Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: simk on January 13, 2019, 03:47:37 am
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My first elm, first Moelle, first antler tips... 61" ntn 42# finally wanted to get a precise draw weight at 28" draw length. Overdraw it on the wall i think. 29" was too much.
Have another stave of that wood - try again.
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a little sad - it was a very fast shooter and I was proud of
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That was a nice looking bow. Looks like a tension failure. Hard to do with sound wood.
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That's too bad. I agree with you on the over drawing. Jawge
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Sorry to see that simk. It looked like a sweet bow.
Not sure if thats what Pat was alluding to, but I had tension failures on the elm staves that I had and I suspected rot or fungus was the cause. These failed before the bow was really stressed so I figured something was up. Along the break there was lighter colored grainular pieces that didn’t look sound.
Your break pictures reminded me of my breaks.
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Maybe someone with more elm experience can chime in. Does elm leave behind these granular pieces when it breaks?
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Simk,
You done a fine job on the working part of the limb...Perfect circle's if I ever seen them...Balance was spot on...Had to be the wood/tension failure...
Don
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Maybe someone with more elm experience can chime in. Does elm leave behind these granular pieces when it breaks?
The granular stuff is just early wood.
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The granular stuff is just early wood.
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Yeah that’s what I figured but I could remove it by lightly rubbing my finger over it. Seemed it should be attached better than that.
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Thanx you for the flowers!
As Del said there's no difference between sapwood and corewood with elm I laid out the bow in between - only for the look (-; Do you think the bow would be still alive if it was only of the corewood?
As I was too sad about this failure I quickly roughed out a yew stave to do a replica of this bow -really got into the moelle design with this bow - it will be sinewed and reflexed (-; This stave had damaged sapwood so I planed it down
Cheers
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Was this Wych Elm?
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Think it's ulmus glabra or ulmus minor, not sure which...
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Bummer! Maybe the antler tips can migrate to a new bow, however. :BB.
Hawkdancer
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How was the wood treated off the stump?
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pat: it was split out of a big trunk and well seasoned for 5 years. i worked down almost 2'' of early wood when I laid it out. it was the perfect stave and 100% sound wood. maybe I wasnt careful enough following the ring (with drawknife)...and maybe i'm just doin my bows on the edge
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I've only used elm a few times, each time I used the wood right under the bark. I was quite impressed how good of a bow wood elm is. I built 60" selfbows and maybe one sinew backed.
The reason I asked about the wood is this looks like a tension failure across the back which usually means unsound wood. Was the trunk dealt with correctly after cutting the tree? I had a hickory log given to me that laid on the ground for 2 weeks before putting it in a garage, off the ground for 2 years. The first piece I used failed. That little time on the ground allowed fungi to infect the wood and even 2 years in the dry didn't prevent the infection.
Trying to figure out the reason for failures can be a real problem. I don't see and reason for failure from your pics so I suggested the possibility of fungal infection.
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Thanx for your thoughts Pat - I got the staves from a expirienced bowyer and have also seen pics in our club house of a whole group cutting and splitting that huge elm - they did it together, event-like. So I cannot imagine the staves have been laying around long time on the ground. There have already been done successful bows of that tree and mine was a success until I overdraw it. I'm not blaming the wood but only myself...
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did you check the moisture content
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It does seem like that elm isn't quite the wood our better stuff is. Also smaller trees seem to be relatively stronger wood.
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May be the elm had the dutch elm desease (Ophiostoma ulmi / Ophiostoma novo - ulmi). On a big elm, it is possible that only a part of the tree was infected.
Had the stave some dark points or stripes in it ( or some white spots like a salt flake) when you worked on it?
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Oh sh..!
I agree with you simk, it was build right on the edge und you overdraw it!
61" is not really long for this design imo (- i never worked with elm, and never made such a design)
How long are the levers, how much reflex did you have and did you heat treat?