ok so i finished my first bow yesterday and broke it today...lesson learned i guess. heres pics if yall have any insight of what went wrong
(http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b512/whitehawk23/1211121328_zps7506fcaf.jpg)
(http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b512/whitehawk23/1211121334a_zpsbe858299.jpg)
Your fades are not long enough. Your profile width reduction at the handle has to be in line with your fades on the belly side of the bow. You eliminated all that support and your bow broke.
ahhh i see. yeah i wont make a cut in shelf again. thinking about using the floppy rest style next time. thanks guys. looks like ill be back to the drawing board.
im tryin to stay positive with the broken bow and chalk it up to a learning experience but not gonna lie all that hard work and time and the excitement of finally shooting it is kinda heart breaking. guess thats the price you pay for not backing a bow i reckon.
A backing of glass wouldn't have saved the bow.
Like they said, you gotta compensate for cutting out that shelf.
By the way, I want to inform you that it is too late for you,,, you're hooked now and there is no turning back! This won't be you're first & last I'm sure....
Backing had zero to do with your break. You can back that bow and it will break again and again.
Yeah thanks for the advice guys I'm starting to understand what yall mean by the shelf getting cut in too much its all kinda conning together. I appreciate the advise and complements.
Just to,restate what the others have said. Nothing wrong in cutting in a shelf that far . But there has to be more thickness in the handle in that area which means the fades needed to extend farther.
Idk really like the cut in shelf design. So Idk if I should try the ferret style floppy rest
Like I noticed in you first post your handle is much too short. It should be around 4" long with at least 1 1/2" fades(2" is better) and have them feather into the limbs very gradually like this;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/bondofixhandle.jpg)
Erics pic shows how your width profile and fades have to work together. See how his fade feathers out well beyond the point he narrowed his profile? Thats perfect. His bow narrows and deepens at the same time maintaining its strength.
Breaking a selfbow is pretty much a rite of passage. The next one will be better. Listen to these guys and you will get it.
ahhhhhh i see that defiantly puts everything into perspective. i completely understand what i did wrong now. cool, cant wait to get another boeard and try again! thanks for the help guys
Good luck keep at it.
Justin, ya have any idea how many bows have exploded on me in my 12 years of bow making? LOT'S, LOL.
My stack of failures is a lot thicker than my stack of shooters. I've been at it less than a year, but it sure is fun. Keep at it. There is a wealth of knowledge here!
QuoteOriginally posted by Roy from Pa:
Justin, ya have any idea how many bows have exploded on me in my 12 years of bow making? LOT'S, LOL.
Thats REAL comforting for a guy waitin' on a Roybert's custom bow....whew...cant wait to yank that back! :pray:
:biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
QuoteOriginally posted by PEARL DRUMS:
quote:
Originally posted by Roy from Pa:
Justin, ya have any idea how many bows have exploded on me in my 12 years of bow making? LOT'S, LOL.
Thats REAL comforting for a guy waitin' on a Roybert's custom bow....whew...cant wait to yank that back! :scared:
:laughing:
Kinda like "hey Ya'll watch this!"
One another note, all the above advice is good. I made a bow with a super cutin shelf like that. I never did like it and hardly ever shoot it anymore. I always like seeing others try it though. Good luck on the next one. And the next one and the next one...
I don't know if it's true or not but supposedly someone asked Thomas Edison once if he ever got discouraged with his first couple hundred failures. He replied no because he learned a couple hundred ways NOT to make a light bulb!
Funny story either way if not true. We've all had failures.
Lol thanks for the inspiration Roy. I actually went out and bought another board tonight I got lucky and they had ONE with straight grain.
LC its funny you said that my father in law JUST told me the same thing tonight. guess great minds think alike
So I got me another board tonight got all the dimensions drawn up cut a lot of the fat off, but the board splintered bad not on the limbs bot just outside of where I.was cutting. does anyone else have this problem with red oak?
I cut a deep shelf (recurve mentality)on my first bow. It snapped at the deepest cut point of the shelf.
