Monday 2 January 2012

Filled Knot

The pics show the various stages, culminating in 4 pegs fitted into the hole and filed flush, hopefully it won't look like a pig's breakfast as the bow is reduced to its final dimensions.
The Yew dust and epoxy mix has filled the void and drills well, with a feel similar to the parent wood. The mixture needs to be on the dry side, as when rammed in tightly it somehow becomes wetter and sticks together better.
It looks ok at the moment, note I lined up the grain the same way on each peg, as the pegs were all cut from the same piece of Yew.
You can see that the sapwood on the back of the bow isn't effected and is nicely continuous. The filled area will mostly be in compression and should withstand the strain with any luck.
The pics aren't great due to the artificial lighting.
In the final pic you can see there isn't really any of the epoxy and dust filling left visible.

This and the other knots have persuaded me to just build the bow without any heat treating or steam bending. It's pretty long so should withstand the 90# at 28" ok. I'm initially modelling it roughly on the dimensions of one of the Mary Rose bows, it's getting that more curved rather than straight taper and hopefully I'll be getting it on the tiller over next weekend.
When I get to this stage on a bow, I want to press on as it rather gets stuck in my head, I expect I'll be dreaming about plugging knots!
Hey ho, back to work for a couple of days...

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