Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: gfugal on December 17, 2016, 08:52:13 pm
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What's the worst injury you've obtained from a bow breaking on you? Not so concerned about cuts from knives, saws or hatchets. Call me a little paranoid but I have this fear that one is going to break on me one day while I'm tillering up close and personal and either knock my teeth out or blind me. Debating if I the risk is real or imaginary. Haha I'm debating whether to wear safety glasses and a mouth guard while tillering.
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I've broken a few on purpose but never sustained any injuries. I prefer the squint your eyes and go for it approach.
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Eye protection is always a good idea. The worst injury to date--a young man who was shooting with a damaged arrow; it broke, splintered and went through his forearm. Lesson--always discard cracked/damaged arrows.
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So far I only broke one and it was not an explosive break just ccrrracck and s*&.t. It was in front of a bunch of the old timers that got a big laugh out of it. They used to think I'm crazy now they know I am.lol. I watched Clint do unspeakable things to a piece of Osage at Marshall. It was unbelievable what that price of wood indurered. He had it almost in a complete circle
Bjrogg
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Broke a maple bow while string it with a stringer,,broke at the top fade and the broke end of the top limb came up and punched me in the man boob ::)
Had a 4" bruse for a week
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I took a nice chunk out of my forehead with a bow that let go on the last inch. I hadn't rounded the edges of the tips yet......big mistake.
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Haha! I'm with Clint. just squint and hope for the best. I've broken a few at full draw for many lessons. I've been hit by a few pieces and at worst think I got a tiny scratch once. I have a cool picture I got on a timer. The overstrained sinew backed Mt mahogany blew into 7 pieces. The timer took the picture perfectly and you can see all the shrapnel with me in the middle holding a 15" stick and a limp string. I'll try to find that picture. I feel like a bad injury from a break is lottery win odds.
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I haven't been injured yet but I've gotta say that I was the same way. I was always picturing a bow breaking in the tree and gouging my eye out lol. A pulley system that allowed me to stand back and tiller was worth the ten bucks and time. It made the process much more enjoyable.
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Well, I had a tillering stick break on me and the bow gave me a pretty good whack on the head.
I ended up burning the t stick in my fireplace.
Now I use a rope and pulley and am safe about 10' away.
Jawge
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Click on the pic it's a video (http://rs623.pbsrc.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/snakey/paulys%20bow/20160527_232113_zpshut7yt3t.mp4?w=160&h=160&fit=clip) (http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/snakey/paulys%20bow/20160527_232113_zpshut7yt3t.mp4)
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I haven't been injured from a bow breaking, but had a rawhide string break on a bow once and that left a scar for a while.
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I know a fella that got a 6 inch splinter right through his cheek....
I would say that laminated bows are the most likely to pop out a sharp piece, grain runoff and all that.
I broke a sinew backed juniper once though that didn't half go with a bang, no actual injury but I had to check my pants.....
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No tillering stick for me. They're too dangerous, hold the bow drawn too long, and don't hold the bow how I do.
Many years ago I had one explode in my hand at full draw. I did a stupid thing and tried to make a selfbow with an ornamental arborvitae from my yard. It disintegrated, but no injuries.
Nowadays, I tiller them completely on the rope and pulley system, drawing them how I will by hand, and when I feel it's finished, draw it another 50+ times. I have a lot of confidence in it when I first draw it by hand.
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Fortunately so far all the bows that have broke for me have done so on the tillering tree.Wrecked a poundage tester in the process.I give them a thorough test on that and tiller them an inch beyond my designated anchor length to insure that.
Seen even an FG bow break once with the shooter getting a bump on the head though.A violated handle at the arrow pass was the culprit on that one.
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Bopped on the head a few times but your not gona hurt me hitting me in the Head so no injuries yet here
the one that hit the hardest was a FG beast
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Some of you mention a pully system. That sounds interesting. Do you have pictures of how it works?
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(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC13983.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC13985.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC13984.jpg)
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I broke many board bows when I first started.tagged myself on the man tenders a few times at first brace using the step through method!lol!punched myself in the face couple of times,mostly with maple bows because they go off like a bomb!worst injury was when a arrow shaft let go and pounced splinters into my bow hand.
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I went for many years without ever breaking a bow...many were badly bent but then all of a sudden I had a rash of breaks. Some were pretty spectacular, others pretty mundane. None created personal injuries. I think the only injuries I ever got while building wood bows was to my ego.
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Most of the bows I have had break were board bows. I have been hit several times but no injuries beyond a scrape or a bruise. I do however see the danger as a serious concern when it comes to eye injuries. I have had some hits pretty close to my eye that were hard enough to damage the eye. Closest I came to a serious eye injury was using a wrong method to brace a bow and I pulled the bow back into my face somehow. I have no idea how I did it anymore but it scared me.