That was my last deep cut in shelf and my last bow failure in the handle area.
Yeah that's pretty much what happened to me. BTW Eric I measured my handle on it and it was just over 3.5 inches so it wasn't that far off of the 4 inch rule
So I got to looking at both bows I made (1 I didn't complete because I messed up before I could finish) but both bows broke on the belly side so what could be the cause of that?
Just my two cents worth. The bow appears to be a board stave and the growth rings were perpendicular to the back of the bow, in other words, in stead of one late wood ring there were multiple rings and the notch created by the arrow rest just followed an early wood ring completely up the bows limb. It couldn't happen any other way. Great attempt. Keep at it. My first bow developed the dreaded tic sound when drawn, that's been 16 years and I still remember that first feeling of accomplishment plus failure. Keep at it!
Yeah its pretty heart breaking. I'm starting to wonder if red oak just isn't the wood for me but its basically my only choice
Whitehawk have you read over 4est board bow build along? If now do so it is a very good build along.
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000122#000000
Also keep your head up and just see if they sell hickory boards also.
Yeah that's the build along I used just not to the letter. I didn't do the risers and I made a cut in shelf. but yea its an awesome build along. Thanks
If you only have oak for a stave, find a board that is flat ringed, not edge ringed. If you can find a hickory board, you can just about make it how ever you want. Surely you can find a stave somewhere. Osage/hedge, hickory, black locust, maple...something that you can get flat ringed. That would be easier to "see" the bow in the wood that you are working.
thanks
I honestly don't know the difference in the rings. and red oak is all I got I have no way of getting my hands on hickory or anything else
Picture a stack of loose leaf notebook paper. A stack of 100 stacked neatly on top of each other. The side of the stack of paper is your bow. Stack enough paper and make a bow from the side of the paper, when cut thin and stressed, the movement will follow each piece of paper. If you made the bow from the top, or the stack, the bow has no growth ring to follow. On page one of your post, notice Mr. Erik's bow. Looks like a stack of paper fanned out doesn't it? The stack is stair stepped, but only on the belly. Your edge ring board combined with a flat ringed board could hold up to the strain of flexing.
Do you live any where around western KY?
Picture a stack of loose leaf notebook paper. A stack of 100 stacked neatly on top of each other. The side of the stack of paper is your bow. Stack enough paper and make a bow from the side of the paper, when cut thin and stressed, the movement will follow each piece of paper. If you made the bow from the top, or the stack, the bow has no growth ring to follow. On page one of your post, notice Mr. Erik's bow. Looks like a stack of paper fanned out doesn't it? The stack is stair stepped, but only on the belly. Your edge ring board combined with a flat ringed board could hold up to the strain of flexing.
Oops on posting twice, hope that helped.
Jeff
Ahhh I got ya. wow thanks for putting it in perspective for me. yeah I live in hopkinsville, ky about 45 min from fort Campbell
That's 1.5 hours from my place. Surely there's a good ol time lumber yard close to you.get a hickory board and a cedar board glue them together to make a bow from that. Poor mans yew, they call it. If interested I could probably find you somethingnaround here.
That's 1.5 hours from my place. Surely there's a good ol time lumber yard close to you.get a hickory board and a cedar board glue them together to make a bow from that. Poor mans yew, they call it. If interested I could probably find you somethingnaround here.
Justin, flat ring would be like taking a log and cutting a slab off of one side of the log. So if you looked at the end of a board, the growth rings would look like this ) but the high point of the arc would be facing up. Just take this ) and flip it 90 degrees. Then there is rift sawn where the end of the board looks like this ////. Then there is quarter sawn which looks like this ||||.
Ahh lol thanks for the drawing description there Roy it actually helped.
M2 we got some lumber yards but they don't sell hickory. actually I heard there is an aumish mill works about 45 min away I might go check it out. but if you can get your hands on some that would be be awesome just send me a PM and lemme know how much
Would you care to have a stave? Might be able to fix ya up. I can look thru my pile to see what I have.