Firewood

[junseld84]

Hello All. I am working on my first bow and I believe i've created some beautiful firewood instead. After improperly sealing my osage stave back in 2016, it developed a drying check right down the middle of the back on one end. I was able to chase a ring just below the check, resealed it and thought everything was good. I finally decided to rough out the shape of the bow tonight and found I was sadly mistaken. I found flaws in the wood between the grain on both the sides and the belly of the bow once I started removing wood. Am I correct in assuming that my inexperienced and unskilled hands should put this one aside and start anew?

The bow is currently 64.5" long, 1/2" wide tips straight tapered down to 1-1/4" fades. The limbs are currently 3/4" uniformly thick. The handle is 1-1/4" thick. There is only one knot on this stave and I hope I left enough material around it to keep it happy.

[junseld84]

Pics of the belly....

[burchett.donald]

 Junseld84,
                   Take it to floor tiller or to brace and lets have another look...Maybe some of the checks will disappear during the process...You have a lot of reduction left...I have seen Osage shoot for years with a wind checks...As you stated this is your first bow and you will gain some experience in the process...May be a bow inside
                               Don

[junseld84]

Thanks for the response Don. I will do just that. Even if this one doesn't work out, I really enjoyed working with the draw knife and scraper. My plan was to work the limbs down uniformly until they started to yield enough to get a better idea of what's going on. Does that sound like a decent approach or are there special considerations I need to make given the issues?

[stickbowbeard]

I can see cracks in the belly, but do they go all the way through to the back of the bow? 

My current hunting bow is an Osage that has a long, 10-12" long longitudinal crack like those ones that developed in the back of the bow running right through the handle and into the bending limbs on both sides of the handle.  It has a couple of other longitudinal cracks in the bending limbs as well.  I noticed the first long crack just after sanding the bow for finishing.  I put some super glue in it for a little insurance, and then finished the bow.  I've been shooting it as my primary shooting and hunting bow now for over a year, and I'm quite sure I've put close to 10K arrows through it, or more, and it has endured beautifully.  It has also been backpacking with me in some pretty rough country twice now, and endured a bit of abuse, and still just as snappy as ever.  I'm about to replace it as my primary bow, but only because I love building bows and I'm getting close to finishing this year's hunting bow.

Like Don said, I don't think you should give up.  I think you should just stay the course, and when you're getting close, run some super glue along the cracks for insurance and let it seep in there (I don't think the super glue is necessary, just comforting).  I think there's still a good chance you can get a shootable bow out of it.  If by chance it does break, you've gained some valuable experience.  As I was told when I first started this gig, you're not a real bowyer until you've broken your first bow.      I really Hope this isn't the one you break, and that you look more like this when you're done  , so don't lose heart and keep at it.

Good luck!
Eric

[junseld84]

Thanks stickbowbeard! I don't believe they run completely through but i'm unsure of how deep they go. I don't see any signs of them running through the rings at the end of the bow either.

I've already resigned myself to the fact this is probably just good practice for the next one but i'm willing to see it through to the end. If I end up with even a lighter weight working bow, i'll be thrilled.

[Mesophilic]

Since moving to about 8000 feet in very dry mountains I've been dealing with alot of cracks.  Even seasoned wood has to be re-seasoned here, or maybe climatized might be the right word.  I'm not an expert at dealing with them but have made a few discoveries.

If you have access to a diabetic and Titebond thin superglue...I've found the needle from a syringe fits perfectly over the nozzle end of the superglue bottle.  This allows you to stick it down in the crack and fill it from the inside.   You can get several uses from the needle if after you're done, tip the bottle upright, put a wad of papertowel or something absorbative on the tip of the needle and give a few squeezes to get the  glue out and force some air back and forth through thw needle.

Works much better than trying to drip superglue in to the cracks and helps to eliminate voids from trapped air bubbles.

ETA: this is the 2 oz bottle

[PEARL DRUMS]

I have about 12 staves just like it, you can have them all free of charge. Fire pit is the next stop for them.

[JW_Halverson]

I can see cracks in the belly, but do they go all the way through to the back of the bow? 

My current hunting bow is an Osage that has a long, 10-12" long longitudinal crack like those ones that developed in the back of the bow running right through the handle and into the bending limbs on both sides of the handle.  It has a couple of other longitudinal cracks in the bending limbs as well.  I noticed the first long crack just after sanding the bow for finishing.  I put some super glue in it for a little insurance, and then finished the bow.  I've been shooting it as my primary shooting and hunting bow now for over a year, and I'm quite sure I've put close to 10K arrows through it, or more, and it has endured beautifully. 
Eric

Yup, doomed to failure.  You probably only got another 100,000-200,000 shots or so before it fails catastrophically or ends up taking so much set that it only bloops an arrow.   

Maybe you better start a new one, just in case.

[Eric Krewson]

Back and belly checks can be filled with superglue as suggested and will probably cause no more problems. Side checks are another issue, every bow I have ever made with side checks failed, every one. Side checks show that the wood is delaminating and there is no cure for this ailment.

[rps3]

The side checks would concern me also. I do have one bow with a side check filled with thin superglue that has shot many arrows and is holding up fine.

[stickbowbeard]

From the looks of it, depending on how wide the bow is, I think you can still get at least a 30 lb bow out of this if you remove the belly all the way past the side-check, as long as it doesn't turn toward the back as you get deeper.  I think it's still worth giving it a try.  I have a 58# Osage bow that I don't think is much thicker than that would be, although the limbs are pretty wide for an Osage bow. 

Good luck!

[PEARL DRUMS]

I wasn't joking about a pile of them you can have, or anybody that wants to come and get them out of my shop. Free, central Michigan area.

[junseld84]

Thanks all. I've been unable to work on this as much as I'd like over the last month but I hate dead threads with no resolution so I figured I do a mini update. I've worked bow to floor tiller stage, then started to do some minor heat bending to correct prop twist and curved limbs. So far its held up well to all the abuse. Unfortunately, as I worked the thickness down on an old belt sander, slowly taking a little at a time, the belly crack exposed itself more and more. It now runs the entire length of the one limb, directly down the middle. There is a smaller parallel check near the end that's about 6" as well. The side cracks have almost disappeared as I worked the sides down, so that's a plus. I put a bit of reflex in the bow so that put it back stiff enough that I needed to take a fair bit more wood to get it flexing again. I also have a twisted handle that i'm trying to contend with. The limbs took the heat gun and moved extremely easy but this handle is fighting me. It's currently 1 3/8" at the fades with a straight taper to the nocks. I'll try to get some pictures up tonight for reference. Thanks again for the advice so far.

P.D. I'm in KY or I would definitely take you up on that offer.

[Danzn Bar]

KY.......That's a good state to live in.  Anywhere close to Louisville?