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That reminds me of a man I saw at the local 3D club with a beauty of a black eye, he did it stringing a recurve with the push pull method.
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Like a few have stated, I mostly tiller my bows on a pulley system until the last couple inches,
so by the time it's in my hand I have high confidence in it.
They day will come when I blow one up, but that day hasn't happened yet (knock on wood)
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well I got the worst story so far,.... a couple of years ago a shooting friend of mine introduced a russian guy he met to archery, so he got himself a bow , but he was too lazy to make arrows and too tight to buy them, so he bought these cheap fibre glass arrows, he was warned that the spine was too low and they where too weak for his bow, but he went ahead and used them...anyway one broke on release... half the arrow turned around and blinded him in one eye......pretty bad luck..
Unseen damage to arrows is what scares me most.
I did get jabbed hard in the chest by a sharp piece of bamboo, when a bow dramaticaly exploded whilst trying to string for the first time with a stringer...luckily I have an ice cold workshop and I had plenty of clothes on, if I had been in a teeshirt....would have hurt a lot more and bled too.
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I've had quite a few explode at full draw including a 100# Yew warbow. Nothing serious, yet.
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I had two bows break on me in succession this year with one leaving a nice bruise and the other drawing blood when it smacked my forehead. The only lasting damage is a bad case of target panic.
I'm also a little paranoid of the push-pull method because it puts your face a little too close to the blast radius.
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I had two bows break on me in succession this year with one leaving a nice bruise and the other drawing blood when it smacked my forehead. The only lasting damage is a bad case of target panic.
I'm also a little paranoid of the push-pull method because it puts your face a little too close to the blast radius.
OK, if a bow breaks during stringing...but how could it, if it's been tillered to full draw????
But when using the push pull method, there is NO reason to have one's face anywhere near any part of the bow. And speaking to a comment above, the push-pull was never meant to be used on recurves.
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I have broke my fair share, some shooting , some tillering but nothing more than a scratch or bruise , main serious injury I have gotten was my feelings, ??? they got hurt pretty bad a few times. ;) ;D Heck I like living on the edge. :)
Pappy
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I have broke my fair share, some shooting , some tillering but nothing more than a scratch or bruise , main serious injury I have gotten was my feelings, ??? they got hurt pretty bad a few times. ;) ;D Heck I like living on the edge. :)
Pappy
+1 :laugh:
Del
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Do you count "brokenheartedness" as a Bow Injury? "...how about damaged pride"? "...injured ego"?
I generally don't talk about the ones I manage to break, 'cause I'm supposedly a bowyer. Surely that means I know what I'm doing and don't make such mistakes as might cause a bow to blowup in my hands, ...right?
Well a few months ago my young nephew and I were working on a glue up tri-lam bow, (ERC belly, Hickory backing, and thin lam of dark brown Walnut for a core/power lam). It came off of the caul just as pretty as could be the next day. We checked it all over for any issues with the glue lines and found none. So we shaped the blank down to the rough profile we'd intended to use. It had a good 5 - 6 inches of glued in reflex and was a 71" tip to tip. It looked really good at that point. So, we decided to take it back to long string shallow brace. My nephew was able to pull it back to about 18-20 on the long string, so we figured it was ready for the standard brace height. It felt pretty heavy, but not too bad. Well - as RJ went to put on the short string, he exercised the limbs just a bit with floor tillering, and BLAMMO! ...the whole lower limb just exploded. Post destruction autopsy revealed that there was a flaw in the Red cedar on the belly at just the point where it had blown up. A really smallish knot, but it was punky inside of it and so it folded under compression. The only injury was caused when my nephew and I banged heads together as we reflexively jumped back from the explosion! This one was just traumatic because it had seemed to be going our way for a goodly while.
RJ was not deterred however, he reached over and grabbed another scrap of Osage and started making a kids bow while our heads still smarted from the collision!
OneBow
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No injuries that could be seen, but I've been bopped in the head a few times. Your arms usually take the brunt of a breaking bow. Broken bows is why my shot has deteriorated to nothing. I short draw and snap shoot horribly.
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I had a boo-boo working on a Trade Bow one year. Pretty close to completion and I was hurrying to check tiller, didn't get the handle set solidly on the tiller tree and it all slipped off the machine suddenly and I stumbled, falling backwards and thumped the back of my head on the floor like a basketball. My eyes didn't focus well for a couple days and I was too ornery to go to the hospital for a concussion.
