Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Knapper on November 27, 2012, 10:46:18 pm
-
Was going upstairs tonight to get some bow string wax and looked over and saw my pile of mishaps for this year. Soon they will make their way into the fire for winters warmth.
At that time I will recall the mishaps, and my mistakes of not listening to the wood and my better judgment. :'( Look ahead into the next year and ponder what it will bring.
hopefully not the same mistakes but I'm sure there will be some, because as I've heard" If your not breaking, your not building ;D
-
Agreed. Nice post.
-
Looks like a lot of atlatl handles there. When you find lemons, you make lemonade. ;D
-
Only started making again back in october. I've only made 3 bows this year i guess. Haven't broken any. Then again,mine aren't highly stressed designs.
-
I have a pile like that! :D Just happy I was able to learn from them.
G
-
Just broke meee 5th this last weekend...... :( Luckily it was another red oak board, but then agian I paid for it at Home Repo. Up untill that point I got all my material for Free..! :)
-
(http://i399.photobucket.com/albums/pp78/pat_05/CIMG5139-1.jpg)
My Grumley replica was broken in a floor tillering accident. It had a thin rawhide backing on top of the hickory backing strip which I had peeled of anticipating replacing it with sinew. My brother was visiting and he leaned into it to test the bend. It exploded.
-
I haven't broke any because I have only used osage this year.... ;D ;D ;D Sorry, couldn't resist an easy joke >:D
PatM: I bet your brother felt horrible when he broke that bow.
-
I haven't broke any because I have only used osage this year.... ;D ;D ;D Sorry, couldn't resist an easy joke >:D
Take it easy now, or somebody is gonna come after you with a poplar paddle! >:D
I have a few broken pieces for the wood stove too.....
-
1 cascara and 2 yew bows this last year. Ain't to shabby 3/10.
-
I tend to crush them rafter than break them. Crystals due to design problems or wood that just has no compression strength left and I have not bothered finishing them.
-
I've had a few, but then again too few to mention....
la de dah de dah
I broke 'em my waaaaay. ::)
BUT... I found two which each had a good limb, one Oregon Yew and one English Yew.
I'm currently working on slicing 'em together to make a transatlantic Yew ELB just for a bit of fun :laugh:
I'll be sure to post it when it's done.
I'm also hoping to do an Oregon Yew belly / English Yew back ELB at some point.
Del
-
Haven't broke any this year that I can think of but have been involved in a few, I always keep a fire going at the cabin and don't pile them up,I just burn them as quick as possible. ;D ;D ;D I seem to go through spells,good spells lately and then get into really bad ones,I once broke 3 in 1 day,one right after the other,man you talk about depressing. :)
Pappy
-
One yew bow blew a top limb in a million shards on my yard.
-
That happened to me as we'll Pappy. While making board bows for youth I kept leaving the handle to short from the fade and broke two in a row befor I found my problem!
-
I don't remember. I don't think so but I haven't made many. :) Jawge
-
I broke one which was destined to break it was the asymmetrical redoak board bow more of a test than anything. I have a question im working on a hinge bow project atm which has tons of notts. If you are going to just burn your good limbs on the broken bows what would you like in trade for these broken bows id like to test my hinge designe before i put it on the good billits
-
I am working on Bows 7 and 8 and have only 1 functional bow so I guess that would be 5. But nothing catastrophic they just tend to chrysal and fret. I have been trying to make short bows with long draws with inferior designs, more of a learning exorcise really.
Grady
-
1 explosive yew/sinew, and one chysalled elm bow, out of 8 this year :)
-
Just one rawhide backed osage... go figure. ::)
-
never heard of anyone breaking a bow at floor tiller before :D
-
No. But I only made 3.
-
I tested my new moisture meter on the bow that broke a few weeks ago and its was at 6% no wonder it broke :( nowthat i have a meter i can avoid atleast that problem
-
Just one, ...but it was sad. It was Hickory backed Red Oak. The thin lam of hickory turned out to have a perfectly hidden little worm hole that ran right across the back of the bow. It was my son's first real bow and it blew up on him just as it was getting close on tiller and being exercised in. We were at MOJAM and when it went off the whole place became silent for a moment. It was as if the assembled bowyers knew all too well the pain of that moment and shared it with my son. Loads of compassionate advice, assistance, and even the gift of two new staves to work with followed directly after. It was sad for him, ...but it wasn't so bad to get to see how awesome the MOJAM people were.
OneBow
-
I broke a bendy handle 60" osage as an experiment and out of frustration. The wood had a knot hidden to my inexperienced eyes that only showed up when I cut out the bow on a bandsaw. The knot hole went diagonal from the belly and out the side of the limb. To eliminate it I would have had to make the limb so thin it wouldn't have the poundage anywhere near where I was looking for, or so I thought. I thought for sure the bow would blow at the hole so I decided to stress the limb to the breaking point. I was amazed at how well it held up. For awhile I thought that bow would have let me wrap it around a barrel tip to tip. When she finally went it didn't break where I had thought she would let go, but actually closer to the limb tip.
When all was said and done I wished I'd have put her on the tree and finished her up. I'm willing to bet she'd of held up just fine.
