I just shot my final arrows before finish and put my hickory self bow on the tillering tree to give it a last check before I finished it.At full draw 28 inches and BOOM! The lower limb let go.After a brief autopsy it appear that the back let go.There was an eighth inch deep break on the back that looked almost saw cut.The remainder of the break was stringy as hickory usually is.I had shot this bow at least 150 times and the tiller was sweet.The tree was cut this November.After reducing to rough bow dimension it spent about a month in the hot box during the build.Is it possible I over dried it? I have made dozens of hickory bows and have had compression issues in the past but never tension failure.There were no ring violations.
I had one do that last year and when I posted pics of it here the general consensus was fungus. being a white wood how it is handled after it is cut is pretty important.
I cut it,split it and then removed the bark.I sealed the ends and back with shellac then put it in the shop for a week before storing it in the attic.time to start a new one.At least it broke before I finished it.