HELP!!! My custom made selfbow is dying

[Badger]

   Jerimiah gave me a 70# hickory bow. Once I had shot it in the weight had dropped to about 55# and the tiller was way out as well. I don't remember chrysals but I doubt the bow had been excersized much or shot in.

[bubby]

lostarrow I think if you re-read Erick's post you will see that his thoub
ght was by pikeing the limb and retillering you may be able to remove the damaged wood, personally i'd retire it, bub

[jojo]

Well if anything, I got some beautiful pictures of chrysals and fretts. In the future, if new bowyers are having a hard time visualizing what they look like they now have another good reference. At least the bow did not break, although I am surprised it did not. This bow will be fine on the wall. I don't think I want to alter it in case I need to study it for future design considerations. I might make a copy, altering the design slightly to see if I can improve its durability.

If I remember correctly, Jeremiah had told me this was the design he used to obtain his record shot. I believe his goal was to make the limbs as narrow as possible for this wood type to increase efficiency. He was focused on putting an arrow as far down range as he could. It may have still been a working design. Or it may have been a great design but my inadequacies as a new primitive sportsman years ago caused a failure. Maybe a bit of both.

I often did store it leaning in a corner with the lower limb supporting it. My mistake. I think he warned me of that, however, I didn't see how that would ruin it at the time.

Time to start building a new one. I need a bow that will fill my freezer. Something durable, reliable, accurate, and efficient. Right now, I need a game getter. Any thoughts on a new build that fits the bill?

[bubby]

you can't go wrong with a osage flat bow, pyramid limbs, is your draw 26"?

[rps3]

I can picture you putting your knee into this bow when stringing, making the weakest part of the lower limb do all the work to get to brace. Over time my bet is this was the major cause. As was mentioned earlier, learn a better way to string.

[jojo]

My draw is right at 26". I would like to build an osage bow, but staves are expensive and I can't afford to turn one into firewood. I thought about using osage billets. I backpack hunt here in AZ to get away from the road hunters. I hike 6-7 miles over some very rugged terrain just to set up base camp. A takedown bow would be very nice for what I do.

[jojo]

rps3,

That's exactly how I strung the bow for some time. Don't know where I heard that was a good idea, but it never felt right. My many mistakes certainly contributed to this bows demise.

[Gordon]

The only viable remedy I can think of is to cut off the lower limb and then either splice in a new limb at the handle or make a takedown.

[Onebowonder]

<snip>Time to start building a new one. I need a bow that will fill my freezer. Something durable, reliable, accurate, and efficient. Right now, I need a game getter. <snip>

<snip>I backpack hunt here in AZ to get away from the road hunters. I hike 6-7 miles over some very rugged terrain just to set up base camp. A takedown bow would be very nice for what I do.

Brother - If you plan to fill your freezer with what you can pack out over a 6 or 7 mile rugged terrain back pack hike, I hope you like Jack Rabbit steaks!

OneBow

[bubby]

go by a GOOD hard maple board, make a cheap selfbow with that and you will get a good hard hitting and fast bow if built correctlly

[bubby]

use this layout and you will get a good bow http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html

[TEE TAW]

ITS OVER

[bushboy]

if that was my bow and i was set on fixing it,i would strap it down aheat treat it to get it flat enough to resaw it on a fenced table saw at about 3/16 ths thick,clean it up till saw marks are removed  and find a decent piece of hard wood for the core and rip it to 7/16ths.i would make the core about 1/8" wider all the way around to essentually trap the back and then trim the handle to fit and glue it all together.this is a lot of work and finding a straight grain piece of maple is a way better way to go imho

[lostarrow]

lostarrow I think if you re-read Erick's post you will see that his thoub
ght was by pikeing the limb and retillering you may be able to remove the damaged wood, personally i'd retire it, bub

 Yeah , I know what he was getting at , but the bow was already pushed beyond what was feasible for draw length with that design, IMHO. Thus the failure. Piking  it would just be making the problem worse , even if you could tiller out the frets. You would be left with a bow that  might work for a small child with a 20 " draw. The frets go half way through the limb thickness.
 Just saying ,it would look better as a wall hanger than firewood.

[bubby]

I think its toast to lostarrow, but at 66" length stiff handled now I don't see the problem with a 26" draw, most of mine are shorter than that for a lot longer draw