The Dental floss fix

[islandpiper]

I made a short recurve of red oak.   Actually out of a stick that the two high school guys passed up.  In short, it cracked.  A nice, long splinter running in off the back.  I glued it, and backed the bow with heavy brown grocery bag material.   I cracked again.   I glued it again and covered the area with more bag.  It cracked again.......

So, I resorted to the old "sinew on a spool", dental floss.   Unwaxed, plain white.  Wrapped on in close winds for 3/4 inch or so over the end of the splinter and then over wrapped back the beginning.   I dosed it with thin cyanoacrylate.  Now it's holding.  I may put a wrap to match on the other limb, just to keep balance in the universe. 

It's not that I NEEEEED that bow.  I just thought I may as well try to save it and learn something in the process.  Knowing how to repair this sort of damage might come in handy sometime. 

piper

[sailordad]

all that and NO pic

hey it is what it is,right
live and learn

[Pat B]

Dental floss is almost like duct tape to a primitive archer.   I use it for nock locator on the string and as a wind indicator on the limb tip. Have made a few repairs with it also. I keep waxed and unwaxed in my archery tool box.  Artificial sinew is very similar.      Pat

[Scowler]

I've used dental floss to tie down fletchings when glue has failed.  I keep a small box of it in my possibles bag.  Good stuff to have around.

[tommy6]

I agree dental floss can fix many blunders. Has anyone made a bowstring from it?
Also a great use for unwaxed dental floss is as a wind indicator. Take about 8 in tie it to the tip of your bow and shred the end of the floss into individual fibers. Makes an instantly visible wind gauge.
Got the idea fr Mr Asbell's book on stll hunting.

[vahillbilly]

I made a few bow strings from dental floss while waiting on B50 to arrive.  As a flemish twist (I used 16 strands for bows around 40 pounds) it has lots of stretch.  Would do in a pinch, but not very efficient.
Sam

[recurve shooter]

glad you got her workin. that is a nice bow. you do need to put up some pics though.

[Eric Krewson]

I have several bows with wraps on them to keep down splitters and cracks. Just tried this out the other day and found it worked really well.

Most of us have a string server. I used mine with a spool of braided nylon serving material for my last wrap. I served the bow just like I would serve a string, complete with whip finished ends. I start by tightening up the spool tension on the server a lot higher than I would to serve a string. Once I get the first few wraps started I hold the server against my leg and rotate the bow to apply more wraps and end the wrap by making a loop and serving backwards, just like on a bow string. I finish my wrap with a good coating of super glue.

The end result is a very neat wrap that almost looks like it belongs on a limb.

[Jesse]

Good job Piper. Dental floss works great also for when your arrow is a little loose on the serving. A few wraps and its nice and tight.

[islandpiper]

Here are some pics of the damaged bow.   right now it pulling about 35# at 25", and then it gets real hard, real fast.  It isn't really tillered, as I have not put any real time into it thinking that it might explode.   As it hasn't blown up yet, I may do some scraping and try to balance it out a little .  piper, still learning

[Pappy]

Nice save piper,I have fixed a lot over the years,usually with sinew or art. sinew but it is all
about the same.I use dental Floss like Pat said for a lot of things also,need to use it more
on my teeth. 
   Pappy

[islandpiper]

Pappy, my old dentist used to say, "Only floss the teeth you want to keep."

piper

[George Tsoukalas]

Very nice, Piper. Tiller looks good to me. Wrap that area with some colorful thread or glue on some fur strips. Do the same thing with the corresponding area on the other limbs and it will look really classy. Jawge