Ash bow build ( an experiment in wood torture ) finished tiller

[sleek]

I may have to call this bow a gonner. The bow through force drying has dropped to 17.8 ounces. I had forced dryed it all these last few days. There has been a spot in the fade that I havent given much thought too because I had no clue it would cause me a problem. A small 2 inch section right near the handle is starting to delam between the rings on the side of the bow. Not a check on the belly or back, but a delam in the side 1/3 up from the belly to the back, but closer to the belly.

A few chrysels have formed there running 1/4 inch towards the center of the belly where this delam is. I guess this is how deep the delam runs. I have tried to fix it by filling the crack with super glue, poking small holes around the chrysle to relieve it of compression stress and burnishing it back down, but at brace they come right back up. I think I may cut this delam out and reglue a piece in, trap the back a touch to take compression stress off it, heat treat that section up good and brown, or a few other things. Any ideas?

[sleek]

i was able to stop it by poking deeper holes and reburnishing.

[Del the cat]

Don't try too many new techniques on one bow until you've done some of the basics, else you will just end up confusing the cause and effect.
Keep it simple, one step at a time.
Del

[sleek]

Good advice Del, but what elsce could I have done? I want this bow to be able to survive, and last a very long time.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Let it dry Sleek. The growth rings seperated because they werent dried down. My buddy did the same thing with an white ash bow last summer because he was in a yank, rightfully so. It chrysalled and seperated the same as yours. Ash being very strong in tension the bow still shoots. But it has 4-5" of set and is a total dog. If you REALLY want one your ash bows to last, let it dry at least 6 months as a 2x 2 stave and 6-8 weeks roughed out after that. It will yeild a classy, durable ash bow if you do your job well. 

[Eric Garza]

I want this bow to be able to survive, and last a very long time.

I think you've already eliminated that possibility. I'd start on another stave, and let it dry and season properly this time.

[sleek]

Ok, starting on another stave. I will ( just for the heck of it ) check the draw weight , retiller a touch to make it a bit more bendy mid limb and outter to remove some stress of the inner fades. Then shoot the snot out of it to see what happens.
If it doesnt break, i would like to send it ( i will pay shipping ) to somebody who can give me an evaluation of the woods condition, to include moisture content.

This bow now weighs 17.8 oz.

[dwardo]

I want this bow to be able to survive, and last a very long time.

I think you've already eliminated that possibility. I'd start on another stave, and let it dry and season properly this time.

Then go cut split and rough out another stave, then one more Then your first will be ready to take to the next step and so on. Think production line and ground work and it will mean you never have anything to work that isnt ready to be worked on. Also helps to walk away from a stave, go work on another and let your brain do the working out over time.

[Eric Garza]

In my experience, making high quality wooden bows doesn't lend itself to the mentality of a production line.

[sleek]

Here are some images. This bow is slow, but hey, who didnt see that coming?I did get the chrysles taken care of however. Here are some images. I got 145 fps out of it with a 270 grain arrow pulling 25 inches 30 lbs with 2 inches of set. I will heat temper the belly from the fades to midlimb to see if I cant erk a bit more speed out of it by trying to take out the set.

[blackhawk]

all i gotta say is grow the beard back.. ...thanks for the pics

and talk to pearl about trying to remove set from a bow with tempering. he did a pretty good experiment with it.

whats the width?..sorry if you already mentioned

[sleek]

LOL blackhawk, my wife is not a fan of yours at the moment for the beard coment, she hates it!

It is 1 1/4 inch wide at the fades and pretty straight all the way to where the tips start to narrow.

Maybe Pearl will volunteer some info here as he already has a few times. Assuming my hardheadedness has not irritated him enough already

[RyanY]

Your tiller does not match the front view profile of that bow. It should really be more elliptical where now the inner limb is doing most of the bending. 2 inches of set isn't really that bad and for the weight and draw length I'd guess the dimensions are suitable. Probably got some early set from not being dry and also having most of the work being done by the inner limb. As far as I know heat treating is a suitable option for ash if you wanted to consider that option.

[sleek]

Why should this be a more eliptical tiller?

[RyanY]

As for front view profile effecting tiller shape, while they aren't dependent on each other, front view profile will tell you the optimal tiller for best speed. The relationship is that of mass and movement where the less massive parts of a bow move the greatest distance because they are the easiest to move. A pyramid bow with even taper has circular tiller because the mass and width decrease evenly along the limb. A flat bow with limbs full width to mid limb will have elliptical tiller because the inner limbs shouldn't be moving as much because this causes the rest of the mass in the limb to move a greater distance. In the case of the flat bow versus the pyramid, the flat bow has more mass mid limb and that area should not move as far thus creating the elliptical tiller.