And then it went bang...

[Kieran Little]

70# @ 30"

55" NTN with a 6 1/2" rigid handle section.


This went bang the second set of times I drew it, the second time being when I'd decided it was safe to leave the safety specs off.

I think its time we shared our dramatic failures haha..

 

[KruptedArcher]

Dang! That's looks pretty bad. I sure hope you're OK.

 

[WillS]

55 inches long, minus 6.5 inches stiff handle gives you 48.5 inches of working bow. With a PERFECT tiller and perfect wood, you want the working limb length to be double the draw length at an absolute minimum. You took the bow out to 30" draw, so the bow would have had to have 60" long working limbs, plus your stiff handle of 6.5" and that gives you a 66.5" long bow to be safe with perfect wood and tiller.

Add to that a draw weight of 70# and you're definitely asking too much of any unbacked bow! Shame to see 'em go though! Always a shock!

 

[Kieran Little]

I have to admit it was an experiment, none of my other bows are that short, normally 65"+, its just the board was laying around from some church restoration work, but it was only 56", thought I'd see how it would do and maybe back it with some sinew.

It tillered out to 20" draw beautiful and I'd stop there and sinew, but it was so perfect I thought I'd see how it did, got it tillered to 30" looking beautiful still, drew it a few times, left it for a bit, came back, and it went bang on the second full length draw.

I'll admit 70# was probably stupid of me, but hey, if I'd made a bow that pulled 30# at 20" I'd have always wondered how far I could have pushed the stave..

@KruptedArcher thanks very much for the concern, I survived in one piece just, my heart rate was up over 100 bpm for about half an hour after it wizzed past my nose and cracked me in the chest though haha.

 

[briantodd]

This sort of experiment is what makes bow making fun.im very envious of you for being able to manage it at all.

 

[Kieran Little]

I'm very lucky in the facilities I've got available to me, the materials is a bonus, just so happened the white oak boards were what was left over from a lot of years work, eventually I'll buy some other woods, probably ash so I can use it to make shafts and tool handles as well, but for now..

 

[WillS]

If you can get hold of some red oak you'll likely have a lot more luck. Red oak is what most of the guys over on PA use for pyramid board bows, and a lot of them are stunning bows with pretty high hunting weight draws. Hickory is your next best bet for making flat pyramid-style bows, but harder to get hold of over here.

Ash is good, but I think over-hyped as a bow material. It's a pig to work, likes taking set unless it's bone dry (not just air humidity dry either in the UK, but hot-box dry) and needs a fair bit of careful planning to make it work, such as trapping and tempering.

Of course, there's always yew...

 

[Kieran Little]

I will say, I didn't really like red oak, I felt the white oak was nicer and gave me a lighter physical weight of bow, also held the draw weight better, at least for the design I used.

I decided to use ash because its a fairly cheap material that I can use for longbows and flat bows of varying designs, but also for my warbow arrows, and for a few tool handles I need to make. If it needs to be dryer then thats fairly easy, I've got a fairly large dry air area I can use.

Heat treating isn't something I've ever tried I'll admit, done steam bending and dry heat bending before so I'm guessing I've got the equipment though, what method do you use?

And I should have quite a bit of yew coming soon, local area cut down around a dozen trees that me and another local bowyer are going to share...

- - - Updated - - -

I asked before, and red oak is the board they tend to use because you can get it at places like Home Depot and what not apparently.

 

[WillS]

Yeah heat treating is just a heat gun held over a small area for about 3 mins until the wood starts to brown. Too close and it will brown without penetrating deep enough or even scorch.

 

[Deleted member 7654]

My commisserations.
It's good to share, good to experiment too.
Looks like you had one heck of a poundage and draw on that poor little bow.
I'd have loved to see the full draw pic.
Gotta get back on the horse, makes one a bit twitchy too.
When I did the TV filming for 'Tudor Monastery Farm' I actually blew the bow in the afternoon! It wasn't a suitable stave for a longbow and I'd said it ws an accident waiting to happen.
Having crammed 2 days worth of tillering into two hours without my glasses on it was hardly surprising. They did have the camera running but I dunno if they will use it. I just hope they don't edit it to make me look an ar$e!
Got a 120# warbow to make in November, mixtuer of excitement and anxiety!
Better luck next time.
Del
PS. Look at my Bowyers Diary and search for heat treating, there are tons of posts on there.
I got a temperature controlled heatgun from screwfix for my original goes at it (but I melted the damn thing by leaving it lying on it's side after use) So I do have some actual temperatures etc. Bottom lne is it takes about 45mins per limb and is terminally boring, has to be slow rather than jsut scorching the outer fibres.

 

[Kieran Little]

Would you think building up a jig so the heat guns held off it might be a good idea?

And hey, it was destined to fail but it had to be worth a go didn't it! At full draw it was a gorgeous shape, the centre stiff section blended really well, I prefer compass bows but it did look real nice.

Strange world, I just finished a 120# pyramid bow, boy that thing throws my livery arrow a distance, not that I can shoot it for long.

And thats not good! I'd imagine you made the TV crew jump with that one, have to admit I'm just waiting for it to start showing.

And Del, Im an avid follower of your blog, taught me a hell of a lot...

 

[WillS]

Many people do use jigs to hold the heat gun. I personally keep it moving in my hands, although as Del said it is terminally boring and takes the patience of a saint to do just one limb, you do reduce the risk of over-heating one small area.

The way I do any heat treating is to clamp the bow into gentle reflex and mark lightly with a pencil 3 inch sections. I hold the heat gun about 6 inches away depending on the settings/output and gently wave the gun around in small circles within each section. Overlapping the next section so I'm focusing over the pencil line, then moving to the next full section and so on up each limb.

The bow is then kept in the reflex jig for a whole day and night, before I gently floor tiller and put it on the pulley again. It's often wise to use masking tape or something similar to protect the back, as heat can very easily creep around the sides and scorch the back which is obviously bad news.

 

[Kieran Little]

Seems like I'm going to have to have a go at it on the next one then, no excuse now haha.. Thanks very much for the advice..