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Gave myself a fat lip once socking myself in the mouth when the bow exploded while I was drawing back... :-[
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Ya Pearl that is what I blame my short draw on also, started out trying to make bows out of ERC, knew nothing much about making a bow so I just made it look like I thought a bow was supposed to look, found out that don't work ??? and ERC really breaks violently. :) That is why I don't use it today. ;) :)
Pappy
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<snip>started out trying to make bows out of ERC, knew nothing much about making a bow so I just made it look like I thought a bow was supposed to look, <snip>
Pappy
Pappy - Who was the CRUEL EVIL son of a sour pickle that set you up to build bows when you were JUST STARTING OUT from ERC??? That was just MEAN! It's a wonder you are still whole and in one piece after such an inauspicious start! Heck you must have a head forged out of PIG IRON to stick with it long enough to figure out bowyering as masterfully as you certainly have after the discouragement ERC had to have handed you a number of times before you could get a reliable shooter!
OneBow
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These were great guys! Thanks for sharing. I will preferably set up the pulley method but at the time I don't have a garage, yard, or workshop to hang it up in. For the time being, I think I'll just wear safety goggles and maybe a mouth guard if I'm feeling especially paranoid. It's clear that there is a risk, but a small one. But I figure it's better to be safe than blind. Thanks for all your input.
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When I think about dropping a large tree with a chainsaw, splitting staves with a sledge hammer and steel wedges, and using a band saw to cut the bow out, making that bow bend is about the safest part of the build.
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All my bloodletting came from slips with sharp instruments or belt sanders. I distinctly remember instinctively reaching out to catch a razor sharp debarking drawknife that fell off the pegs on the wall, and yep, I caught it by the blade, lots of blood.
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Onebowonder I Seen a self bow at Cloverdale and not knowing anything I thought it was ERC, turned out to be Yew :o I found out a few years later, and yes I am hard headed , at least Miss Joanie says I am. ??? ;) :)
Pappy
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I've never had any injuries, but I have had some violent explosions, that's why I've got a LONG string on my tillering tree. This happened to me last weekend.
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wooden spring, I cant stop laughing!
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Gfugal, you don't need a shop, yard or tree to hang it from. If you live in an apartment you can just find a stud on an open wall and screw a length of 2x4 onto the wall. You can have your pully, ruler, etc all attached to that one 2x4 and when you take it down you'll just have a couple tiny screw holes to fill. If the wife/gf doesn't like it as a permanent fixture, just put it up and take it down with each use. I spent a year building in an apartment and you definitely have to improvise!
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I've never had any injuries, but I have had some violent explosions, that's why I've got a LONG string on my tillering tree. This happened to me last weekend.
Lol, I can't stop thinking about just leaving it there and 800 years from now some archaeologist finding it and what they would make of it, lol.
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No injuries. A couple small ouchies. Less the face and head and more splinters in the hand or something.
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wooden spring, I cant stop laughing!
Yeah, my wife says that she doesn't know what was louder, the sound of the bow snapping, or the volume of my expletive.
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Just had a short ERC bow explode in my face. Man, that stuff is dangerous! Thank God it missed my eye! :o
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I have broken a 80 lb elb /warbow at full draw due to grain runout in the belly sliding on it self was a loud boom but injuries other than the bow
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These were great guys! Thanks for sharing. I will preferably set up the pulley method but at the time I don't have a garage, yard, or workshop to hang it up in. For the time being, I think I'll just wear safety goggles and maybe a mouth guard if I'm feeling especially paranoid. It's clear that there is a risk, but a small one. But I figure it's better to be safe than blind. Thanks for all your input.
I use a portable tillering pulley setup. I stole the idea from Dubois. Really great for apartments and such. And you can take it anywhere. I'm sure I have a pic somewhere.
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All 2x4's. It's got a 2-1 pulley ratio. Just need a chair. The only issue is that you're fairly close to the bow, so it's hard to really see the bend. That is why I set up my phone on a tripod behind me and take a video.
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo19/mikemeusel/website%20pics/20161224_132745_zpscehkcayi.jpg) (http://s357.photobucket.com/user/mikemeusel/media/website%20pics/20161224_132745_zpscehkcayi.jpg.html)
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo19/mikemeusel/website%20pics/Screenshot_2016-12-18-16-25-04_zpsemhgnshj.png) (http://s357.photobucket.com/user/mikemeusel/media/website%20pics/Screenshot_2016-12-18-16-25-04_zpsemhgnshj.png.html)
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I've had my feelings hurt a few times ;D ;D
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I've had my feelings hurt a few times ;D ;D
And yet such a delicate special snowflake has somehow persevered! >:D >:D
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It's been tough! Sometimes there have been tears and often cursing but so far I have avoided using puns ;D ;D ;D ;D
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And actually, having some sort of tillering tree helped me with another type of bow injury. A RSI from making and excercising my bows by hand. I messed up my shoulders when I started stepping up my bow weights. Pulling a 50-60 lb bow 20 times every time you remove wood is tough on your body.