Is this bow ready for the fire?

[Walt Francis]

Is it history?  Would you try saving this bow?  Is it possible?  Here are a few pictures of a bow that was strung backwards, what are your thoughts?

[Osagetree]

Looks like fire wood to me!

[Minuteman]

Eeyup, thats firewood right there, sorry!

[paleFace]

Oooouch!  it sure don't look good. i'm with Joe on this one.

[the Ferret]

Who in the #*&%&% strung it backwards?

[mmgrode]

You're not supposed to hit him that hard over the head with it!          

[kawika b]

i think your "sig" will come in handy for this one bro. looks like kindlin,,,was it strung and "drawn" backwards?

[Jason Lester]

Wait till Eric Krewson (Sp?) chimes in I know he's saved a bunch. Sinew is what he uses but that may be beyond fixing. Hang it up or cut the other limb off to make a takedown with.

[Shakes.602]

Oh Man, I dont know if Dr. Krewson can save that one or not. Let Him "Do that VooDoo That He Do So Well" before ya trash or Burn it!!
  Paging Dr. Krewson,STAT!!

[Dano]

Those kinda bows are always a good conversation piece hangin on the wall. They make good kindling too.  

[horatio1226]

What does the other limb look like?

[Eric Krewson]

I fixed this one but yours is much worse. I wouldn't even attempt a fix on your bow unless I cut the bad limb off and replaced it with a new limb.

Before,

 

After a bunch of urac and new bamboo,

 

[Bjorn]

Sorry for your misfortune but look at the bright side; now you get to go shopping!!

[Walt Francis]

The unanimous agreement is the same as mine when first seeing the bow.  I told the owner it was beyond repair but they wanted me to try and fix it anyway.  Here are some pictures of the final fix; I didn't think it would work, so I didn't take any pictures during the process.  In the first step I used Urac 185 to glue it using rubber bands to hold it together during the curing process.  In the second step Urac 185 was mixed with fine Osage dust to fill the areas missing chunks of wood, then filed and sanded to the original shape.  Next, the entire area (about six inches) was wrapped with bison sinew and coated with two coats of Zap-a-Gap.  So far I have put around two hundred arrows through it and it appears the fix will hold, but only time will tell.  







One amazing/surprising thing was the bow came back to a good tiller without touching the other limb.  It wasn't perfect, but good enough that I wasn't going to mess with it anymore.

[30coupe]

Well, I'll be darned!    

Walt, you are the man! I'd have given that one up for dead.

[kojac]

how about some pics at full draw and just stung?

[madness522]

Who woulda thunk that bow could have been saved.  I too had written it off as lost.  You da man!

[gwhunter]

Not I.  I would have thought it was lost to the bow world forever.  It would have made one heck of a short sword for some lucky kid.  See what you did Walt, you took a good present away from some kid.  
You done good!  Much better than me.

[vermonster13]

I figured you had something up your sleeve when I saw this post. Don't bet against this man on a bow for sure.

[horatio1226]

Well I'm going to say it.Looks like you did a great job fixin' it. But like a racehorse, I think the owner shoulda' shot it and put it outta its misry.Circle of life and all. IMO.
Brian