Selfbow Question??

[Hoffman]

O.K I have finished a 53@26 Pecan backed with hickory selfbow. I stained it and put 6 coats of spray poly on. I have shot it 20-30 times and i am starting to notice a couple cracks about mid limb. I have put it on the tiller tree and it still seems fine. Have any of you experienced cracking with a finish? I sanded the area down thru the finish and the wood looks fine (not crushed or cracked) should i be worried or just let it go? Please give me any info i would like to sleep tonight.

Nervous wreck,
Chad

[Flinttim]

One I finished last fall done this. I made it for a friend and at the last shoot he said " look at this" and there were what I thought to be frets at first glance but they were on the rounded edges of the limb. Further looking showed them to be compression "frets" in the finish itself. I think the poly (Minwax) was just laid on too thick. I use the brush and spray can method and you can get it on too thick if not watching it close.

[Hoffman]

Thanks

[George Tsoukalas]

It's probably not the finish though I've talked myself into thinking it was on more than a few occasions . Are they on the belly? They are probably chrysals They are at an angle to the grain of the wood-kind of across the grain).  When they are in on spot they are probably caused because the limb is bending there too much in relation to the rest of the limb. Let me know where they are.BTW selfbows are one piece of wood or 2 spliced at the handle. You made a backed bow. Don't be nervous. It happens.Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

I started posting before Flintim. Jawge

[Flinttim]

You could be right too George. Hard to say without seeing the bow. I do know that on the one I referred to the "frets" were on the radius where the belly meets the back. The belly was a rounded  or crowned belly (ala Dean Torges) and my best guess would be if it were to fret it would be there and not over on the side. I was able to scrape the finish with a fingernail and it would scrape off and the wood showed no problems.
What I had done on the bow when finishing it was to brush on the first coat with canned poly in gloss  and then when that got near dry hit it with spray poly in satin.When you hit the belly and back with spray finish and then try to coat the sides I think you can get some buildup there and a coat that is too thick.Poly is a fairly hard finish and I could see it "cracking " if too thick.