating this material is weaker between annual rings - similar to our osage. In choosing osage for bows we look for a ratio of late (stronger) growth greater than the early (weaker) layers.  Also, the position of the neutral plane would indicate that this type of wood has more ability to stretch than to compress and future designs might try to incorporate this.

Did the bow explode like yew or break more slowly?

Very fine bow and experiment. Hope you were not hurt when it broke.

[fishfinder401]

i hope you didn't get hurt, but if you don't mind me asking.......... did it go boom
(sorry, im a teenager, i like explosions )
by the way, until then that bow looked amazing
noel