On the origin of hinges

[der.foygl]

I am working what I hoped would be a mulberry long bow. During the tillering process, all of the sudden I noticed a hinge. I started trying to work around the hinge, lowering the weight on either side of it, but still the hinge persisted. Then I noticed that the bow had a lot of set in the hinge, which it seems to me by my reading indicates that the wood is damaged right there at the hinge.

Fortunately, the bow is long enough (71 inches nock to nock) That I think I'll be able to pike it and still get a decent shooter. But it shook me a little bit. Is it the case that if I accidentally introduce a very small hinge, then bending the bow could crush the wood at the hinge, at which point the whole thing is toast? I guess the implication of this would be to always be on the lookout for developing hinges and catch em as soon as possible. Or could it just have been a defect in the wood to begin with? It is a very knotty piece of wood, for reference. Also, for reference, it is probably far too wet; I chopped it down less than a month ago. I was just eager to get started And told myself it was a narrow enough stave that maybe it would be OK. But I know this was probably misguided.

[Kirkll]

Cut it in half and you'll get two good tomato stakes...

[Pat B]

The hinge is between the 2 knots that are stiffer than the rest of the stave. If you checked the thickness at the hinge you will probably see it is thinner there than outside of the knots. How much is the rest of the bow bending? Maybe reduce the limb thickness on both limbs gradually and don't pull the bow so the hinge bends anymore.
Will you post a pic of the front profile?

[dbeaver]

was it a split stave or a sapling, or a branch off the trunk( it looks awfully wiggly)? how much materials have you worked off and what manner are you using for material removal?