-Dan
-
You can break Osage??? I never would have guessed. >:D >:D >:D ::) ::) ::)
Gabe
-
You can break Osage??? I never would have guessed. >:D >:D >:D ::) ::) ::)
Gabe
It was hard work, but I was able to pull it off. Almost threw my back out trying. ;)
-Dan
-
Either one or three, depending on how we are scoring this. Had a 76" osage ELB that had a big through and through knot midway through the top limb. I tillered it to 65# at 24" (going for 30") and the the back fractured halfway between the tip and the knot. So I say never say die and piked it down to 62" for a shorter, flatter bow (kept the knot). Same problem: back fracture between the knot and string nock, but I got it to 26" this time. I am nothing if not persistent (and H. Sapien is a tool-user, dammit), so I piked again to 52" and made a light holmegaard kind of thing. This time I tillered it clear to 40# at 27" and it spit out about 10 arrows when the limb let go again between the handle and the knot. (I know, I was pushing the limits, but I can't help myself)
So is that one or three bows? Do I get extra credit, professor?
-
You should at lest get a p for persistence ! One I lam. Black walnut on hickory and in the tiller stage the walnut splintered! Soooo I heated it up , took it off and put on a new piece after some clean up, guess what? It splintered again, then I realized that the walnut was weaker in tension than the hickory!!!!! Should have made it the other way around. So I put it on the shelf :-\
-
I broke my first one last week. Bow #6 for me. Was working on a maple mollegabet from a plank; it was looking pretty damned good all the way thru the tillering process. Just hit 60 pounds at around 26 and a half inches when I heard a 'crick'. Oh poo. I know what I did wrong, now, and next one I won't make the same mistake on. My fades were too abrupt, and it failed at where the fade met the working part. Oh well, what the heck. Try again. Got a nice piece of apple, growing wild along the bank of a river, about 5 inches in diameter and relatively straight. Just drying out right now.......
-
broke two this year. one osage recurve during tillering, and my favorite black cherry elb. the elb broke when i broke a nock on an arrow and essentially dryfired the bow, and it developed massive cracks immediately. my favorite bow :( oh well, just gotta make a new one i guess!
-
Just one rawhide backed osage... go figure. ::)
No way!? That Molly???!
-
Havent had much time building this year,but im at 50/50 two working and two not soo much..
A birch longbow that "delaminated" in the growthrings A first for me) and a rowan pyramid that ceased to exist on the tiller,just went boom in very small splinters.
/Mikael
-
I just broke a fine hickory backed osage last night at the club.
Snapped clean at right angles to the limb! Half way up the upper limb...no warning just POW! at full draw. So it is possible. ::)
-
Yeah 3 total broke this year. One very rippled stave of Amer. Hornbeam that broke on tiller tree at about 24" draw, dips and dives in contour of back made one area of limb edge to thin. An experiment with Siberian Elm that fretted badly on belly was the second one for the year that failed, happened at floor tiller, bending perfect at a very light draw weight and just cracked on belly, junk wood in my opinion, very brittle. Latest was Buckthorm, knotty character bow that had tension snap at 27" full draw, was going for 26" but pulled to 27" to make sure safe, probably poor tillering on my part is the reason for that one breaking. Never got an arrow shot from that one.
Total made this year that held about 10 or 11.
-
I blew one last night , I have been working on a chittamwood bow and just got a short string on it.
I knew better but I pulled it to about half draw when it broke just passed the fade making a three peace bow . It was 64" tip to tip and 62" nock to nock , the bottom limb still needed a little wood removed and as dry as it has been I should have put it somewhere humid for a few days.
First one is rather exiting when it blows though. Lesson learned.
-
Broke one yesterday actually. Damned hinge I could not get rid of no matter how hard I tried. oh well, back to the drawing board.
-
I'm 2 for 5 so far, mostly due to me ignoring bad grain or not knowing any better. the first was hickory with a prop twist that exploded at 29" on the tillering board and the last two were both red oak witha kink in the grain that i should've cut off if i knew what i was doing. oh well, I'm just biding my time until my strawberry guava staves dry out. then i'll be flush with wood and billets. my 2 surviving bows were adequate enough to give me the bug pretty bad.
-
Well I think I'm 3 for 4 for successful bows this year.The one that broke was a sinew backed red cedar that gave me no warning whatsoever on the tillering tree.The sinew delaminated the wood and split full length.Violent explosion.Like a FG bow when they go pow.I'm working on number five right now.My first dogwood.Good luck all you guys.
-
I've never broken a wooden bow. Never. They just break all on their own:) The Busterds:)
-
Had a rawhide backed oak flatbow explode on me mid upper limb. Happend where there was a small group of pin knots that i hadnt noticed beforehand. Shouldve slowed down a bit on that build i probably wouldve noticed the pin knots.
-
I broke several when I was attempting to make a take-down. I am getting very close to making good one.
-
i broke 3 thus far. all of them were board bows, 2 were in the tillering stage. the other was overdrawn... the overdrawn one was about 40 lbs at 26" the other two i made some mistakes on, One of the two tillering breaks was when i violated the back of the bow and then it broke, the other one was just way to dry, kapow!
-
This year was my frist year of bowmaking. I ruined 4 staves, earlier or later in the process. One collapsed in the belly while shooting in, one lifted a splinter on the back when almost done tillering, one took so much set I stopped working on it, and one that I cut out green twisted badly while drying. Oh, and there was this yew that just disintegrated along a ring in the heartwood. wrapped it up and turned out a shooting bow, but I don't feel safe with it.